Germany B2B e-Invoicing mandate January 2025: how to prepare
Send and receive compliant invoices in Germany without worries or interruptions to your current workflows
By Ioana Ploesteanu, Product Marketing Manager, Tradeshift
Scroll through the feed on your social media app of choice and you may just catch sight of the first posts advertising the famous German Christmas Markets, or providing suggestions on where to spend New Year’s Eve.
As the last embers of summer fade, the first signs of fall and winter festivities are beginning to come into focus.
Before we know it, 2025 will be upon us.
September is a month for planning—whether it’s booking a trip to one of Germany’s famous Christmas markets or, in the professional world, preparing for the next financial year.
This webinar which we hosted for customers and prospects will help you learn more about what you need to do to become B2B e-invoice compliant in Germany
For German businesses, this planning season involves more than just setting new development goals, refining channel strategies, or establishing KPIs.
It now includes preparing for the upcoming German B2B e-invoicing mandate—ensuring compliance without overspending time or resources.
And, of course, leaving some time to enjoy those festive markets!
Germany is following in the footsteps of other European countries, such as Romania, Poland, and France, by introducing a new e-invoicing mandate that will transform its business landscape.
The mandate will be implemented in phases, with the first deadline set for January 1, 2025. You can read more about it in our previous article.
What must you do to be B2B e-invoice compliant in Germany?
Let’s see what you can do to be prepared before 1st of January 2025:
German Document (CUIS) formats:
Learn about what document formats you need to use and when.
The German government has announced that for an invoice to be considered valid the document format must comply with the European standard for electronic invoicing and the list of corresponding syntaxes set out in Directive 2014/55/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on electronic invoicing in public procurement (OJ L 133, 6.5.2014, p. 1).
There are two document formats that comply with this standard: XRechnung and ZUGFeRD.
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- The XRechnung format is a structured, standardised data record in XML format that can be automatically sent and is processed electronically. The following two syntaxes are permitted for XRechnung: Universal Business Language (UBL) and UN/CEFACT Cross Industry Invoice (CII).
- ZUGFeRD includes two elements: a PDF file and an embedded XML file. ZUGFeRD is based on the international UN/CEFACT standard Cross Industry Invoice (CII) and the ISO standard PDF/A-3. The latest version ZUGFeRD 2.1 complies with EU Directive 2014/55/EU and the German E-Invoice Regulation.
The invoice issuer (the vendor/seller) and the recipient (the buyer) can agree on the document format that they want to use to send and receive invoices, as long as the document format enables the correct and complete extraction of the information required under the law.
Peppol Accreditation:
All authorities at federal and national level are mandated to always offer a Peppol transmission if an automated data exchange is provided for the delivery of eInvoices.
Economic operators, whether they are sending or receiving e-invoicing, should select a provider that is accredited by the German Peppol Authority.
This ensures that the service provider conducts Peppol transactions in Germany.
Send compliant invoices: A vendor (seller), will have to create invoices in one of the required formats and send them to their buyers via their dedicated channels.
At the same time, to not break workflow efficiency and have business interruptions, the best would be to use the same B2B e-invoicing platform as their buyers and all be part of the same network.
The right B2B e-invoicing platform will foster collaboration between vendors (sellers) and their buyers, offer them an easy way to onboard from the first invoice they send, and to communicate and enrich documents for a faster transaction process.
Receive compliant invoices:
An ideal scenario for a buyer would be to receive compliant invoices from their vendors (sellers) through their various channels like an e-invoicing platform or their email or supplier portal connected to their e-invoicing platform, all while gaining improved operational efficiency, better data visibility, and enhanced collaboration with trading partners.
Choose the right technology provider:
When you work with a compliant e-Invoicing platform that is aligned with locally-mandated B2B e-invoicing requirements, all you have to do, regardless of either sending or receiving invoices, is continue your usual workflows.
Start NOW:
Planning can’t start too early when mandates are knocking at the door. You have to act today.
Just researching and thinking about what B2B e-invoicing provider you should choose is not enough.
You need to choose one that is ready right now to start implementing and testing your B2B e-invoice flows so that when January 1st, 2025, is here, you’ll be already sending and receiving compliant electronic invoices.
Why choose Tradeshift as your B2B e-invoicing platform?
Regardless of your size, or role in the invoice lifecycle, with best-in-class solutions, like Tradeshift, you don’t have to worry about changes in legislation, new mandates, new data formats, or how to comply with them in just a few months.
With Tradeshift as your B2B e-invoicing platform you will:
- Eliminate the complexity of outbound and inbound B2B e-invoicing by leveraging our expertise.
- Save time and money by avoiding multiple platform investments; Tradeshift automatically updates to reflect the latest e-invoicing compliance requirements–across the globe.
- Join the biggest network of vendors (sellers) and buyers with Tradeshift. Start by complying with government e-invoicing mandates and then build from there. Transform your entire procure-to-pay process, including embedded financing options, and grow with the community.
- With Tradeshift, you can benefit from a secure data exchange between vendors, buyers, and the tax authority. We act as a trusted intermediary, ensuring that your data is secure and compliant with all relevant regulations.
Tradeshift has a proven process for delivering compliance-as-a-service, and provides customers such as AirFrance, Disneyland Paris, Schaeffler with innovative solutions that support their digital transformation journey and ensure they comply with e-invoicing and tax clearance mandates.
We currently offer compliance-as-a-service for 70 countries, including a streamlined process for complying with tax clearance mandates in 12 countries and e-Invoicing mandates.
Examples of countries with tax clearance or B2B e-invoicing mandates that we support are France, Romania, Malaysia, and Germany with other European and APAC countries on our roadmap.
To ensure compliance excellence, we continually evaluate emerging global regulations and prioritise the inclusion of additional countries in our roadmap.
We’re also the only company offering cross-zone fapiao e-invoicing capabilities in China and among the first to become a registered PDP (PDP immatriculée) in France.