XInvoice not arrived in practice

Since the end of 2020, the federal government has only accepted invoices in electronic form in accordance with an EU directive. Gradually, the individual federal states are now following suit with the obligation to issue invoices in XInvoice format.

The German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG) conducted a member survey on the status of the technical implementation of electronic invoicing. The results showed that two-thirds of the companies surveyed already have a solution for creating XInvoices in place, but the majority have not yet used it intensively.

Diversity slows digitization

The technical and legal framework for XInvoice is in place, but the results of the DSAG survey are mixed: 66 percent of the 145 companies surveyed already had a solution in place for creating the new invoice format. Half of these were introduced by their own IT department or in collaboration with consulting companies. Just under 20 percent are currently still in the planning stage. At the same time, however, around 52 percent had only sent between zero and 100 invoices as XInvoices.

"The various XInvoice solutions in the federal and state governments create a diversity that is unique in the EU. At the same time, this is precisely what is inhibiting the decisive step towards digitization", explains Colin Blöcher, spokesperson for the Electronic Invoicing and Real-time Reporting working group at DSAG. "Even large corporations and subordinate state authorities require different dispatch methods such as Peppol, e-mail, manual entry, FTP or De-Mail. Other EU countries have solved this much more efficiently and thus more cost-saving for companies."

Most common mode of transport: e-mail

18 percent of respondents use SAP's own solution SAP Document Compliance. It can be used to create XInvoices in SAP ERP and S/4 Hana and send them via Peppol, e-mail or ZUGFeRD. Around 55 percent use partner solutions within or outside SAP for this purpose. For sending, a majority (52 percent) still uses e-mail. This is followed (with 25 percent) by uploading via public portals (ZRE of the federal government, OZG-RE of the Bundesdruckerei), Peppol (22 percent), ZUGFeRD (20 percent) and third-party portals (12 percent).

Peppol technically acts like a registered mail with return receipt, which currently all other shipping methods do only conditionally or not at all. "The future belongs to the Peppol shipping channel, as companies and authorities can realize lean processes and really save costs in this way", predicts Bernd Nowack, deputy spokesman of the Accounting Working Group at DSAG. "The other transport types in combination with corresponding formats tend to drive up IT and process costs, because they require stricter control and, if necessary, rework due to the more insecure transport."

No potential for B2B

Suppliers who switch to electronic invoicing in the XInvoice format save paper and postage costs and benefit from faster electronic dispatch of peppol and thus potentially faster payment. Therefore, it should be expected that XInvoice will also become established in B2B business after invoicing public institutions. However, according to the DSAG survey, this is precisely what is not yet on the horizon: So far, only 13 percent of the companies surveyed see further potential for XInvoice here. For the DSAG spokespersons, the results of the member survey are therefore not surprising.