Germany (XRechnung and ZUGFeRD)

German entities can export finalized invoices and credit notes as structured e-invoices for German workflows.

Supported Formats

Format	Output	Use
XRechnung	UBL XML	German EN 16931 CIUS, including public-sector workflows
ZUGFeRD	PDF with embedded CII XML	Hybrid invoice for recipients that need both a visual PDF and structured data

Prerequisites

Requirement	Description
German entity	Entity country must be Germany
E-invoicing feature	Germany must include the e_invoicing country feature
E-invoicing settings	Enable XRechnung and/or ZUGFeRD in entity settings
Finalized document	Draft invoices and credit notes cannot be exported
Complete parties	Seller and buyer names, addresses, cities, postal codes, and invoice lines are required

Exporting

Use the document actions menu in the app, or call the document API endpoint for the required format:

• XRechnung downloads XML.
• ZUGFeRD downloads a PDF containing embedded Factur-X/ZUGFeRD XML.

Available API endpoints:

• GET /invoices/{id}/xrechnung
• GET /invoices/{id}/zugferd
• GET /credit-notes/{id}/xrechnung
• GET /credit-notes/{id}/zugferd

Entity settings enable each standard and run validation by default. API create/update requests can set xrechnung.validation_required: true or zugferd.validation_required: true to make invalid validation block a final document save. Exports always require a current valid saved validation result for the requested format.

Enable German exportstypescript

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await sdk.entities.update(entity.id, {
  settings: {
    xrechnung: { enabled: true },
    zugferd: { enabled: true },
  },
});

Update Entity API →

Create validated invoicetypescript

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const _invoice = await sdk.invoices.create({
  customer: {
    name: "Stadtwerke Beispiel",
    address: "Rathausplatz 1",
    post_code: "10115",
    city: "Berlin",
    country: "Germany",
    country_code: "DE",
    e_invoicing: {
      buyer_reference: "04011000-12345-03",
    },
  },
  items: [
    {
      name: "Platform subscription",
      quantity: 1,
      price: 1200,
      taxes: [{ rate: 19 }],
    },
  ],
  xrechnung: { validation_required: true },
});

Create Invoice API →

Buyer Reference

For German public-sector recipients, provide the buyer reference or Leitweg-ID as customer.e_invoicing.buyer_reference before exporting. Space Invoices maps it into the structured invoice as the EN 16931 buyer reference.

Download Examples

Download XRechnungtypescript

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const _xml = await sdk.invoices.downloadInvoiceXRechnung(invoice.id);

XRechnung API →

Download ZUGFeRDtypescript

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const _pdf = await sdk.invoices.downloadInvoiceZugferd(invoice.id);

ZUGFeRD API →

Related API

See the Invoices API Reference, Credit Notes API Reference, and Entities API Reference for German settings and export endpoints.