How to check whether your e-invoice is valid

An e-invoice may look fine at first glance and still get rejected. The reason: whether an XRechnung or ZUGFeRD file is valid is decided not by how it looks, but by whether it follows the rules of the norm EN 16931. The receiving software checks those rules, and if a mandatory field is missing or a value is implausible, the invoice comes back.

What makes an e-invoice invalid?

The most common reasons are rarely spectacular. They are usually small things that nevertheless fail the automatic check:

• A mandatory field is missing, for example the issuer's VAT ID or the recipient's full address.
• A tax rate does not match the chosen tax category, or the totals are off by a cent.
• The IBAN has the right length but a wrong check digit, a classic transposed number.
• For an intra-community supply, the delivery date or the destination country is missing.

Such errors are invisible in the PDF, but the machine check finds them immediately. That is why you should test an e-invoice before you send it, not once your customer gets in touch.

How do you check an e-invoice?

The reliable method is to validate the file against the norm. In Germany there is an official validator (the KoSIT validator) for exactly this, which applies the same rules the receiving systems apply. The result is unambiguous: accepted or rejected, and, in the case of a rejection, a list of what is wrong.

With the Invograde validator you upload your XRechnung (XML) or your ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDF and get the result in plain language: if the file is valid, you see it right away; if it is not, we show you the points raised together with the fields they affect. The tool is free and needs no account.

A note on honesty: we check only against the norm EN 16931 and its German variants. We do not transmit your invoice to anyone and we do not file it. A passed check therefore says: "this file meets the technical requirements". It does not replace agreeing with your customer on which format they expect.