A lot of German finance teams still treat outgoing invoices as a document problem. Raise a PDF, email it, hope the customer can read it, and ask accounting to book it later. That model cracks when issuance becomes mandatory and when the same team already runs a controlled payables flow for every supplier invoice.
The better mental model is an outgoing invoice book that lives in front of the ledger. Cortena connects to the systems you already run, so the majority of invoices move through compose, approval, issue, and booking-ready handoff without manual re-keying. Drafts are composed in a portal, approved on your rules, issued as structured e-invoices, then handed to accounting. That is how Cortena runs receivables next to payables.
Why PDF outbound is not enough
From 2027, larger German businesses must issue structured e-invoices in domestic B2B trade. A pretty PDF is not the obligation. An EN 16931 record is. ZUGFeRD and Factur-X solve the format problem with a hybrid file: humans read the PDF, machines read the embedded XML.
Format alone does not fix process. If sales builds the invoice in one tool, finance re-keys it into another, and nobody shares an approval trail, you still have manual labour and a weak audit story. The e-invoice mandate rewards teams that already control drafts before issue.
Factur-X and ZUGFeRD are the same hybrid family
Search traffic still splits the words. Controllers ask for Factur-X. Product pages say ZUGFeRD EN 16931. Both names describe the French-German hybrid approach under EN 16931. Cortena issues ZUGFeRD 2.x / EN 16931 hybrids when a receivables invoice moves to issued. Peppol send and XRechnung B2G delivery stay on the near-term roadmap and are available soon.
Compose, approve, issue, then archive. Not the other way around.
Same orchestration as payables
Payables already taught finance teams the right loop: capture or compose, code, route for approval, then hand a clean batch to the ledger. Receivables should not invent a second control model. In Cortena, customer invoices use the same Workflow Builder and approval matrix as supplier invoices.
- Connect CRM, subscriptions, and other data sources, then compose the draft.
- Route by amount, entity, or customer class before anything leaves.
- Issue as ZUGFeRD / Factur-X EN 16931 when you sign off.
- Clear cash with payment advice, bank match, and category dunning.
- Hand booking-ready entries to DATEV, Exact Online, or Twinfield.
That is the outgoing invoice book in practice: systems connected, the majority of invoices flowing end to end, humans on the exceptions, and accounting receiving a booking-ready result. Nothing posts without the sign-off you set.
What to ask before you buy an invoicing tool
If a tool only creates documents, you still own the approval gap and the ledger handoff. Ask whether drafts can wait for finance approval, whether outbound e-invoices are generated on issue, whether payables and receivables share one workflow layer, and whether the archive stays in the accounting system you already trust.
Cortena is built for that operator role. It connects to your CRM and ledger stack and automates the whole path for the majority of invoices, the way a modern finance team expects. Payables and receivables are live for e-invoice-ready tenants. Controlling remains further out. The point of the stack is not another invoice template. It is one controlled path for money in and money out.
See it on your own invoices
Book a demo and bring a CRM deal or a week of customer invoices. We walk compose, approval, Factur-X / ZUGFeRD issue, and the handoff into your ledger next to your payables flow.