ZUGFeRD – Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland

ZUGFeRD – FeRD: Forum for Electronic Billing in Germany

The Forum for Electronic Billing in Germany (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland, FeRD) is developing a process and data model for digital invoicing:

• Active support for the acceptance of digital invoices as a document and a data structure
• Building a national consensus around digital invoicing, particularly for B2B and B2G
• Collecting and exchanging national expertise and initiatives in the field of digital invoicing
• Incorporating and implementing legal provisions
• Cross-section of all initiatives and activities, individual initiatives remain undisturbed
• Support for European and international initiatives

ZUGFeRD – Standardised format for digital invoices

The Forum for Electronic Billing in Germany (FeRD) has developed a shared overarching digital invoice format that can be used for invoicing between businesses, government authorities and end users, enabling the exchange of structured data between sender and recipient. This is the ZUGFeRD format.

The ZUGFeRD invoice format makes it possible to transmit structured invoice data within a PDF file, and to read and process this data without requiring any additional steps.

The FeRD invoice format was developed by businesses in the automotive, retail, banking and software industries as well as the public sector.

It meets international standardisation requirements and can also be carried over and applied to invoicing processes in other countries across Europe and the rest of the world.

The final version of the data model, version 1.0, was published on 25 June 2014.