Create e-invoices

How your invoice comes together — step by step

1. 1 · Select customerFrom your partner directory — country, USt-IdNr, email and, where relevant, Leitweg-ID are stored and already formally checked.
2. 2 · Capture line itemsDescription, quantity, unit price, type of service. Recurring services come from your item catalog (e.g. a logistics package with 26 predefined freight-forwarding services).
3. 3 · VAT automaticallyFrom the customer’s country and USt-IdNr plus the type of service, CoolHanX determines the tax rate, the category (S/AE/K/G/E/O) and the mandatory legal note — visible live, before you issue.
4. 4 · Validation BEFORE issuingThe document runs through the full EN 16931 validation including the German BR-DE business rules. Errors? Then it is NOT issued — and no invoice number is used up.
5. 5 · Issue & deliverValid documents receive the next gap-free number, are generated as XRechnung XML, placed in the GoBD archive immediately, and delivered by email, download or public-sector portal (ZRE/OZG-RE).

Gap-free numbers — GoBD from the start

Invoice numbers must be sequential and gap-free. CoolHanX assigns the number only at the moment of successful issuing: a failed validation uses up no number, a crash leaves no gap. Every issued document moves into the archive with a checksum in the same transaction — issuing and retention cannot drift apart.

Both formats, one click

The standard output is the XRechnung 3.0 (UBL XML) — the format used by the public sector and the safe standard in B2B. For recipients who want a readable invoice, CoolHanX additionally produces ZUGFeRD: a PDF/A-3 with the same validated XML embedded. In terms of content both documents are identical — there is only one source of truth, the validated XML.

The most important fields — and who fills them

An EN 16931 invoice knows more than 160 possible business terms (BT fields). Only the few that describe your business are relevant to you — CoolHanX derives the rest or fills them from your master data:

You enter: customer, line items (description, quantity, price, type of service), due date, optionally an order reference. From master data: your company details, bank details (BT-84), customer address and electronic address (BT-49), and Leitweg-ID (BT-10) where relevant. Calculated: all totals (BT-106 to BT-115), tax breakdown per category (BG-23), due dates. This keeps data entry under a minute per invoice — with full field coverage.

From practice

A freight forwarder with 80 outbound invoices a month previously issued Word invoices. Switching to CoolHanX: partner list imported, logistics item package activated, first validated XRechnung after 20 minutes. Since then: no more queries from public-sector customers, and DATEV handover to the tax advisor at a monthly click.

Frequently asked questions

The legal framework — brief and reliable

With the Wachstumschancengesetz (Growth Opportunities Act, promulgated March 2024), the e-invoice for domestic B2B business was newly defined in §14 UStG: an invoice only counts as an e-invoice if it is issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format and enables electronic processing — specifically per the European standard EN 16931. A PDF, a scanned paper document or a photo expressly do not meet this definition; since 2025 they count as an „other invoice“.

A staged transition rule applies to issuing: paper and other formats are still permitted — with the recipient’s consent — until the end of 2026, and until the end of 2027 for companies with prior-year revenue below €800,000. From 2028, issuing as an e-invoice is mandatory for all domestic B2B transactions. The obligation to receive has applied without exception since 1 January 2025. CoolHanX maps this framework by checking every outbound document against EN 16931 and the German BR-DE business rules before issuing.

How an EN 16931 invoice is structured

The standard describes a semantic data model: an invoice consists of business objects (Business Groups, BG) and individual business terms (Business Terms, BT). Each BT has a fixed meaning, cardinality and data type — regardless of whether the invoice is delivered as an XRechnung (UBL or CII XML) or as ZUGFeRD. It is precisely this clarity that makes automated validation possible in the first place.

In practice you fill in only the few BTs that describe your business; CoolHanX derives or calculates the rest from your master data.

Correction, cancellation and credit note — the clean way

An issued e-invoice is immutable (GoBD): it is not overwritten. If a document is faulty or is reversed, you create — as VAT law provides — a cancellation invoice or credit note referencing the original invoice number (BT-25/BT-3 = 384). This keeps the document chain gap-free and traceable for a tax audit; both documents lie sealed in the archive.

Attachments and readable view

EN 16931 permits embedded attachments (BG-24), for example a timesheet or a description of services as a PDF. For recipients who want a human-readable presentation, CoolHanX generates the ZUGFeRD variant on request: a PDF/A-3 in which exactly the same validated XML is embedded. In terms of content there is still only one source of truth — the validated XML.

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