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Guide · Invoice intake

Forward e-invoices automatically

Since 1 January 2025, every business in Germany must be able to receive e-invoices – an email mailbox is enough for that. With automatic forwarding from your existing mailbox, invoice emails arrive straight in e-Rechnung Inbox, and your suppliers do not have to change anything. Pick your provider and follow the steps.

Updated:

Forwarding address

Your invoice address (after signing up)

Enter this address as the forwarding target. You receive it when you sign up. Start for free

Your email provider

Gmail

Important: a general forwarding sends every email in this mailbox to e-Rechnung Inbox. Use it only for a mailbox that receives nothing but invoices; otherwise forward only invoice emails with a filter or rule.

  1. In Gmail, click the gear icon “Einstellungen” and then “Alle Einstellungen aufrufen”.
  2. Open the “Weiterleitung & POP/IMAP” tab and click “Weiterleitungsadresse hinzufügen”.
  3. Enter your invoice address and confirm with “Weiter”, “Fortfahren” and “OK”.
  4. Google sends a confirmation email with a link to your invoice address. As it carries no invoice attachment, e-Rechnung Inbox forwards it as text to your account's users and to the “Your billing email” address saved in your settings. Open the confirmation link there.
  5. Reload Gmail and, in the “Weiterleitung & POP/IMAP” tab, choose “Eingehende E-Mails weiterleiten an” with your invoice address – recommended together with “Gmail-Kopie im Posteingang behalten”.
  6. Click “Änderungen speichern”.

Alternative: forward invoice emails only (recommended)

  1. Once the address is confirmed, leave general forwarding off (or switch it off again).
  2. In the Gmail search box, open “Suchoptionen anzeigen” and search with this query:has:attachment {filename:xml filename:pdf} {Rechnung Invoice}
  3. Click “Filter erstellen”, tick “Weiterleiten”, choose your invoice address and confirm with “Filter erstellen”.
Gmail search operators explained

As of October 2026Official guide

Menu items are quoted as they appear in the German interface; in other languages and versions the wording differs.

Forwarding not possible or not allowed? Ask your suppliers to send invoices directly to your invoice address. How to switch your suppliers

Troubleshooting

The forwarded email does not show up as an invoice.
The email has to carry the invoice as an attachment – an XML file (XRechnung) or a PDF, for example ZUGFeRD. A download link alone is not enough. Emails larger than about 4 MB in total, attachments included, cannot be received at the moment; in that case ask your supplier for a smaller file or for the XRechnung XML.
What happens to emails that are not invoices?
e-Rechnung Inbox processes every email sent to your invoice address. PDF and XML attachments become invoice drafts – even if they are quotes or contracts. Other files, such as Word or Excel documents, show up as entries for manual review. Emails without an attachment are forwarded as text to your account's users and to the “Your billing email” address saved in your settings (at most 10 per day). So forward only invoice emails.
Several invoices in one email?
One invoice per email is easiest: forward the supplier's original email instead of collecting several invoices in one message.
The provider's confirmation email (for example from Google) does not arrive.
Confirmation emails carry no invoice attachment. e-Rechnung Inbox does not create an invoice from them; it forwards them as text, links included, to your account's users and to the “Your billing email” address saved in your settings. Check the spam or junk folder there as well. At most 10 such emails are forwarded per day, and your invoice address must already be active.
Forwarded invoices are missing.
Check the spam or junk folder of your original mailbox and whether your filter or rule matches the email.
Microsoft 365 reports “5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding”.
Your organisation does not allow automatic forwarding to external addresses; for new Microsoft 365 organisations this has been the default since 2021. Your IT admin can allow forwarding in the outbound spam filter policy in Microsoft Defender – ideally in a separate policy for the invoice mailbox only. The matching note is above under “Microsoft 365”.

Your own invoice address

After signing up you get your personal invoice address. Forwarded invoices are validated there, shown in readable form and archived with the original.

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