Mistake 1: discarding the XML, keeping the PDF
The classic. An XRechnung is rendered, saved as a PDF, the original deleted. It feels tidy but is a document disaster.
The document subject to retention is the XML file. The PDF is one of many possible views. Whoever keeps only the view has lost the document — and only notices when it is too late.
Mistake 2: the collective mailbox as “archive”
info@ or accounting@ is not an archive. It can be changed, emptied, searched and accidentally tidied up. The GoBD require unalterability — a mailbox does not fulfil that.
A mailbox may be the access. It may not be the place of retention.
Mistake 3: no clear responsibility
“I thought you were taking care of it.” If three people have access to the invoice mailbox and no one is responsible, something regularly slips through.
One person checks and approves, a deputy steps in. That sounds banal but is the most common reason for overlooked or duplicate-posted invoices.
Mistake 4: no real check before approval
An invoice looks like an invoice — and gets posted. Whether the mandatory details are complete, whether the totals add up, whether the tax rate fits, nobody checks.
Faulty invoices that slip through are more expensive than rejected ones. The check belongs before approval, not in the correction loop afterwards.
Mistake 5: lumping PDF and e-invoice together
A PDF is not an e-invoice, an XRechnung is not a PDF. Whoever treats both the same either processes the PDF too elaborately or the XRechnung too laxly.
Separating the two worlds cleanly — PDF as before, structured e-invoice with validation and original archive — is half the battle won.
Mistake 6: no procedural documentation
Almost no one has it, almost every auditor asks for it. The procedural documentation describes how your invoice intake works.
It does not have to be a novel. It has to exist, be current and match reality. A missing or wrong documentation calls the orderliness of the whole bookkeeping into question.
Mistake 7: thinking about the archive only at year-end
Archiving is not a tidy-up project for between the years. The original must be secured unalterably at the moment of intake — not pieced together from mailboxes months later.
Whoever automates this from the start has dealt with six of the other mistakes too. The good news: that is exactly what a dedicated intake is built for.