XInvoicing

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XRechnung is an XML- based semantic data model that is currently being established as the standard for electronic invoices that are sent to public clients in Germany. The XRechnung standard was set at the 23rd meeting of the IT planning council for the federal and state governments. With the XRechnung standard, Germany is implementing the requirements of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) for the data contained in an electronic invoice. After the introduction of electronic invoices by April 2020 at the latest, electronic invoices can be sent nationwide to public clients according to this standard.

XRechnung was developed within the framework of the specifications for electronic data exchange in public administration ( XML in public administration (XÖV)). XRechnung has been published in version 1.2.2 (version dated December 19, 2019) and conforms to the European standard EN 16931-1.

European requirements

The European Union promotes the spread of electronic invoices - i.e. the fast and direct electronic transmission and further processing of invoice data such as items, amounts, sales tax, etc. In order for this to be possible across Europe and with different software systems, a Europe-wide standard for the semantic data model is required of the core elements contained in an electronic invoice. In 2014 the European Commission commissioned the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) to develop such a standard. The standard was published on October 17, 2017 in the Official Journal of the EU as EN 16931-1: 2017. The Directive 2014/55 / EU of 16 April 2014, electronic invoicing in public procurement contracts requires contracting authorities Europe-wide tender procedure, received no later than 30 months after publication of the standard electronic invoices and to process (April 17, 2020, the implementation deadline for the countries).

Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU provides a framework, but leaves member states their own leeway for the legal, organizational and technical design when introducing electronic invoices. Provided that the design of national standards does not contradict the requirements of the European directive and standard, each member state may develop its own standards. Electronic invoices that conform to the standards of a member state and thus conform to the CEN standard can be received and processed throughout Europe without any problems - the standard is intended to ensure interoperability of the systems.

Development of the XRechnung standard

The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT) in Bremen were in charge of converting the European standard into a national standard in Germany. This was done on behalf of the IT Planning Council, i.e. on behalf of all federal states and the federal government. Three expert groups have been set up for this purpose:

  1. Expert committee 1 (EG 1) for legal implementation for the federal and state governments (lead: Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI))
  2. Expert committee 2 (EG 2) to design the Core Invoice Usage Specification (CIUS) XRechnung on the basis of the European semantic data model (lead: Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT))
  3. Expert committee 3 (EG 3) to design the recommendations on technical infrastructure and transmission paths (lead: Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT))

Since neither the EU standard nor XRechnung have so far taken into account industry and country-specific expansion requirements, XRechnung is initially the minimum standard in Germany. Germany wants to continue to participate in standardization in order to represent the interests of the public administration. A national change management (ITIL) is to be set up to manage suggestions for improvement and to continuously maintain the standard in relation to the EU norm and XRechnung .

Components of the XRechnung standard

The standard XRechnung consists of the following parts:

  • Documentation of the XRechnung standard as a PDF document
  • Technical means for validating the supplementary national business rules as Schematron and XSL files
  • Technical representation of code lists in the OASIS standard "Genericode 1.0"
  • Open source reference implementation for checking an XML document for conformity to the XRechnung standard
  • Test messages
  • Technical support for visualization

The technical artifacts are published together with the standard from version 1.1.

Conformity of invoices and IT procedures

The electronic invoice conforms to the XRechnung standard if it is issued, transmitted and received in the form of an XML document that is valid compared to the standard, and if it exclusively uses the information elements of the semantic data model of the XRechnung standard (according to its specification). An Office file, a PDF file or a PDF file with embedded XML, such as according to the ZUGFeRD industry standard , are not electronic invoices in the XRechnung standard.

The conformity of an invoice is determined in two steps:

  1. The conformity check
  2. The conformity assessment

If the result of the conformity check is positive, the invoice must be accepted. If the result is negative, in the second step, a conformity assessment can be used to decide how large the deviation from the standard is and whether the invoice should still be accepted and processed. If the deviations exceed the defined acceptance framework, the invoice will be rejected. This conformity assessment can be set individually.

The conformity test specifically targets the following properties:

The invoice can contain embedded objects (documents justifying the invoice), but is not itself an embedded object. machine testable
The invoice is a valid instance of the XML schema definitions specified in EN 16931-2 (list of syntaxes that meet EN 16931-1). machine testable
The invoice is valid with regard to the business rules specified by the XRechnung standard and their technical implementation. machine testable
The calculation uses all information elements according to their semantic description given in the standard. check manually

An IT process can be regarded as conforming to the XRechnung standard if it can check electronic invoices for their conformity and can process every invoice conforming to the XRechnung standard. However, an IT process can also support additional data formats for electronic invoices as well as various transmission paths without losing conformity to the XRechnung standard. This enables flexibility in the use of different standards (conforming to the CEN standard), for example in the event that a supplier from another EU member state sends an electronic invoice according to a standard other than XRechnung.

Time schedule

The implementation deadline for the receipt of electronic invoices in the XRechnung standard was November 27, 2018 (for the highest federal authorities and the federal constitutional organs), November 27, 2019 (for all other federal authorities, i.e. sub-central contracting authorities, sector contracting authorities and licensing authorities ) and November 18 , 2019 April 2020 for the countries. The Kosit was commissioned to develop a concept of operations to mid-2018, to apply XRechnung from January 2019 the operation of the standard. From November 27, 2020, the federal government will only accept electronic invoices; the federal states and other public clients will follow in 2021.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Decision 2017/22 - Implementation of Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU (electronic invoicing - eInvoicing). IT Planning Council, accessed on March 23, 2018 . The federal government has implemented this for the federal agencies in the e-invoicing ordinance; see Ordinance on Electronic Invoicing in Federal Public Procurement (E-Invoice Ordinance - E-Rech-VO). (PDF) Federal Ministry of the Interior, accessed on March 23, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The implementation period for the federal states ends on April 17, 2020, 30 months after the European standard was published on October 17, 2017; more see below.
  3. ↑ XRechnung versions. Free Hanseatic City of Bremen - Coordination Office for IT Standards (KoSIT), accessed on February 12, 2018 .
  4. ↑ OJ. L 266 of October 17, 2017, pp. 19-21: Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2017/1870 of October 16, 2017 on the publication of the reference of the European standard for electronic invoicing and the list of syntaxes according to Directive 2014 / 55 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance.). European Commission, accessed March 23, 2018 . - The standard was made available on June 28, 2017 by the European Committee for Standardization; see CEN TC 434 - Electronic Invoicing - Published Standards. European Committee for Standardization, Technical Committee CEN TC 434, accessed on March 23, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Directive 2014/55 / ​​EU of April 16, 2014 on electronic invoicing for public contracts. European Commission, accessed March 23, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Control project eRechnung. Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, coordination office for IT standards, archived from the original on February 27, 2019 ; accessed on August 30, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Core Invoice Usage Specification (CIUS), a method provided by the European Commission to adapt the European standard for electronic invoicing to the conditions of the respective member state; see FAQ - Why was the development of XRechnung started at the beginning of 2016 when other formats already existed in the economy? Free Hanseatic City of Bremen - Coordination Office for IT Standards, archived from the original on February 27, 2019 ; accessed on September 6, 2017 .
  8. ↑ e-Invoice Appendix 1 - Introduction of the electronic invoice in Germany. (PDF) Federal Ministry of the Interior and Bremen / KoSIT, accessed on March 23, 2018 . page 5
  9. ↑ XRechnung versions. Free Hanseatic City of Bremen - Coordination Office for IT Standards, accessed on March 23, 2018 .
  10. ↑ e-Invoice Appendix 1 - Introduction of the electronic invoice in Germany. (PDF) Federal Ministry of the Interior and Bremen / KoSIT, accessed on August 30, 2017 . Pages 9 f.
  11. ↑ XRechnung Version 1.1. Free Hanseatic City of Bremen - Coordination Office for IT Standards, accessed on March 23, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Overview of the legal regulations for e-invoices in Germany. Schütze Consulting AG, accessed on September 7, 2017 . On April 17, 2020, the 30 month period after the publication of the European standard ends.
  13. ↑ Entry into force of the E-Invoicing Ordinance (E-Rech-VO) for federal agencies: see § 11 E-Rech-VO, Ordinance on Electronic Invoicing in Federal Public Procurement (E-Invoicing Ordinance - E-Rech-VO ). (PDF) Federal Ministry of the Interior, accessed on March 23, 2017 .
  14. ↑ e-Invoice Appendix 1 - Introduction of the electronic invoice in Germany. (PDF) Federal Ministry of the Interior and Bremen / KoSIT, p. 14 , accessed on August 30, 2017 .