Organisation
FeRD (Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany)
Definition
The Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany (FeRD) is a multi-stakeholder body comprising associations, software vendors, and authorities. It developed the ZUGFeRD standard and jointly maintains it with the French FNFE-MPE as Factur-X. FeRD promotes the adoption of structured electronic invoices in Germany and publishes the official ZUGFeRD specifications.
Switch to German:FeRD (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland) (DE)
Related terms
ZUGFeRDZUGFeRD (Zentraler User Guide des Forums elektronische Rechnung Deutschland) is a hybrid invoice format that combines a human-readable PDF/A-3 file with embedded machine-readable XML data. The format is maintained by the Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland (FeRD) and exists in several profiles (MINIMUM, BASIC, EN 16931, EXTENDED). It is technically identical to the European Factur-X standard.Factur-XFactur-X is the Franco-German standard for hybrid electronic invoices, jointly developed by the French association FNFE-MPE and the German FeRD. Technically, Factur-X is identical to ZUGFeRD from version 2.0 onwards and uses UN/CEFACT CII as its XML syntax. The format is recognised across the European Union as a de facto standard for hybrid B2B invoices.E-InvoiceAn e-invoice in the strict sense is an invoice that is issued and received in a structured, machine-readable format and enables automatic electronic processing. In the German context, particularly following the Growth Opportunities Act, e-invoice explicitly refers to structured formats (XRechnung, ZUGFeRD/Factur-X, Peppol BIS), while pure PDF invoices no longer qualify. Hybrid formats such as ZUGFeRD count as e-invoices because they contain the XML structured data.