If you sell to a German public-sector buyer — a government agency, a public institution — a PDF invoice, however professional, is generally no longer a valid invoice. Germany’s B2G e-invoicing requirement means the invoice has to be XRechnung, a specific structured XML format, or another format that meets the European e-invoicing standard EN 16931.
What XRechnung is
A German-specific implementation of the EU’s EN 16931 standard, defining exactly which fields a structured XML invoice must contain and how they must be formatted so public-sector accounting systems across Germany can process invoices automatically. Delivered as XML directly, or via Peppol, the pan-European e-invoicing delivery network. In either case, it is a machine-readable document, not a PDF.
Where this catches sellers off guard
A business that has not sold to the public sector before often does not realise B2G e-invoicing is a distinct, stricter requirement from ordinary B2B. Until an invoice bounces back as non-compliant and delays payment. A business that generates XRechnung for one type of transaction but not consistently across all qualifying public-sector sales ends up with a manual compliance gap that only shows up at month-end.
What runs today in Vedron
Vedron’s e-invoicing pipeline generates EN 16931-compliant structured invoices — including XRechnung’s German requirements — directly from the order data in the system, and can deliver via Peppol where that is the required channel. This is the same pipeline used for Poland’s KSeF, Italy’s FatturaPA and other structured e-invoicing mandates, so B2G compliance for Germany is not a separate tool bolted on.
Common questions
Does this apply to me if I only occasionally sell to a public-sector buyer? If the buyer is a German public-sector entity, XRechnung (or an equivalent EN 16931 format) generally applies regardless of how often you sell to that category. Exact scope can depend on contract value and buyer type.
Is XRechnung the same as KSeF or other e-invoicing systems? No. Each is its own national implementation. Several (including XRechnung) build on EN 16931, which is why one well-built structured-invoicing pipeline can support multiple countries’ specific requirements.
What if an XRechnung invoice is rejected as non-compliant? It needs correcting and resubmitting before it is validly issued. Field validation against the XRechnung schema before submission is what prevents this becoming a recurring fire-drill.
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