E-invoicing for engineering and planning firms

What applies when?

1. since 1 January 2025

   All businesses in Germany must be able to receive and process e-invoices from other businesses – including small firms.

2. until 31 December 2026

   Transitional period: paper invoices and other electronic formats such as a simple PDF remain permitted in business-to-business transactions.

3. from 1 January 2027

   Firms with a previous-year turnover of more than €800,000 must issue invoices to businesses as e-invoices.

4. from 1 January 2028

   The obligation to issue e-invoices applies to all invoices between domestic businesses – regardless of turnover.

Exempt are, among others, small-amount invoices up to €250 gross. Small businesses under § 19 UStG (German VAT Act) do not have to issue e-invoices but must be able to receive them. For invoices to public-sector clients, XRechnung already applies today depending on the authority, usually with a Leitweg-ID (routing ID).

Is a PDF an e-invoice?

No. An e-invoice is a structured data record according to the European standard EN 16931 that the recipient's accounting system can read automatically. After the transitional period, a PDF sent by email no longer counts as an e-invoice. Two formats are common: XRechnung (pure XML) and ZUGFeRD/Factur-X (a readable PDF with embedded XML).

How Honodo creates e-invoices

• Every finalised invoice – standard, interim and final invoice – produces XRechnung and ZUGFeRD/Factur-X according to EN 16931.

• ZUGFeRD is generated as PDF/A-3 with embedded XML: your customer sees the familiar invoice, their accounting system reads the data automatically.

• You enter the buyer reference or Leitweg-ID directly in the invoice.

• No external services and no extra costs – included in every plan.