Vertec supports the ZUGFeRD standard 2.1.1

Vertec and ZUGFeRD? No problem. Back in 2019, Vertec version 6.3.0.12 made it possible to support ZUGFeRD, then still in version 2.0, for the first time. Since then, a lot has happened again. Reason enough to take up the topic again at this point and shed light on the benefits.

What is ZUGFeRD?

The art term ZUGFeRD is composed of ZUG (Zentraler User Guide) and FeRD (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland) and was developed by the latter in collaboration with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) as initially a purely German standard. With the help of ZUGFeRD, companies are able to exchange electronic invoices quickly and easily with each other and with the public administration. In short, electronic invoicing in B2B, B2C and B2G transactions can thus be standardized.

ZUGFeRD is also aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises as well as freelancers. The ZUGFeRD standard is subject to the EU standard EN-16931, which states, among other things, that all offices and public service providers have introduced and must use electronic invoice receipt by 27 November 2020.

ZUGFeRD is a hybrid invoice format that can be read by humans and machines. It consists of a visual or image component on the one hand, and a data area on the other. From this data area, XML metadata can be read out and processed further by ERP systems such as Vertec. The output format is a PDF file, which is subject to certain requirements. These can be found on the page pdflib.com.

Standardized invoice exchange with Vertec and ZUGFeRD

As of version 6.4.0.16, Vertec now supports the latest version of ZUGFeRD 2.1.1, which was released in July 2020. This brings further benefits and simplifications for payment transactions:

• Electronic invoices can also be exchanged within the EU thanks to the EU standard EN-16931.
• ZUGFeRD brings together the German and the complementary French Factur-X 1.0 standard and is now fully compatible with it.
• The profile “XRechnung” is supported.

What is XRechnung?

Compared to the hybrid format ZUGFeRD, the XRechnung standard is a pure XML document that is only machine-readable. With the XRechnungs format, a uniform federal standard has been created for the exchange of e-invoices with public authorities, which is subject to the EU Directive 2014/55/EU. Like ZUGFeRD 2.1, XRechnung complies with the European standard for electronic invoicing according to EN-16931.

Vertec customers are thus able to easily create and receive compliant electronic invoices to public administrations, public companies in the federal state, countries and local governments.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Vertec’s backward compatibility with older ZUGFeRD versions remains guaranteed. Vertec creates the appropriate XMP schema based on the corresponding ZUGFeRD version. If the version is not specified, the default value is 2.0.1. Further technical information on implementation in Vertec can be found in our Knowledge Base Articles.