Required Data for an E-Invoice

An e-invoice carries its mandatory information in the structured XML part. The exact required fields also depend on the selected profile, payment method, tax treatment, and business case. Billance supports you with live hints and technical validation; responsibility for correct and complete invoice data remains with you.

Core information

A regular structured invoice particularly needs:

• Invoice number, invoice date, invoice type, and currency
• Seller and buyer name and address
• At least one permitted tax or legal seller identifier
• At least one invoice line with name, quantity, unit, price, and tax category
• Net, tax, gross, and payable totals plus the matching VAT breakdown
• A delivery or service date or period appropriate to the transaction

Billance currently requires a concrete service indication while creating an invoice so the form cannot produce an incomplete document.

Payment

For a positive payable amount, a payment due date or payment terms must generally be present. The payment method can trigger further requirements:

• Credit transfer: a suitable payment account, normally with an IBAN
• Direct debit: creditor ID, mandate reference, and debtor account
• Card payment: the permitted card information for that method

Profile-dependent information

Further rules apply depending on the output profile:

• XRechnung requires, among other things, buyer reference/BT-10, electronic seller and buyer addresses, and seller contact details
• PEPPOL BIS requires matching electronic endpoints and profile-compliant identifiers
• For public authorities, BT-10 often contains the Leitweg ID
• Tax-exempt, cross-border, or reverse-charge cases require matching identifiers and exemption reasons
• An invoice correction may require a reference to the preceding invoice
• Attachments, allowances or charges, and additional references trigger their own mandatory fields

Complete the data in Billance

Keep your company profile, recipient, line items, tax treatment, payment method, and additional information complete. Pay particular attention to electronic address and scheme, buyer reference, seller contact, payment account, and VAT IDs for cross-border cases.

Live validation in the editor prevents many incomplete outputs. An additional validation checks the generated PDF or XML against the detected technical rule sets. It does not replace tax or legal advice for an individual case.