E-Invoicing Since 2025: What B2B Businesses Need to Know Now

Since 1 January 2025, the rule in Germany is: every business has to be able to receive electronic invoices in B2B transactions. An "e-invoice" isn't simply a PDF sent by email — it means a structured, machine-readable format like XRechnung or ZUGFeRD that can be processed automatically.

The receiving obligation already applies now, with no exceptions. Sending, on the other hand, still has transition periods: businesses with prior-year revenue above €800,000 have to issue e-invoices themselves starting in 2027, smaller businesses from 2028. Until then, paper and simple PDF invoices in B2B transactions remain permitted with the recipient's consent.

In practice, that means: if you can't yet receive e-invoices, you should catch up soon — the obligation already applies regardless of your own sending deadline. A simple email inbox is technically enough to receive invoices; the real challenge is automated downstream processing.

That's exactly where the real benefit lies: when an incoming e-invoice is read automatically and pulled into your accounting, manual entry disappears — a time saving that goes beyond simple compliance. GoBD's requirement for tamper-proof storage for at least eight to ten years still applies on top of that.

Treating this switch as a pure compliance exercise leaves value on the table. Set up properly, e-invoicing fully replaces a manual process step — and bottlenecks like that are exactly where automation genuinely pays off.