Section 1
The obligation that already applies: you must be able to receive
Since 1 January 2025, every business established in Germany that does domestic B2B transactions must be able to receive a structured e-invoice. Not send. Receive. If a supplier sends you an XRechnung today, you are legally expected to be able to accept and process it, and "we only take PDFs" is no longer a valid position. In practice the bar is low: a working email inbox capable of receiving the file, plus a way to read and archive it in GoBD-conform form. But many firms have not thought about it at all, and that is where the silent non-compliance lives. This is the date that already passed.
Section 2
What breaks on which date
The sending side phases in, and the phase-in gives small firms room. Treat these as the current schedule under the Wachstumschancengesetz, and confirm against the latest guidance because transition rules get adjusted. Two things this table makes clear. First, if your turnover is under 800,000 euros, you have until the end of 2027 before you must issue e-invoices, but you had to be able to receive them at the start of 2025. Second, the mandate is about domestic business-to-business only. Invoices to private consumers (B2C) are outside it. Above this sits the EU's ViDA package (VAT in the Digital Age), adopted in 2025, which extends digital reporting and e-invoicing to cross-border intra-EU trade later this decade. The commonly cited target for the cross-border piece is 2030, worth re-verifying as ViDA implementation dates have already shifted once. It does not change your German domestic dates.
Section 3
The two formats, in one line each
• XRechnung: a pure XML file. Machine-readable, not human-readable without a viewer. Standard for public-sector (B2G) invoicing and fully compliant for B2B. • ZUGFeRD: a hybrid. It looks like a normal PDF a human can read, with the structured XML embedded inside the same file. For a small firm invoicing other businesses, ZUGFeRD is usually the friendlier choice because the recipient sees a readable document either way. Either satisfies the mandate. You do not need both.
Section 4
The minimum move this quarter
You do not need a project. You need two capabilities in place. • Receiving: confirm you can accept an XRechnung or ZUGFeRD file, read it, and archive it in a GoBD-conform way. Most modern invoicing tools (lexoffice, sevDesk, DATEV and others) handle this. If yours does not, that is the gap to close first, because that obligation already applies. • Sending: check your turnover against the 800,000 euro line to find your real deadline, then confirm your tool can output XRechnung or ZUGFeRD before that date. If it cannot, you have time to switch, but do not discover it in December of your deadline year.
Section 5
The fitness test
You are exposed to the e-Rechnung mandate right now if: • You could not process an XRechnung file if a supplier sent you one today. • You assume the mandate does not touch you yet because your sending deadline is in the future. • You call an emailed PDF an "e-invoice" and think that satisfies the rule. If any is true, start with the receiving side, because that is the obligation already in force. The setup is a weekend, not a quarter, and the companion playbook (angle 8.8) walks through it step by step.