E-invoicing — what is it, actually?
XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, EN 16931, Peppol, routing ID: not five separate worlds but one pipe system. Take the short tour first, then open the whole workshop if you like.
Four short steps — enough for 90 % of all cases.
An e-invoice is a data set, not a picture
A PDF shows you an invoice — the way a photo shows you a pipe. An e-invoice instead delivers every detail in its own labelled field, so the recipient’s software can book it without retyping. On the left the invoice as you know it — on the right the same details as the software reads them:
The same invoice, read twice
Swipe the diagram sideways — it is wider than the screen.
Every coloured line is a translation: the line on the left moves into a numbered field of the standard on the right — BT-1 is the invoice number, BT-112 the gross amount. The recipient’s software books these fields without retyping and checks them against fixed rules. A plain PDF has no such fields and has legally been an “other invoice” since 2025 — not an e-invoice.
The hybrid: both in one file
A PDF with the data set attached inside. People see the picture, machines take the XML. That is ZUGFeRD. Important: what gets booked is what the XML says — not what the picture says.
One standard, two connectors
Which fields an e-invoice has and what they are called is set by the European standard EN 16931 — the main pipe. In Germany, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD are the two connectors on it — they differ in packaging, not in recipient. Every invoice takes exactly one of them; abroad, further connectors hang on the same pipe:
Swipe the diagram sideways — it is wider than the screen.
XRechnung
The German standard that public authorities require — equally valid to companies. A pure XML file — no PDF with it. It requires a few more fields than the standard, above all a buyer reference: the routing ID (Leitweg-ID) for authorities, an agreed reference for companies. Maintained by KoSIT, the public administration’s coordination office for IT standards.
ZUGFeRD / Factur-X
Two names, one format: in Germany it is called ZUGFeRD, in France Factur-X — technically identical since ZUGFeRD 2.1, and the XML attachment is called factur-x.xml in both cases. The hybrid format for invoices between companies: a PDF that carries the XML data set as an attachment — the recipient can view it and still book it automatically. It comes in profiles; only the complete ones count as an e-invoice.
Further connectors on the same pipe — abroad
EN 16931 is an open European standard, and every country may build its own connectors on it. For invoices from Germany two matter most: Peppol BIS Billing, the specification for the European Peppol network through which authorities and many companies in the EU receive — and ebInterface, Austria’s national format, which the federal level there accepts alongside Peppol. All of them read the same fields; what changes is packaging, address and transport. More in workshop D.
Who receives the invoice?
The format follows the recipient, not your software. Click who gets your invoice — the plumber answers:
Pure XML with routing ID
The federal level and most states and municipalities require XRechnung. You need your client’s routing ID — it is in the order, or you ask for it — and enter it as the buyer reference. Then you upload the XML file in the authority’s portal or deliver it via Peppol.
A ZUGFeRD PDF does not help here: the portals want the XML, and many do not accept the PDF at all.
Tight or leaking? Eight sentences you hear a lot
We have written some of them ourselves. That is why they are here. Say whether the sentence holds:
Green: tight. Coral: leak. No judgement — wrong answers are the reason this page exists.
Profiles, syntaxes, transport routes, validation rules, cross-border — for everyone who wants the details.
And which connector is yours?
In the free check we look at your software and your recipients and tell you which format you need — and whether you might already be done. 15 minutes, 100 % remote.
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