The OZG-RE assumes the following three tasks for the transmission of e-invoices:

• The receipt of e-invoices via various transmission channels.
• The technical verification of e-invoices (including invoice size, number and type of attachments, virus check, entry of all mandatory information)
• The transmission of e-invoices to the respective invoice recipient via buyer reference.

The following federal invoice receipt platforms must be used to submit electronic invoices:

• You can submit invoices to direct federal administration institutions and federal government constitutional bodies via the ZRE.
• You can submit invoices to institutions associated with the indirect federal administration, affiliated beneficiaries and cooperating federal states via the OZG-RE.

You will receive information on which invoice receipt platform to use via the underlying order or directly from the invoice recipient.

The ZRE and the OZG-RE are functionally similar for invoice issuers and for invoice recipients. However, the group of affiliated invoice recipients is different.

The ZRE is the mandatory central invoice receipt platform for the institutions of the direct federal administration. The OZG-RE, on the other hand, is an optional service offered by the Federal Government; it forwards invoices to affiliated institutions of the indirect federal administration, affiliated beneficiaries and cooperating federal states.

When registering with the OZG-RE, you create two accounts: a main account for your company (also known as the “OZG-RE account”) and a user account associated with that main account. Additional users may also be added to the main account. The user who carries out the registration automatically becomes the administrator of the main OZG-RE account. Registration should therefore only be done by a responsible member of the company.

There are two ways to register:

1. You can register via the login page of the OZG-RE website. This will create an OZG-RE account. On the login page, click “Create new user account” to open the registration page. There you must enter the required information and confirm that you accept the terms of use. You will then receive an email containing a link. Click this link to activate the new account. This completes the registration process. If your company already has an OZG-RE account, contact the account administrator and ask them to add you as a user.
   
2. You can register with “Mein Unternehmenskonto” (a user account based on the ELSTER tax software). This also gives you access to the OZG-RE. As part of the registration process you will be issued with an ELSTER organisation certificate. This is required in order to access the OZG-RE.
   

To register with “Mein Unternehmenskonto”, go to the login page of the OZG-RE website and click on “Register My Unternehmenskonto ”. Clicking this option will open ELSTER. Here you can switch the language to English and register for an ELSTER organisation certificate. Click “Next” and you will come to a page where you can enter your company information. Required fields are marked with an asterisk. Having entered all the required information and completed the registration process, you will receive your ELSTER organisation certificate, which allows you to sign into the OZG-RE.

To sign into the OZG-RE via “Mein Unternehmenskonto”, click on “Login with My Unternehmenskonto ”. Then enter in the field “Zertifikatsdatei ” the ELSTER organisation certificate (which you received when you registered) and enter your password in the field “Passwort” . Once you have confirmed that you agree with the forwarding of your personal data , you will be redirected to the OZG-RE.

Further information on registering with “Mein Unternehmenskonto” can be found on the FAQ page of the “Mein Unternehmenskonto” website (German only).

As an additional transmission channel, the OZG-RE provides the option of sending invoices from the originating software through a web service and transmission via the Peppol network. The submission of e-invoices via Peppol is essentially possible in three different ways:

1. Use of the web service via the Federal Government’s Peppol existing Access Point (free).
2. Use of an existing Peppol service provider (chargeable).
3. Fee-based membership with OpenPeppol and the establishment of your own Peppol Access Point

In principle, no registration with the OZG-RE is needed to transmit electronic invoices via the Peppol web service. However, the processing status of invoices submitted via the Peppolweb service can only be viewed if the “Web-based data entry and Peppol” transmission channel is enabled after successful registration and if the PeppolSender ID used by the sender has been entered.

To submit supporting documents or attachments with your invoice, they must be embedded in the invoice data file and should not be sent separately as an email attachment. Documents of the following file types may be embedded: PDF documents (PDF), Images (PNG, JPEG, JPG), Excel spreadsheets (XLSX), Support and OpenDocument spreadsheets (ODS) and Text files (CSV) as well as XML when using an extension.

You have various options for embedding documents depending on the way you create your invoices and which transmission method you use to submit them to the Online Access Act-compliant Invoice Submission Portal (OZG-RE).

Create new invoice (via web submission)

If you create your electronic invoice manually (using the web submission form), you can manually add supporting documents of the accepted file types to the invoice. In the navigation bar at the top of the screen, click on “Additional documents”. This will open a page where you can select and upload the relevant documents from your computer, including via drag and drop. When you submit your invoice, the documents will be directly embedded in the invoice. Please note that the maximum number is limited to 200 documents.

Upload invoice file

You can submit your completed invoice in the XML format using the function “Upload invoice file”. To attach supporting documents, you must embed them in the XML file encoded in Base64 before uploading your invoice.

For more information, contact your software provider to ask about options for embedding documents in electronic invoices. Please note that the maximum number is limited to 200 documents.

Transmit via email

You can submit your completed invoice using email. To attach supporting documents, you must embed them in the XML file encoded in Base64 before submitting your invoice.

For more information, contact your software provider to ask about options for embedding documents in electronic invoices. Please note that the maximum number is limited to 200 documents.

Transmit via Peppol

You can submit your completed invoice using Peppol. To attach supporting documents up to 100 MB, you must embed them in the XML file encoded in Base64 before submitting your invoice.

For more information, contact your software provider to ask about options for embedding documents in electronic invoices. Please note that the maximum number is limited to 200 documents.

No. Invoices submitted via the OZG-RE cannot be recalled.

Users can track the current status of their invoice in the log view. If you have submitted an incorrect invoice by mistake, please contact the invoice recipient.

You can track the status of the submitted invoice. To do so, select “View status of submitted invoices” in the Home section.

Depending on the processing status, an invoice can have the following status types: new, delivered, received and rejected.

In this section, you can also continue with a manual invoice entry previously started via web-based data entry.

If payment of a submitted e-invoice is still outstanding after the due date, you should first check the status of that invoice in the OZG-RE. You can do this from the OZG-RE dashboard by clicking “View processing status of submitted invoices”.

We recommend that you only send an overdue payment reminder to the invoice recipient if the status of your submitted e-invoice is marked “Collected”.

If the status of your e-invoice is marked “Rejected”, please investigate possible reasons for this. There are two ways in which a submitted e-invoice can be rejected:

1. Rejection by the OZG-RE: The submitted e-invoice is checked by the OZG-RE portal. If it does not meet the formal requirements of e-invoices or contains calculation errors, it is rejected by the portal.
2. Rejection by the invoice recipient: In such cases, the submitted e-invoice is rejected by the recipient due to factual errors in the invoice itself. When rejecting an e-invoice, the invoice recipient should state a reason for the rejection. If no reason is stated, please check your submitted e-invoice and contact the invoice recipient if you are still unsure why it was rejected.

In both cases, the invoice must be corrected and resubmitted. However, please always check the status of your submitted e-invoice before taking any further steps.

The OZG-RE does not currently issue automated email notifications about changes to the status of your submitted e-invoices.

If you send your invoices via Peppol, you must register with the OZG-RE in order to view the status of submitted e-invoices. Registration and use of the ZRE are free of charge for invoice issuers.

In the OZG-RE you can find the status of your submitted e-invoices under “Processing status of submitted XRechnung invoices ”.

The OZG-RE does not currently issue automated email notifications about changes to the status of your submitted e-invoices. A feature that would enable automated email notifications is currently being planned.

For further information on specific status notifications, please refer to the additional FAQs about the OZG-RE below.

The OZG-RE has five different status notifications. They are: 

• New: The invoice has been created in the web submission format but not yet sent. You have the option to continue processing. 
• Provided: The invoice has been successfully transmitted and is awaiting collection by the recipient. 
• Collected: The recipient has collected the invoice and confirmed receipt of the invoice. 
• Rejected: The invoice has been rejected by the system or the recipient due to an error of form or content. 
• Deleted: The last change in the status of the invoice was more than 28 days ago. The invoice was therefore deleted by the system. 

First, sign directly into the OZG-RE, then select “Manage company account” from the dropdown menu at the top left of the screen. You will then have the option to delete your company account, but only if you have administrator rights. Please note that deleting a company account will also delete all the user accounts connected to it. To delete the account, click on “Delete company account”, then confirm by clicking “Delete”. 

If you have signed into the OZG-RE via “Mein Unternehmenskonto”, it will not be possible to delete your OZG-RE company account here. Instead, you must delete it via the “Mein Unternehmenskonto” user account.