Maintaining E-Invoicing Compliance with Secure PDF

Understanding Europe's E-Invoicing Mandate

Europe's phased e-invoicing mandate requires businesses to issue and receive structured electronic invoices compliant with the European Norm EN 16931 standard. Central to the restrictions put on electronic invoices is the requirement that each invoice provides machine-readable data consistent with a semantic model defined by the EU. These regulations are intended to reduce tax fraud by making payment data more transparent to authorities.

Who Is Affected?

All European Union countries that do business subject to value-added taxes (VAT) are required to comply. The enforcement date varies by country – businesses should consult official sources to understand when their invoicing must be fully electronic and subject to EN 16931 standards.

Organizations using PDF invoices with human-readable contents are likely to violate the new regulations. However, this does not mean businesses must abandon PDF invoicing. Rather, they should ensure that the PDF invoices they generate adhere to the ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDF standard to ensure that they comply with the new restrictions.

ZUGFeRD and Factur-X

ZUGFeRD is a standardized electronic invoicing format developed to simplify the exchange of invoices between businesses and public administrations. It combines a human-readable PDF/A-3 invoice with a machine-readable XML file embedded within the PDF, enabling seamless automation, validation, and archiving of invoice data.

ZUGFeRD and Factur-X are both hybrid invoice formats that combine a human-readable PDF with embedded machine-readable XML data. Although ZUGFeRD originated in Germany and Factur-X in France, both formats have been harmonized and now share a common technical foundation. Starting with ZUGFeRD version 2.1, the standard is fully aligned with Factur-X, meaning any invoice conforming to ZUGFeRD 2.1 or later is also Factur-X compliant.

Why ZUGFeRD is a Convenient Choice

PDFs created in accordance with the ZUGFeRD/Factur-X standard are guaranteed to include the machine-readable contents required by EN 16931. Since these PDFs combine human-readable and machine-readable data, they can function as drop-in replacements for existing processes that depend on human-readable PDFs. Thus, organizations looking to minimize disruption while maintaining compliance with regulatory authorities should look to update their PDF-creation systems with the ability to create ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDFs.

How Secure PDF Enables ZUGFeRD Invoices

Secure PDF is a streamlined component library for adding PDF encryption, signing, editing, and verification to custom applications. It is available for every major language and platform, and provides an intuitive component API for developing a solution that accomplishes the three necessary steps for compliant PDF invoicing:

• Construct PDF/A-3 documents (human-readable PDF invoice)
• Embed compliant XML invoice data
• Validate or inspect the hybrid invoice structure to ensure compliance

While the underlying technical details are complex, using a tool like Secure PDF can keep the implementation process simple.

How to Get Started With Secure PDF

The PDFEdit component within the Secure PDF library provides all the necessary functionality to ensure your existing PDF invoicing process becomes compliant. Our dedicated Creating ZUGFeRD Invoices With PDFEdit guide shows the straightforward process of leveraging this component to create PDF documents in accordance with the ZUGFeRD standard.

Download the Secure PDF free trial to begin generating ZUGFeRD-compliant invoices today.