On January 1, 2027, the next stage of Germany’s statutory B2B e-invoicing mandate takes effect. Ceyoniq Technology GmbH recommends a structured five-phase timeline for the second half of 2026 to help companies adapt IT systems and invoice processes in time.
Starting January 1, 2027, the next stage of Germany’s statutory e-invoicing mandate for B2B transactions takes effect. Companies with prior-year revenue above 800,000 euros will then generally be required to issue electronic invoices for domestic B2B sales. By 2028 at the latest, the mandate applies to all companies regardless of revenue. From the respective deadline, simple PDF or paper invoices will no longer be permitted, with exceptions for statutory transition rules, small-value invoices up to 250 euros, and transport tickets.
According to an analysis by invoicing software provider Candis, structured e-invoices accounted for only around 12 to 13 percent of incoming invoices processed for its customers in spring 2026. The figure comes from a commercial vendor and has not been independently verified, but it points to a gap between the legal deadline and the actual state of implementation at many companies.
Five phases to go-live
Ceyoniq Technology GmbH, a Bielefeld-based provider of document management and invoice-processing software, recommends a five-phase timeline for companies to follow in the second half of 2026.
In phase one, from August to September, companies are advised to map all incoming and outgoing invoice flows along with the ERP and billing systems involved. This includes checking whether existing software can generate invoice data directly in a structured format under the European standard EN 16931 — such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD — and which transmission channels are available for receiving and sending invoices.
In October, phase two, companies select the technical systems for receiving and sending invoices, according to Ceyoniq. As a reference architecture, the company points to a combination of a communication hub for receipt, format conversion and dispatch, together with a separate solution for commercial invoice processing. Which systems are suitable depends on invoice volume, existing system landscape and international requirements.
Phase three, in November, covers the technical integration of e-invoicing modules with ERP and archiving systems. In a pilot run with selected suppliers and customers, companies test whether structured data sets are processed correctly in terms of format validity, semantic accuracy and business-rule compliance.
In December, phase four, the focus shifts to configuring automated approval workflows along with validation rules and error-handling processes, for example for XML validation errors. In parallel, teams in accounting, procurement and IT are to be trained, as manual checks are increasingly replaced by automated matching against ERP order data.
The fifth phase begins with the legal deadline itself: production operation for a company’s own invoice issuance is scheduled to start on January 1, 2027. Audit-proof archiving is not a new requirement in itself — it already follows from Germany’s principles of proper bookkeeping (GoBD) and has applied to received e-invoices since January 1, 2025. What is new with go-live is only the outgoing channel. Invoices are subject to a statutory retention period of eight years; they must be stored unaltered, complete and machine-readable in their original electronic format.
Tax and technical perspective
“This transition is about tax precision and technical interoperability,” said Thomas Schiffmann, head of product management at Ceyoniq Technology GmbH, according to the company. For VAT processing purposes, he said, only the structured data set is decisive — not the PDF image of an invoice.
For practical implementation, Ceyoniq says it relies on a modular IT architecture. A central communication hub — the company cites its own product, nscale eHub, as an example — handles technical receipt, normalization of data formats and dispatch, for instance via the Peppol network or email with a structured attachment. A downstream invoice-management system then carries out commercial review, matching against ERP purchase orders and GoBD-compliant archiving.
According to Ceyoniq, this functional separation of communication and commercial processing is meant to cover not only the issuance requirement from January 2027 but also to remain compatible with future requirements. Starting in 2030, the EU’s ViDA initiative (“VAT in the Digital Age”) is set to introduce additional reporting and formatting requirements for cross-border B2B transactions within the EU.
With go-live on January 1, 2027, the EU’s ViDA initiative also comes into focus: from 2030, it introduces additional reporting and formatting requirements for cross-border B2B transactions. Companies that build a modular IT architecture now are also laying the groundwork for future digital-reporting obligations.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de