E-Rechnung erstellen: from invoice data to compliant XML

An e-invoice needs the same statutory content as any invoice under § 14 Abs. 4 UStG, now carried in named EN 16931 fields. The core set:

• Identification. Full name and address of supplier and customer, the supplier’s tax number or VAT ID, invoice number, invoice date, and delivery date or period.
• Line items. Quantity and commercial description of the goods or services, net amounts per line.
• Tax breakdown. Net totals per VAT rate, the applied rate, the VAT amount, and the gross total; for exemptions, the reason.
• Payment details. Payment terms, due date, and increasingly bank details in structured payment fields, so the buyer’s system can schedule payment automatically.
• B2G extras. Public-sector customers additionally require their Leitweg-ID as the buyer reference, plus any order number the authority mandates.

For public-sector customers the choice is made for you: XRechnung, current version 3.0.2, addressed with the authority’s Leitweg-ID. For B2B, both XRechnung and ZUGFeRD (profile EN 16931 or higher) are compliant; ZUGFeRD’s hybrid PDF is friendlier to partners who still process invoices by eye, while pure XML suits automated counterparties. Avoid the ZUGFeRD MINIMUM and BASIC-WL profiles: per the BMF guidance they do not satisfy the e-invoice definition. The formats guide covers the trade-offs in depth.

Four realistic ways to produce compliant e-invoices, in ascending order of volume:

• Your existing invoicing or ERP software. Most mainstream German accounting, invoicing, and ERP systems have added XRechnung and ZUGFeRD export since the mandate was announced. Check the format version and profile in the export settings before assuming compliance.
• Dedicated e-invoicing tools and portals. For low volumes, dedicated e-invoicing tools and portal entry (public-sector portals like ZRE and OZG-RE include manual capture for their suppliers) produce valid invoices without touching your core systems.
• Conversion inside your outbound process. If your billing system cannot be upgraded, a conversion step can map its output into XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. Take care that the mapping carries all mandatory fields; a conversion that drops data produces non-compliant invoices at scale.
• A Peppol Access Point for volume. High-volume issuers connect once to a certified Peppol Access Point and transmit BIS Billing 3.0 invoices with delivery confirmation, to Germany and beyond.

Compliance is testable, and worth testing before invoices leave the building. The BMF letter of October 15, 2025 distinguishes Formatfehler (EN 16931 syntax violations, the file is not an e-invoice at all), Geschäftsregelfehler (business-rule violations such as totals that do not add up), and Inhaltsfehler (correct format, wrong content). Validators catch the first two automatically; the third stays a process question. Build a validation step into your outbound pipeline and reject failures before customers or auditors do.

Transmission itself is undramatic: email with the XML or hybrid PDF attached is sufficient for B2B, portals or Peppol serve the public sector, and Peppol scales B2B delivery. Whatever the channel, archive what you sent, and what you received, for eight years with the structured part unaltered, per GoBD.

Every business solving "how do I create e-invoices" is simultaneously on the receiving end of everyone else’s answer. From 2025 your suppliers may send XRechnung XML, ZUGFeRD hybrids, or Peppol invoices without asking, while the long tail keeps mailing PDFs and paper through 2027. If your accounts payable process cannot read all of that into one consistent, validated record, the creation side of the mandate solves only half your problem.

That receiving pipeline is what Talonic provides: every incoming format, structured or scanned, resolves into the same schema-validated fields with confidence scores and per-field provenance, ready for your ERP or accounting system, processed on EU infrastructure in Germany. Try the free Peppol extractor on a sample e-invoice, or see the invoice parsing page for the production path.

Reading about formats is one thing; an accounts-payable inbox full of them is another. Two free resources and one production path:

• Peppol e-Invoice Extractor: pull the seller, buyer, line items, VAT breakdown, and totals out of an e-invoice, free in the browser
• Peppol e-invoice extraction guide: the EN 16931 field model (Business Terms) explained field by field
• Invoice parsing with schema validation: process XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, Peppol invoices, PDFs, and paper scans into one validated output schema, with confidence and provenance on every value