Prerequisites Germany
The following document outlines the steps that must be taken by the customer before a project kick-off can take place.
We kindly request that you prepare all items by the project kick-off and bring them with you to the project kick-off meeting.
We recommend consulting tax advisors and ERP experts, particularly for questions relating to tax law, official registrations and the creation of invoices in-house, in order to ensure that preparations can be completed in a timely manner.
Owner and responsibilities
Owner | Responsibility |
|---|---|
Retarus |
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ERP Expert |
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Tax Advisor / Representive |
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Specific preparations for Germany (incl. Peppol Option):
Task | Description | Support |
E-Mail Forwarding | In order to receive invoices, forwarding to a Retarus email inbox must be set up for the e-invoice inbox. | Internal / Retarus |
ZUGFeRD Option: | If you wish to send ZUGFeRD documents, please ensure that the PDF file is embedded in the structured ERP source data. | Internal / ERP Expert |
Peppol Option: VAT number / Peppol ID
| If you would like to receive invoices via Peppol, the Peppol SP must ensure that every Peppol participant it serves is identified on Peppol using its VAT number (e.g. 9930:DE12345678) Therefore, please provide Retarus with your German VAT number. This will automatically generate the corresponding Peppol ID. Note: Sending Process: The Peppol ID must be specified as the sender address in the source format. Registration by Retarus is currently not necessary for this. Receiving Process: The Peppol ID is registered by Retarus in the Peppol address book. | Internal |
Peppol Option: Peppol IDs recipient/sender | Sending: You need the corresponding Peppol ID from all possible recipients. This must be stored in the ERP system and transferred to Retarus in the ERP in-house format. The following portal can be helpful to retrieve the Peppol-ID from your business partner in case you don’t want to contact them: https://directory.peppol.eu/public/locale-en_US/
Receiving: Similar to email, Retarus cannot control who is authorised to send an invoice and who is not. If, for example, the sender enters the Peppol ID incorrectly, you may receive an invoice that was sent in error. We recommend introducing a control process to ensure that invoices are not processed without being checked. It is also advisable to report such errors (the relevant data can be found on the invoice) in order to avoid future errors. You must publish your own Peppol-ID to your sending business partners. | Internal |
Peppol Option: Partner for Tests | Please find a business partner, that is able to send you test invoices to approve the receiving process. | Internal |
Special processes | Please discuss special processes such as incoming and outgoing foreign invoices, as well as the necessary archive handling, with your tax advisor. | Tax Advisor |
General information | Read the general information about the introduction of electronic invoicing here: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/FAQ/e-rechnung.html | Internal |
General preparatory steps:
The following tasks are only necessary if no e-invoice interface has yet been set up between Retarus and the customer's ERP system.
Task | Description | Support |
ERP Inhouse format | Prepare your ERP system so that it can generate structured data (e.g. with the support of an ERP expert). | ERP Expert |
Create your ERP invoice format (inhouse format) so that it contains all the necessary mandatory fields (e.g. with the support of a tax advisor). EN16931 Field listing (orientation only): EN_16931.xlsx | ERP Expert / Tax Advisor | |
Create sample invoices with all possible variants (invoice, credit note, etc.) and in maximum detail (all fields that occur or must be transmitted) (e.g. with the support of the specialist department). | ERP Expert / Finance | |
Create format documentation. It is important that a Retarus Implementation Engineer can clearly understand what content is contained in a field. (The format chosen is secondary). The fewer questions that arise during setup, the faster the integration process can take place. | ERP Expert | |
(Personal) archive | Prepare a process that can retrieve the source and target documents from a Retarus SFTP server, process them, and then delete the data from the SFTP. Optionally, it is possible to agree on a different archiving process. Detailed documentation is required in order to evaluate the integration costs involved. Link to official FAQ page: | ERP Expert / Tax Advisor |
Error handling | Set up an email address for:
| ERP Expert |