ZEIT.IO is a platform for the automatic billing of project times. Approved project times can be billed and credited automatically. Until now, standard PDFs were generated in this process. However, this is now changing.
From January 1, 2025, e-invoices will be mandatory for B2B and B2G transactions within Germany! The French National Forum for Electronic Invoicing and the Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany (FeRD) have worked together to develop a German-French format for electronic invoices that meets both the EU standard 16931 and the needs of SMEs. The common standard for electronic invoices, which will be mandatory from next year, is called "Factur-X Version 1.0.06" or "ZUGFeRD v. 2.2".
ZUGFeRD stands for "Zentraler User Guide des Forums elektronische Rechnung Deutschland" ("Central User Guide of the Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany"). The ZUGFeRD standard is a hybrid invoice format consisting of PDF and XML. The XML file must be embedded in the PDF. A valid ZUGFeRD invoice must meet the following criteria:
The PDF must be a PDF/A-3. The PDF is the visual presence of the invoice.
The metadata of the PDF/A-3 must contain a special XMP extension schema that contains metadata about the standard and profile used.
An XML file containing the invoice information must be embedded in the PDF/A-3. The XML file must correspond to one of the six specified ZUGFeRD profiles.
The special thing about an electronic invoice according to the ZUGFeRD standard is that all relevant invoice details are embedded in the file as XML. The XML file corresponds to a public standard. This means that invoices can be processed automatically without having to rely on OCR or AI recognition algorithms, which are often prone to errors. In order to be able to classify the invoices better, six different XML profiles are defined in the standard.
Miniumum: The XML contains only a minimal amount of information.
BASIC WL: This profile contains a little more information than MINIMUM, but the invoice items are missing. The WL stands for "without lines".
BASIC: This profile corresponds to the EN 16931 standard and also contains all details of all invoice items. In concrete terms, this means that all mandatory fields are available and all corresponding business rules must be adhered to.
EN 16931 or COMFORT: All core data of the European semantic standard EN16931 in order to be able to display all invoice information in a fully structured form, as well as compliance with all business rules of EN 16931.
EXTENDED: All core data including the extensions that can be useful for special cases if this is required by the customer. This profile is also available in a special subset as EXTENDED FR B2B in order to record all business transactions relating to French B2B mandates as well as electronic VAT reports in real time
XRECHNUNG: This profile is relevant for B2G transactions.
The BASIC profile is currently implemented at ZEIT.IO. All outgoing invoices created are automatically ZUGFeRD invoices!
Implementation details
In order to support ZUGFeRD, we had to introduce a new PDF engine in ZEIT.IO. The PDF engine that was previously used to generate PDFs unfortunately does not support the PDF/A-3 format. With the introduction of a new PDF engine, all PDF templates also had to be re-implemented. We based ourselves on the old templates, but there are a few small differences here and there.
Activate ZUGFeRD in ZEIT.IO
For new corporate customers whose account was created after August 1, 2024, ZUGFeRD is automatically activated. For existing customers, the old PDF engine is currently still used. However, existing customers can switch to the new PDF engine at any time and thereby activate ZUGFeRD. In the organization settings, under General, there is now another checkbox for ZUGFeRD. If this checkbox is activated, the new PDF engine is used and all newly generated outgoing invoices are ZUGFeRD invoices!
If the new PDF engine for e-invoicing is activated for your organization and you create a new invoice, then this invoice is also a ZUGFeRD invoice. When you are in the detailed view of the invoice, you can click on the "Meta" tab to see more information about the invoice. Further down the page you will also find the metadata for ZUGFeRD. At this point you can also view and download the XML file that is embedded in the PDF.
The following points have not yet been implemented, but will follow in the next few weeks:
Credit notes: The credit notes issued to suppliers are not yet created with the new PDF engine and are therefore not yet valid ZUGFeRD invoices.
Incoming invoices: The directory for incoming invoices does not yet have any special support for ZUGFeRD. In the future, the invoice receipt will automatically recognize ZUGFeRD invoices and display the contents from the XML.
Test system
The whole thing has also been rolled out on the test system (https://alpha.zeit.io). Please test the new feature on the test system first before activating it on production.
Addendum - August 15, 2024
The credit notes issued to freelancers & suppliers after the approval of timesheets or expenses are now also available via the new PDF engine. This means that all outgoing invoices, cancellations and credit notes are valid ZUGFeRD invoices!
Robert Reiz | August 01, 2024 | 09:14 UTC 
