XRechnung
XRechnung is the German CIUS (country-specific adaptation) of EN 16931, maintained by KoSIT (Coordination Office for IT Standards). For electronic invoices to public sector clients in Germany (B2G), the XRechnung format is mandatory. XRechnung imposes stricter requirements than EN 16931 on its own.
To use it, choose an XRechnung profile (2.2, 2.3 or 3.0) under General. XRechnung 3.0 is the current version.
Additional mandatory fields compared to EN 16931
| Field | EN 16931 | XRechnung |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic address (BT-34) | optional | Mandatory |
| Seller contact telephone (BT-42) | optional | Mandatory |
| Seller contact email (BT-43) | optional | Mandatory |
| Buyer reference (BT-10) | optional | Mandatory (fallback to order number per BR-DE-15) |
| Payment group matching the payment means (BG-17/18/19) | optional | Mandatory depending on code BT-81 |
| Leitweg-ID | optional | Mandatory for the public sector |
This is how you provide the mandatory fields:
- Electronic address, contact (name, telephone, email): under Seller.
- Buyer reference / recipient Leitweg-ID: via the buyer reference attribute under Buyer Information.
- Payment group: for a credit transfer the IBAN under Seller is sufficient; for direct debit see Payment.
Common XRechnung business rules (BR-DE)
| Rule | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| BR-DE-1 | Payment instruction (BG-16) missing | Enter the payment means code (BT-81) |
| BR-DE-2 | Seller contact group (BG-6) missing | Fill in the contact details under Seller |
| BR-DE-5 / 6 / 7 | Seller contact incomplete | Add contact name (BT-41), telephone (BT-42), email (BT-43) |
| BR-DE-15 | Buyer reference (BT-10) missing | Set buyer reference (fallback to order number applies automatically) |
| BR-DE-16 | VAT ID or tax number missing | Enter BT-31 (VAT ID) or BT-32 (tax number) |
| BR-DE-17 | Invalid document type (BT-3) | Use only the permitted codes – invoice 380, credit note 381 |
| BR-DE-23 | Credit transfer (code 30/58) without credit transfer group BG-17 | Enter the IBAN (BT-84) under Seller |
| BR-DE-24 | Card payment (code 48/54/55) without card group BG-18 | Use credit transfer or direct debit for the public sector |
| BR-DE-25 | Direct debit (code 59) without direct debit group BG-19 | Provide the direct debit data – see Payment |
| BR-DE-30 / 31 | Direct debit group incomplete | Supply the creditor identifier (BT-90) and the debited IBAN (BT-91) together |
Leitweg-ID
The Leitweg-ID is the German routing identifier for the public sector.
- Structure: coarse addressing – fine addressing – check digits, separated by hyphens. The length of the first two parts is not fixed; the check digits are always two characters.
- Example:
991-12345-67
The Leitweg-ID of the recipient (public sector client) belongs in the buyer reference (BT-10) and is provided via the buyer reference attribute. A separate seller Leitweg-ID can additionally be entered under Seller.
Check XRechnung invoices before dispatch with a full EN 16931 / XRechnung validation service that covers the BR-DE business rules. The extension's pure XSD check (see Validation) does not detect these rule violations.