The mandate comes with dates, not opinions.

The legal basis is the Wachstumschancengesetz. The second half of 2026 is the window in which affected companies rebuild their invoicing, before it gets tight.

01

Since January 1, 2025

Every German company must be able to receive structured e-invoices (EN 16931).

in force
02

From January 1, 2027

Companies above 800,000 € in prior-year revenue must issue e-invoices. Paper and plain PDF are no longer permitted in B2B.

18 months out
03

From January 1, 2028

The issuing mandate covers every company, regardless of revenue.

all companies

Format conversion or process opportunity.

The mandate can be met minimally: a converter that produces a valid format at the end, while everything else stays manual. Or you rebuild the pipeline once and properly: from service records and master data to a dispatched, tracked, reconciled invoice, built between your existing systems (ERP, WMS/TMS, M365, DATEV) and operated permanently.