The letter thousands of businesses are receiving right now
A specimen letter of the kind thousands of German businesses are currently receiving: the supplier announces that it is moving its invoicing entirely to the ZUGFeRD format during the year. After a cut-off date, invoices go out electronically only — no more paper, no more plain PDFs. It asks for a receiving address and for confirmation that you can process the format.
If you have had one of these: you are not alone, and your supplier is not acting arbitrarily. The Wachstumschancengesetz made e-invoicing binding for domestic B2B trade in Germany. Businesses with more than 800,000 euros of prior-year turnover must issue electronically from 1 January 2027; everyone else follows a year later. Larger suppliers are therefore switching now, with lead time, because nobody wants to change invoicing mid-year.
For you as the recipient that means: your supplier's deadline is the deadline that matters. Not 2027.
What the supplier is actually asking of you
These letters almost always contain the same three points. The first two are familiar; the third is routinely skimmed over — and it is the one that fails later.
- An e-invoicing address: one mailbox that all invoices will go to from now on. Personal mailboxes are unsuitable here — holidays, staff changes, forwarding rules.
- The ability to process ZUGFeRD: not merely to view the PDF, but to read the XML file embedded inside it. That XML is the legally authoritative invoice.
- The ability to extract supporting documents: delivery notes, weighing notes, proof of service. They travel in segment group BG-24 and form part of the record.
The common misconception: „an email inbox is enough“
The obvious answer to such a letter is: we will set up invoices@ and be done. That is not wrong — it is merely incomplete. An inbox receives the invoice. After that it stops.
What a plain inbox does not do:
- No format check: whether the invoice really satisfies EN 16931 is not visible in a PDF. A formally defective invoice puts input VAT deduction at risk.
- No GoBD archive: what must be retained is the original — the XML file, unaltered and retrievable for eight years. An email folder is not an audit-proof archive.
- Attachments are lost: saving only the PDF loses the embedded supporting documents. At audit time the evidence behind the invoice is missing.
- No handover: your tax advisor needs the data structured, not as a pile of attachments in a mailbox.
What you need and by when — the timeline
The single most important distinction in this whole topic is between receiving and issuing. Public discussion constantly conflates the two, which creates the impression that there is time until 2027 or 2028.
That applies to issuing. It does not apply to receiving: the obligation to be able to accept e-invoices in domestic B2B trade has been in force since 1 January 2025 — with no transition period and regardless of company size.
| What | Who it affects | From when |
|---|---|---|
| Being able to receive e-invoices | all domestic businesses in B2B | since 01.01.2025 |
| Issuing e-invoices | prior-year turnover above 800,000 € | 01.01.2027 |
| Issuing e-invoices | all remaining businesses | 01.01.2028 |
Ready to receive in 30 minutes — four steps
Replying to your supplier is not an IT project. Four steps are enough, and three of them are organisational.
- Designate a dedicated receiving address — not an individual employee's mailbox.
- Reply to the supplier and give them the address. There is a template for this below.
- Request a test invoice and check that the embedded XML is actually read — not just that the PDF displays.
- Archive the original: the XML file unaltered, with its validation record, retrievable for the full retention period.
What happens to the supporting documents
The third point in the supplier's letter deserves separate attention, because it is technically harder than the first two and because its failure is invisible.
EN 16931 provides, in segment group BG-24, for documents that substantiate the invoice to be attached to it: the delivery note for the goods, the weighing note for the quantity billed, the proof of service for the work performed. Technically these documents sit as further embedded files inside the same PDF.
The critical part: software that reads the invoice cleanly but ignores the attachments reports no error. The invoice is posted, everything looks correct — and the supporting evidence is missing anyway. This can first surface during a tax audit, and at that point it is your problem, not your supplier's. Under GoBD, documents substantiating an invoice belong to the record and must be retained with it.
So check on a real test invoice that the attachments arrive — and that they are archived together with the invoice.
Template: reply to your supplier
That completes the switchover from your side. Select or copy the text, fill in the brackets, send. The template is in German because that is the language your supplier's accounts receivable team works in.
Two fields need explaining. The Leitweg-ID is an identifier from the public-sector context — in purely private-sector B2B you will normally not have one, so leave the field out. As the buyer reference (BT-10) your supplier can instead carry your customer or order number, which makes matching invoices in accounting considerably easier later on.
Betreff: Umstellung auf E-Rechnung — unsere Rechnungsadresse Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, vielen Dank für Ihre Information zur Umstellung auf die elektronische Rechnungsstellung. Wir sind empfangsbereit. Bitte senden Sie künftig alle Rechnungen ausschließlich an: [rechnungen@ihre-firma.de] Wir verarbeiten XRechnung und ZUGFeRD ab Profil EN 16931. Rechnungsbegründende Anlagen in der Segmentgruppe BG-24 können wir entgegennehmen und archivieren. Für den Umstellungszeitpunkt bitten wir um eine Testrechnung an die oben genannte Adresse. Unsere Stammdaten für Ihre Rechnungslegung: Firma: [Firmenname] Anschrift: [Straße, PLZ Ort] USt-IdNr.: [DE………] Leitweg-ID / Käuferreferenz: [falls vorhanden] Mit freundlichen Grüßen [Name, Funktion]