E-invoicing: ZUGFeRD and XRechnung with teamspace.

What the 2025+ e-invoicing requirement means in practice

With the German Growth Opportunities Act, the B2B e-invoicing requirement has been introduced in binding stages:

• 1 January 2025: every domestic business must be able to receive e-invoices. A PDF emailed to the recipient does not meet this requirement; “receiving” means parsing the structured XML.
• 1 January 2027: companies with prior-year revenue above 800,000 € must also send e-invoices.
• 1 January 2028: sending requirement applies to every domestic business in B2B.

The requirement applies to domestic B2B trade between businesses. Exceptions exist for invoices below 250 €, transport tickets and invoices to private customers, but most business invoices fall under it.

For public authorities, the e-invoicing requirement (XRechnung) has been in place since 2020. If you bill federal, state or local government, you already need XRechnung.

What an e-invoice really is, and what it is not

An e-invoice in the legal sense is an invoice in a structured electronic format that is machine-processable and complies with the European standard EN 16931. Concretely:

✓ XRechnung (pure XML) is an e-invoice. ✓ ZUGFeRD (PDF with embedded XML) is an e-invoice, provided you use the COMFORT or EXTENDED profile (BASIC is EN 16931 compliant, BASIC-WL is not). ✗ A classic PDF invoice sent by email is not an e-invoice, even though it travels electronically. ✗ A JPG or image invoice is not either. ✗ A scanned paper invoice is not either.

The point is: e-invoices must be machine-processable without human intervention. That is where the efficiency gain comes from, and that is why the rule makes sense.

ZUGFeRD in detail: the pragmatic B2B standard

ZUGFeRD (Central User Guide of the Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany) was developed in 2014 by the FeRD and is now in version 2.x EN-16931 compliant. The format is hybrid: a ZUGFeRD invoice is an ordinary PDF with structured XML embedded. To the recipient it looks like a PDF, but their system can read out the XML and book it automatically.

ZUGFeRD profiles:

• MINIMUM: only basic data, not EN-16931 compliant, not enough for the German duty
• BASIC-WL: Without Lines, also not enough
• BASIC: EN-16931 compliant, the minimum standard for the duty
• COMFORT (EN 16931): complete EN-16931 data, the recommended default
• EXTENDED: additional fields beyond EN 16931, for example for logistics or construction

teamspace creates COMFORT by default, you are on the safe side.

XRechnung in detail: the public-sector standard

XRechnung is the German standard for e-invoices to public authorities. It was developed by the KoSIT (Coordination Office for IT Standards) and is a German CIUS of EN 16931. That means: XRechnung is EN 16931 with additional German requirements, for example the obligation to provide a Leitweg-ID as the addressing key.

XRechnung format:

• Pure XML, no PDF component
• Transmission typically via Peppol, ZRE (federal central invoice receipt platform) or OZG-RE (state-level portals)
• Structured according to UBL (Universal Business Language) or CII (Cross Industry Invoice), both allowed
• Leitweg-ID is mandatory for invoices to authorities

When do you need XRechnung?

• If you bill federal, state or local government, mandatory
• If your B2B large customer requires XRechnung explicitly, increasingly common
• In industries with high public sector share (construction, IT service providers, public consulting, architecture, engineering)

teamspace creates XRechnung in the current version (3.x), validates the XML before sending, and transmits it via Peppol or portal upload.

Related topics

• Invoicing software overview, all features around quotes, orders, invoices and dunning
• Time tracking, hours that become the billing basis directly
• Project management, bill fixed prices, flat rates and time and material in a structured way
• About teamspace, hosting, security and responsibility Made in Germany