As digital tax transformation continues to sweep across the world, Germany is taking steps toward e-invoicing. The changes stem from the recently enacted Wachstumschancengesetz (Growth Opportunities Act), which brought updates starting January 1st, 2025.
Understanding Germany’s New E-Invoicing Requirements
Beginning in 2025, German vendors can issue e-invoices for some domestic transactions. This means that businesses need to prepare to receive e-invoices in one of two official formats for B2B transactions:
- XRechnung: An XML-only standard.
- ZUGFeRD: A PDF format that includes an embedded XML file.
These updates are part of Germany’s alignment with the EU's VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) initiatives and the EU e-invoicing standard CEN 16931. While these changes aim to streamline and digitize the invoicing process, there are some exceptions to e-invoicing as Germany starts to implement these changes, such as:
- Personal transport tickets
- Invoices for transactions under 250€
Moreover, to ensure a smooth transition, businesses will have until the end of 2026 to continue issuing invoices in other formats, such as paper or simple PDFs. Also, businesses with yearly revenue below 800,000€ receive an additional extension until the end of 2027.
How Concur Expense Supports These Changes
In response to these legislative updates, Concur Expense has enhanced its features to better support Germany’s new e-invoicing regulations. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new for Concur Expense:
- Handling ZUGFeRD e-invoices: Your employees can now email ZUGFeRD e-invoices directly to receipts@concur.com as attachments. Concur Expense will store the embedded XML file along with the PDF.
- Handling XRechnung e-invoices: For XRechnung e-invoices, we recommend employees convert the XML file into a visual format (like PDF or JPEG). Then they can email both the original XML and the visual file to receipts@concur.com. This ensures the e-invoice is correctly stored and that the visual format is viewable within Concur Expense.
- Storage and Accessibility: The e-invoice is stored in its original format within the SAP Concur database, while the PDF or image version is displayed for convenient access by your employees.
Important Steps for Activation
To leverage this enhancement, the following actions must be taken by a Concur Expense administrator:
- Navigate to the Expense Admin section.
- Go to the Group Configurations section.
- Select the group to which you want to apply the rule and click Modify.
- Under the Digital Compliance Region/Country Rule setting, select Germany.
- Press Save.
By completing these steps, the feature will be activated for the specified group.
- Upon activation: these capabilities will be accessible to all users in the specified group. Additional setup instructions can be found in the Concur Expense Receipt Handling guide.
- Verify Employee Emails: Ensure that employees verify their email addresses within SAP Concur before emailing e-invoices to receipts@concur.com. The verification can be done by employees in Profile Settings under the Email Addresses section.
Additional Resources
For more information on Concur Expense and our support for Germany’s e-invoicing regulation, please refer to this FAQ and overview deck.
