Article: Things to know about XRechnung
From November 27, 2020, Deutsche Bahn and its subsidiaries are legally obligated as public contracting entities to request electronic invoices in XRechnung format from their suppliers.
What is an XRechnung?
An XRechnung as defined by EU Directive 2014/55/EU is an invoice that is issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format that enables automatic and electronic processing.
Details can be found in the German e-Invoice Act E-rechnungsverordnung (ERechV).
An XRechnung is a specified form of e-invoice. In technical terms, the XRechnung is an XML-based semantic data model. It is the German application specification of the European CEN data model and thus the national standard for public administration in Germany.
The XML file in XRechnung format constitutes the invoice. Invoices in PDF format or scanned paper invoices do not meet the requirements of the ERechV.
When creating your XRechnung, you must ensure it meets all the requirements set out in our „Quality Requirements for Invoices“.
In the download area, you will find a leaflet with further information and sample invoices.
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