DoXite 2.5.1 from DETEC supports the exchange of electronic invoices in accordance with ZUGFeRD and XRechnung standards

Time is short: from November this year German public authorities will only accept electronic invoices

GROß-GERAU, GERMANY, March 11, 2020 - DETEC, a supplier of solutions for document-based corporate communications, has released a new version of its DoXite software which enables companies to comply with all EU electronic invoicing standards and meet the November 2020 deadline for public sector eInvoicing in Germany. The new release, DoXite 2.5.1, fully supports the latest ZUGFeRD and XRechnung standards, which are based on European Directives 2014/55/EU and EN 16931.

"The use of eInvoicing in public procurement has become a digital transformation priority for the EU," said Carsten Owerfeldt, Head of Development at DETEC. "Using common eInvoicing standards helps to foster trade while improving security, streamlining business processes and reducing environmental impact.

"Since last year the German central government has only accepted machine-readable electronic invoices and by November 27 all other public authorities must follow suit," said Carsten Owerfeldt. "Any organization which sells to the public sector must be ready to produce XML eInvoices in line with the XRechnung standard. In B2B eInvoicing many companies want to provide a PDF similar to a printed invoice as well, which is covered by ZUGFeRD. DETEC customers can achieve both of these aims by using DoXite 2.5.1."

Hybrid electronic invoices in accordance with ZUGFeRD 2.0 A previous release of DoXite (version 2.3) introduced support for hybrid invoices in line with the ZUGFeRD 1.0 directive. This involves creating a PDF for human invoice recipients, together with an XML file for automated processing, which is embedded in the PDF. The XML contains all invoice information such as the final amount, due date and IBAN and describes the meaning of each value. This makes invoice contents readable by online banking applications and other systems. In accordance with the specifications of ZUGFeRD, DoXite also provides tamper-evident archiving of electronic invoices.

DoXite 2.5.1 supports the requirements of the new ZUGFeRD 2.0 standard, and also enables organizations to convert documents from ZUGFeRD 1.0 to ZUGFeRD 2.0. As with ZUGFeRD 1.0, companies can use three alternative invoice types in ZUGFeRD 2.0, known as profiles. DoXite users can select a different profile depending on whether they wish to define only basic attributes for machine processing or present the entire invoice content in a machine-readable form. The selected profile determines the format of the PDF as well as the embedded XML file. The ‘comfort’ profile supports fully automated invoice processing and is compliant with directive EN 16931.

DoXite 2.5.1 also offers a validation tool which companies can use to check whether their ZUGFeRD or XRechnung documents comply with nationally defined business rules. These rules may specify, for example, that a value may not be negative or they may define calculation rules for total values. The validation tool uses the Schematron validation language.

Many standards, one invoice: XRechnung in DoXite 2.5.1 In addition to ZUGFeRD, there are a number of other standards for electronic invoicing, including XRechnung and Factur-X, which are also based on the 2014/55/EU and EN 16931 directives. DoXite 2.5.1 supports these standards.

In Germany, ZUGFeRD and XRechnung are the most commonly used standards. While ZUGFeRD 2.0 allows a hybrid invoice, XRechnung allows only XML data. In addition, XRechnung can reference additional documents such as delivery notes instead of embedding them directly.

Document import in any format The new release also saves users valuable working time by making it even easier to import document templates from third-party systems into DoXite. Existing corporate templates such as document headers, footers, background images or whole documents can be quickly imported, adapted and then extended in DoXite.

DoXite users can import documents in a wide range of formats, such as PDF, PCL and SAPGOF.

Further information about DoXite can be found at: https://www.detec.com/products/doxite/.