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E-invoicing in Germany is on the rise. In many cases it is mandatory for B2G and things are changing rapidly for Business to Business as well.
Discover below what the options are for sending electronic invoices in Germany and get started in a few easy steps.
On a federal level, submitting B2G invoices has been mandatory in Germany since 27 November 2020. Regional and local governments are required to be able to both receive and process e-invoices.
Business to Business e-invoicing is not mandatory yet, but it is being stimulated.
There are several ways to send an e-invoice to German government institutions or to a private company. Choose your option below.
There are 2 options for legally sending e-invoices to the German Federal government:
If you want to send invoices to a company in Germany, you can use Peppol. It works for any type of business, from freelancers to large multinationals. It only takes a few minutes to register on a certified Peppol Access point and send your first e-invoice.
If you want to send invoices via Peppol you only have to register on an official Peppol Access Point.
Follow the steps below to register on the Billit Access Point and send your first invoice.
Peppol is a secure and closed network with many advantages:
The identity of everyone affiliated with the network is verified, so you can be sure that your recipient's invoices are genuine, and avoid invoice fraud.
The invoices you send through the network are completely digital, so you can process them automatically in your invoicing software.
E-invoices in the UBL standard are automatically read correctly. This prevents human error during processing.
Linking to your bank account means that outgoing and incoming invoices are automatically matched and you get a better overview of your company's financial situation.
Peppol is fast: your recipient will receive your invoice within 10 minutes of sending it. Combined with automatic processing, this will save a lot of time.
Peppol is an open network for securely sending and receiving business documents such as invoices. It is designed to simplify the purchase-to-pay process between governments and suppliers. Peppol was developed by the European commission but is on its way to become a global standard.
There are many kinds of identifiers for sending invoices via Peppol. Find out the difference between each option below.
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| VAT (indentification) number or VAT-id number | A unique identification number for entrepreneurs liable to VAT. It should be included on each invoice to customers. | DE283428867 |
| LeitwegID | The number to identify public entities | 16066069-0001-81 |
You can send invoices with either a LeitwegID or VAT number only.
If you have several numbers and want to prioritize them, you first have to add those numbers to your customer file.
As soon as you have more than one identifier added, you will see an extra e-invoicing tab appear in the customer file. Click it to see a list of identifiers. Select the bullet for the number you want to set as priority and confirm.
