This was decided on 19 November 2024 by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) and the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). At the same time, the BMI and the BMF have instructed the federal competence centre for e-invoicing (Fachverfahren E-Rechnung), responsible for operating the submission portals, to ensure that all institutions of the direct federal administration are connected to the OZG-RE.
One submission portal – same services
The goal of the consolidation of the two federal invoice submission portals, ZRE and OZG-RE, is to provide a unified access point for submitting electronic invoices to the federal administration – reducing complexity and effort for suppliers. The OZG-RE also offers efficient services such as login via the ELSTER company account. Both submission portals were previously developed with identical functionalities and supported the same transmission channels (web submission, upload and Peppol), making the use of the OZG-RE intuitive and accessible even without technical expertise.
What does the consolidation mean for ZRE users?
Technical invoice recipients in the direct federal administration will be required to connect directly to the OZG-RE. The relevant authorities were informed of this change in early 2025, and the migration will take place in two waves.
In spring 2025, a pilot phase was conducted with selected authorities to ensure the transition remains as smooth and low-effort as possible for authorities, institutions, and suppliers.
The pilot phase and the first wave of conversions have now been successfully completed without any significant technical hurdles. This means that over 60% of the previous ZRE invoice volume is already being processed reliably via OZG-RE (based on invoice receipts in 2024).
The deadline for the 2nd and final wave of the changeover from the ZRE productive environment to the OZG-RE productive environment was set for 19 September 2025.
Suppliers will be informed by their contracting authority. At that point, invoice issuers will receive all necessary information and details required for future invoice submissions. Suppliers can already register on the OZG-RE portal at any time using this link: OZG registration.
The ZRE will no longer be available as of Q4/2025.
An overview of which authorities are still linked to the ZRE and which are already linked to the OZG-RE can be found here (in German only).
