Informations about electronic invoicing

Around 32 billion invoices are exchanged annually in Germany, with the share of electronic invoices presently in the single-figure percentage range. However, the EU Commission has called on its Member States to establish electronic invoicing as the predominant method for handling invoices by 2020. In Spain, Italy, Denmark, Austria and Sweden, for example, companies are being required to handle all business transactions with public administration systems by electronic means. Corresponding administrative and legislative measures have been introduced or are in the implementation phase.

Initial measures have also been implemented in Germany in accordance with the Tax Simplification Bill (StVereinfG) of 2011 and the circular issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance on 2 July 2012, with the aim of reducing costs in the area of paper-based invoicing, which may currently be as high as EUR 23. On the basis of current technological and legislative developments, the challenge lies in selecting the appropriate solution for public administration systems with regard to cost and sustainability from among a large number of alternatives for electronic invoicing (e-invoicing).

Against this background the national E-Invoicing Forum of Germany (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland) was founded in 2010 under the auspices of the AWV. It is the German industry-neutral platform with members from ministries and other governmental bodies and all important industry associations. Aim is to foster electronic invoicing in the public and private sector.

FeRD´s vision for the data format

In future, it should be just as easy to send and receive electronic invoices as paper invoices. Everyone involved should be able to exchange electronic invoices without prior consultation or agreement.

Business process optimisation by using structured data 

• To enable the invoice recipient to exercise this option, the sender should include structured data even if they are not used by the sender itself.
• Software manufacturers should support all defined data fields as structured data.
• The invoice recipient may elect the option to optimise its business process by using structured data.

You can find more information about the data format in section "ZUGFeRD".

Contact:

AWV e.V.
Gottfried Glöckner, M.A.
Tel.: 06196-777 26 21
E-Mail: gloeckner@awv-net.de