ZUGFeRD (Central User Guide of the Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany)

From version 2.0, the ZUGFeRD hybrid format includes both a visual component (PDF file) and structured invoice data (XML file) integrated into a PDF/A-3 file. This combination enables standardized extraction of invoice data.

The visual representation of the invoice is provided as a PDF/A-3 file. The machine-readable data in XML format is attached to the PDF/A-3. Thus, the PDF serves as a container for both the visual representation and the XML data.

Formatting and layout of the PDF file are not specified for ZUGFeRD invoices.

ZUGFeRD from version 2.0 supports invoices compliant with the EN 16931 standard (e-invoices).

XML in CII Format

The ZUGFeRD data format is based on Directive 2014/55/EU of April 16, 2014, on electronic invoicing for public procurement and the EN16931 standard published on June 28, 2017. In addition, the Cross-Industry-Invoice (CII) from UN/CEFACT and ISO standard 19005-3:2012 (PDF/A-3) are supported from ZUGFeRD 2.0 onward.

ZUGFeRD 2.2 and Factur-X 1.0 are fully compatible and technically identical formats.