Germany E-Invoice Portal: Submitting XRechnung via OZG-RE

Germany's federal e-invoice portal is the OZG-RE, the single platform through which federal authorities receive e-invoices. Suppliers register for free, choose one of four channels (web entry, upload, e-mail or Peppol) and put the buyer's Leitweg-ID in BT-10. The legal basis is the federal e-invoicing ordinance (E-Rechnungsverordnung, E-RechV), in force since 27 November 2020.

This guide is for suppliers of German federal authorities, including companies outside Germany, who are submitting their first invoice or who used the older ZRE portal. If you need the general picture of how e-invoices travel between German businesses, read how to send e-invoices in Germany first.

ZRE vs OZG-RE: what changed in 2025

Until September 2025 the federal government ran two portals: the central invoice receipt platform (Zentrale Rechnungseingangsplattform, ZRE) operated by ITZBund, and the OZG-RE operated by the procurement office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. According to the federal e-invoicing website (opens in a new tab), the migration finished on 19 September 2025. All 187 technical invoice recipients of the ZRE moved to the OZG-RE, the ZRE stopped receiving invoices and was switched off at the end of 2025.

Indirect federal bodies may still run their own invoice intake. If you are unsure, ask your contracting authority whether it is connected to the OZG-RE; the portal publishes a list of connected recipients.

When must you invoice the federal government electronically?

Section 3(1) E-RechV (opens in a new tab) requires suppliers to issue and transmit invoices to federal contracting authorities in electronic form. Paper and PDF invoices are not accepted. The obligation only falls away under Section 3(3) for:

1. invoices after a direct award (Direktauftrag) of up to EUR 1,000. The temporary increase of the direct-award limit under the procurement rules (§ 14 UVgO) to EUR 15,000 in 2025 did not change this threshold;
2. cases under Sections 8 and 9 E-RechV: classified invoice data, German missions abroad and other procurement abroad;
3. invoices in procedures of administrative loan (Organleihe) under Section 159(1) no. 5 of the German Competition Act (GWB).

Note the scope: the E-RechV covers business-to-government (B2G) invoices to the federal level. The separate German B2B mandate under the VAT Act applies only when both parties are established in Germany.

What you need before the first invoice

• The buyer's Leitweg-ID. It is in the purchase order or contract, or you ask for it. The structure is explained in what is a Leitweg-ID. You never need a Leitweg-ID of your own.
• An XRechnung or an equivalent format. Section 4(1) E-RechV (opens in a new tab) requires the current version of the XRechnung standard. Other formats are allowed if they meet EN 16931, for example ZUGFeRD 2.2.0 in the XRECHNUNG profile as a pure XML file.
• Registration data: company name, language, country, VAT ID and tax number, plus name, e-mail address and password of the person creating the account.

Mandatory content under Section 5 E-RechV, mapped to BT fields

Section 5 E-RechV (opens in a new tab) adds these items to the VAT invoice requirements. The BT mapping comes from the FAQ of the federal e-invoicing website; the rule codes from the KoSIT XRechnung rules (configuration 2026-08-31).

* Required if the authority gave it to you when placing the order. See BR-DE-15, BR-DE-1 and BR-DE-2 for details and fixes, and XRechnung mandatory fields for the full list.

Step by step: register and submit

1. Choose your login. The OZG-RE offers its own OZG-RE account (via "Registrieren" on the start page) or "Mein Unternehmenskonto", the German business account based on ELSTER with an organisation certificate. The two are not synchronised: invoices submitted under one account are only visible there.
2. Register. For an OZG-RE account, fill in the form, accept the terms of use and confirm the activation link sent by e-mail. The person who registers becomes the administrator and can add further users.
3. Practise in the test environment. Test and production need separate registrations. Never send test invoices to production or real invoices to the test environment.
4. Activate and use a channel. Transmission requires the channel to be activated for your account:
   • Web entry (Weberfassung): tab "Neue Rechnung erfassen", type the data in the browser. You can download a submitted invoice and upload it later as a template, then re-enter only the Leitweg-ID, dates and payment data.
   • Upload: button "Extern erstellte XRechnung einreichen" for a finished XML file from your software.
   • E-mail: tile "Extern erstellte XRechnung via E-Mail senden". The portal generates a fixed receiving address for your account. Exactly one e-invoice per e-mail; subject and body are ignored.
   • Peppol: receiver ID 0204:<Leitweg-ID>, sender ID for example 9930:<VAT ID> or 0088:<GLN>. The Leitweg-ID must still be in BT-10 of the invoice, or the OZG-RE rejects it. For tests, the portal names the receiver ID 0204:99661-WEBSERVICEOZG-28.
5. Read the validation report. For web entry and upload, the OZG-RE shows a report of formal errors before sending. For e-mail and Peppol, open the magnifier icon in the invoice overview.
6. Track the status and archive. "Status eingereichter Rechnungen" shows the processing status. Download the XML before the portal deletes it after 28 days.

For foreign suppliers, Peppol is usually the practical route: you need a Peppol service provider (or your own access point), but no German software. Registration on the OZG-RE is still required to see the status of Peppol invoices.

Attachments and size limits

Supporting documents such as timesheets must be embedded in the XRechnung, never sent as a second e-mail attachment. The OZG-RE FAQ sets these limits:

How embedding works in the XML is shown in XRechnung attachments with Base64.

Status codes and rejections

The OZG-RE uses six statuses. A submitted invoice cannot be recalled.

Rejections come from two places. Under Section 4(3) E-RechV the portal checks every invoice automatically for formal correctness and rejects formally invalid ones. The buyer rejects content errors and can leave a reason. An invoice that cannot be matched to a user account is rejected by the buyer under Section 4(4) without any notice to you.

Common submission mistakes

For Schematron errors, see fix XRechnung validation errors.

How to prepare the invoice with docutools.pro

1. Check the Leitweg-ID. Enter it in the Leitweg-ID validator on the "Validate" tab. It checks structure and check digit in your browser, not whether the ID is registered on the OZG-RE.
2. Create the XRechnung. In the XRechnung generator, fill in "Buyer reference / Leitweg-ID" (BT-10), IBAN and payment terms in the "Company" step and download "XRechnung XML" under "Export". The generator has no purchase order number (BT-13) or supplier number (BT-29) field; if you need them, use the OZG-RE web entry or your invoicing software.
3. Validate before upload. Load the XML into the XRechnung validator. The file is sent to our server and checked the way the KoSIT validator does (configuration 2026-08-31). "KoSIT-conformant / Valid XRechnung" means rules such as BR-DE-15 pass. The free plan covers 2 uploads a day up to 500 KB; larger files with embedded attachments need the Pro plan.
4. Confirm the Leitweg-ID in the XML. The viewer does not display BT-10. Open the file in the XML viewer and compare cbc:BuyerReference with the ID from the purchase order.

This pre-check does not replace the OZG-RE report, but it avoids a rejection. More checks for a first submission are in test an e-invoice before sending.

Checks after submission

• Did the invoice move to "Bereitgestellt" and later to "Zugestellt"?
• Did you download and archive the XML within 28 days?
• After a rejection, is the cause fixed in your invoicing software, not just in this one file?
• Does everyone who invoices federal buyers have a user on your OZG-RE account?

For more on XRechnung fields, versions and portals, see our XRechnung guides.

Sources

• E-Rechnung des Bundes (English start page) (opens in a new tab)
• E-Rechnung des Bundes: information for invoice issuers (German) (opens in a new tab)
• E-Rechnung des Bundes: one year after the ZRE/OZG-RE consolidation, 25 June 2026 (German) (opens in a new tab)
• E-Rechnung des Bundes: FAQ (German) (opens in a new tab)
• E-Rechnung des Bundes: Peppol channel (German) (opens in a new tab)
• E-Rechnung des Bundes: direct-award threshold and E-RechV (German) (opens in a new tab)
• Section 3 E-RechV (opens in a new tab), Section 4 E-RechV (opens in a new tab), Section 5 E-RechV (opens in a new tab)

Last reviewed: October 2026

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice.