A common Franco-German e-invoice format is becoming a reality

Stefan Engel-Flechsig wrote a post announcing that France and Germany are working on a common e-invoicing format. The co-operation mainly focuses on two areas: first, the question of a common Franco-German accounting form, which can be used in the same way in both countries and takes into account the requirements of the future EU accounting form. On the other hand, both forums have dealt with the legal requirements of electronic invoices and the audit by the auditors in the two countries.

The common German-French standard is a hybrid calculation format based on PDF A / 3 and XML UNCEFACT D16.B as ZUGFeRD. Five common profiles are defined (M, Basix WL, Basic, Comfort, Extended). A joint documentation in German, French and English is in preparation. This documentation will also describe the use in the respective national context. The German-French standard will be given a common name and should be completed by March 2017. It is planned to hold a workshop with interested participants from other national forums.

The experts of both countries have also supported the development of the European accounting standard within the framework of CEN TC 434 in order to include the requirements and wishes of European stabilization in the common German-French standard. The German-French accounting standard is expected to be in line with the data model and syntax usage with the future European standard to be expected in the coming year.

Read the full post in German here and translated in English here