What government authorities need to know about e‑invoicing
A quick overview
- Since 27 November 2020, invoice issuers have been required to use invoices in electronic form (e-invoices) when billing federal authorities (contracting authorities) for goods and services delivered (see section 3 of the E-Invoicing Ordinance (E-Rechnungsverordnung, ERechV)).
- There are two federal portals for submitting e-invoices. Organisations of the direct federal administration receive e-invoices via the Federal Central Invoice Submission Portal (ZRE). Many organisations of the indirect federal administration receive e-invoices via the federal Online Access Act-compliant Invoice Submission Portal (OZG-RE).
- The two federal invoice submission portals will be consolidated in 2025. All affected government authorities have already been informed about the consolidation at the beginning of 2025. Further information can be found in this article on the consolidation of the federal invoice submission portals. Below you will also find an overview of the process connecting to to the OZG-RE.
- It is very important for federal authorities to inform their suppliers, as this is the only way for both parties to benefit from the advantages offered by electronic invoicing (e-invoicing).
- Through the so-called “supplier information”, authorities ensure that their service providers and suppliers receive all the necessary information for electronic invoicing from 27 November 2020.
Supplier information ›
How government authorities and grant recipients can access the OZG-RE
In general, to accept e-invoices, all indirect Federal Administration institutions and beneficiaries have the ability to access the OZG-RE invoice submission platform.
Firstly, submit an informal request to connect to the OZG-RE via erechnung.bund@nortal.com. You will then receive all the resources and instructions you require to complete the connection process via this mailbox.
To enable us to process your request quickly and smoothly, please follow the steps described below to complete the process. You will be given audit guidelines and checklists to help you complete the activities necessary to connect to the OZG-RE.
Further information: You can find answers to frequently asked questions about the OZG-RE in the FAQ.
You are welcome to contact the central e-invoicing mailbox throughout the entire process if you have any queries or doubts.
Connection process to the OZG-RE
1. Request to the central e-invoicing mailbox: In the first instance, send an informal request to erechnung.bund@nortal.com
2. Receive the audit guidelines: Audit guidelines for the Regulation on Electronic Invoicing (E-RechV) area of application and for shared use of the OZG-RE
3. Self-audit: Check if your institution is required to comply with the E-RechV obligation. Check if the requirements for shared use of the OZG-RE have been fulfilled within your institution.
4. Report the audit results to the central e‑invoicing mailbox: Send the audit result to erechnung.bund@nortal.com
5. Receive the starter kit: If the outcome is positive, you will be sent the starter kit. This contains all the contract documents necessary to connect to the OZG-RE.
6. Work through the starter kit using the checklist supplied: Fill in and sign the administrative agreement, including Appendix 6, both in duplicate, and return to the Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Procurement Office). Work through all of the other steps to be completed independently in accordance with the checklist.
7. The documents will be checked and countersigned by the Procurement Office.: As soon as the Procurement Office confirms signature of the administrative agreement to the Federal Printing Office, the latter will add you as a user on the OZG-RE platform and provide you with the necessary technical information.
8. Connect successfully to the OZG-RE.
How authorities of the direct federal administration can switch to the OZG-RE
All technical invoice recipients of the direct federal administration must in future connect to the OZG-RE. All authorities affected have been informed of this in February 2025.
To ensure a smooth transition to the OZG-RE, we ask you to follow the steps outlined below. If you have any questions or require clarification, please contact the central e-invoice mailbox at e-rechnung@bescha.bund.de.
Transfer process to the OZG-RE
1. Communication of the platform consolidation
The affected authorities of the direct federal administration have already been informed about the platform consolidation at the beginning of the year via email by the responsible Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Procurement Office). In this email, they received the starter kit with all documents necessary to successfully connect to OZG-RE.
2. Work through the starter kit using the checklist provided
To initiate all further steps to connect to the OGZ-RE, the infrastructure questionnaires must be completed and returned to the technical service provider of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community Bundesdruckerei. Once these have been returned, the affected authorities will receive their individual test access details of the Bundesdruckerei, which can be used to connect to the test environment.
3. Inform suppliers on upcoming transfer process
The affected authorities now have to inform their suppliers on the upcoming transfer process to the OZG-RE using the supplier information provided by the Procurement Office. In this phase, functionality is also ensured before the final transfer to the OZG-RE will be completed on a specified deadline. Until that date, all invoices will still be received via the ZRE.
4. Carry out tests on the test environment
The Bundesdruckerei will provide a test environment for the authorities of the direct federal administration. The affected authorities will carry out end-to-end testing themselves, i.e. from the transmission of an e-invoice to the OZG-RE to the reception of e-invoices in their systems. They will inform the Bundesdruckerei about the test results. In this phase, functionality is also ensured before the final transfer to the OZG-RE will be completed on a specified deadline. Until then, all genuine invoices will still be received via the ZRE.
5. Inform suppliers about connection to the OZG-RE
As soon as the authorities of the direct federal administration know the exact date from which they will be able to receive e-invoices via the OZG-RE, they must inform their suppliers about the change regarding the submission of electronic invoices. To do this, they can use the supplier information, which will be provided by the Procurement Office.
6. Connection to the OZG-RE production environment
Once the test phase has been successfully completed, Bundesdruckerei will activate the productive environment for the affected authorities on the specified date. At the same time, all routing/Peppol IDs of the relevant authorities will be deregistered with the ZRE and registered with the OZG-RE production environment. From this point on, electronic invoices sent to the affectedauthorities of the direct federal administration will be received exclusively via the OZG-RE.
How is e-invoicing organised at the federal level and in Germany’s federal states?
The federal E-Invoicing Ordinance governs the sending of e-invoices by suppliers to the federal administration. Germany’s federal states implement EU Directive 2014/55/EU under their own responsibility.
In order to help you send e-invoices to the federal states, we have put together some useful information:
How can we, as a contracting authority, help our suppliers?
You can find a wide variety of information materials here to help your suppliers make the transition to e-invoicing:
Request sample letter to be sent to new suppliers
This document contains a sample letter with information about e-invoicing for new suppliers.
Request text modules for communicating with suppliers
This document contains text modules which may be used on your authority’s website to provide suppliers with information on e-invoicing.
Request information package for suppliers
This information package consists of nine documents that build on each other and is intended to provide your suppliers with the most important information on e-invoicing.
You can also direct your suppliers to the web page with information for invoice issuers.
Further information for authorities
In the media centre, you can download extensive information about e-invoicing in the federal administration which you can provide to your suppliers. The media centre also offers videos explaining how to use the Peppol network and video tutorials on using the federal invoice submission portals ZRE and OZG-RE. If you have any questions, please let us know. Write to us using our contact form.