Receive and process e-invoices without rebuilding your bookkeeping.
Since 1 January 2025, businesses in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices in domestic B2B trade. Cortena receives XRechnung and ZUGFeRD through a dedicated inbox, reads the structured record field by field, and prepares a booking-ready batch for DATEV.
As of July 2026What applies in 2025, 2027 and 2028.
The obligation to receive is already in force. The obligation to issue arrives in stages, based on your prior-year turnover. These dates follow the Wachstumschancengesetz and section 14 of the German VAT Act.
- 1 January 2025In force now
Receiving is mandatory
Every domestic business must be able to receive e-invoices in B2B trade. A plain email inbox formally satisfies receipt, but reading and archiving the record stays your responsibility. Paper and PDF may still be sent during the transition with the recipient's consent.
- 1 January 2027Issuing above 800,000 euro
Large businesses must issue
Businesses with more than 800,000 euro in prior-year turnover must issue e-invoices. Smaller businesses may still use paper or PDF with consent, and EDI procedures remain allowed during the transition.
- 1 January 2028Applies to all
Issuing is mandatory for all
The transition rules end. From this date every domestic business must issue e-invoices in B2B trade, regardless of turnover. Formats must conform to the EN 16931 standard.
Exemptions include low-value invoices up to 250 euro and travel tickets, among others. This is orientation, not legal or tax advice. Check your own case with your tax adviser.
XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, EN 16931 and Peppol at a glance.
An e-invoice is a structured record under the European EN 16931 standard, not a PDF or scanned image. These are the formats you meet in Germany. Marked below is what Cortena ingests today.
| Format | Structure | What it is | Cortena |
|---|---|---|---|
| XRechnung | CII / UBL | Pure structured XML, the German standard for invoices to public bodies. Conforms to EN 16931. | Ingested |
| ZUGFeRD / Factur-X | PDF/A-3 + CII | A hybrid format: a readable PDF with structured XML embedded inside it. Factur-X is the French-German variant. | Ingested |
| EN 16931 | Semantic model | The European standard that defines which fields an e-invoice carries. XRechnung and ZUGFeRD are conformant profiles of it. | Ingested |
| Peppol BIS | UBL | A European network for sending and receiving e-invoices through registered access points. | Soon |
Cortena ingests UBL, CII, and ZUGFeRD / Factur-X as structured data today. Peppol connectivity is in preparation.
What being able to receive actually requires.
Taking in an e-invoice is more than an inbox. The structured record has to be read, checked, posted, and archived in a GoBD-aligned way.
Provide a way to receive
You need a reliable channel through which suppliers can deliver e-invoices. Usually that is a dedicated email inbox, not the private mailbox of a single employee.
Read the structured record
The real data sits in the XML, not in the visual rendering. You have to take fields like invoice number, amounts and tax rates from the structured record, not retype them.
Check and code
The invoice must be checked for accuracy, approved, and coded to the right account with the correct VAT key and cost centre before it reaches your ledger.
Archive in a GoBD-aligned way
The original structured document has to be kept unaltered and machine-readable. A printout is not enough, the original stays in its format.
From structured record to booking batch.
Cortena reads an e-invoice's record directly rather than re-detecting it like an image. One workflow for paper, PDF and e-invoices, with a GoBD-aligned trail on every invoice.
An inbox per entity
Suppliers send XRechnung or ZUGFeRD to a dedicated inbox. Paper and PDF land in the same place, so your team watches only one entry point.
Structured fields read directly
Supplier, amounts and tax rates are taken from the XML, not re-detected. Cortena then codes the account, VAT key and cost centre by your rules, with a reason on every field.
Booking-ready in DATEV
After approval, a clean booking batch is prepared for DATEV, Exact Online or Twinfield. The original document stays linked to the posting and archived in a GoBD-aligned way.
| Line item | Net | VAT | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated Root Server EX44 | 1.008,00 | 19% | 1.199,52 |
| Traffic & Backup | 192,50 | 19% | 229,08 |
E-invoicing, answered plainly.
Since 1 January 2025, every domestic business in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices in B2B trade. The obligation to issue arrives in stages: from 1 January 2027 for businesses with more than 800,000 euro in prior-year turnover, and from 1 January 2028 for everyone else.
No. A plain PDF or a scanned image does not count as an e-invoice. An e-invoice is a structured record under EN 16931, such as XRechnung or the hybrid ZUGFeRD format, where the data sits machine-readable inside the XML.
You need a channel through which suppliers deliver e-invoices, and you have to read the structured record, check it, post it, and archive it in a GoBD-aligned way. A plain email inbox satisfies receipt, but reading and archiving remain your responsibility.
Cortena ingests UBL, CII, and ZUGFeRD / Factur-X as structured data today. The fields are taken straight from the record. Peppol connectivity is in preparation.
No. Cortena sits in front of your bookkeeping, not in its place. E-invoices are received, read and coded, and the finished booking batch is passed to DATEV, Exact Online or Twinfield.
Cortena works in a GoBD-aligned way: every capture, change and approval is logged unalterably, and the original structured document stays linked to the posting. The audit-proof archive remains in DATEV.
The obligation to receive has applied to every domestic business since 2025, including small ones. For issuing, smaller businesses have until the end of 2027 and may still send paper or PDF with consent during the transition. From 2028 the obligation to issue applies to all.
- Still have a question?
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