If the invoice submission portal does not accept the buyer reference, please contact your contracting authority to make sure they gave you the correct information. Please also check whether you have entered the buyer reference correctly. For example, the error message may be triggered by misplaced hyphens or extra spaces before or after the buyer reference.

If you didn’t make a mistake and can’t find a solution with the contracting authority, the contracting authority should forward the issue to the Federal Government’s Central Finance Office (Zentrales Finanzwesen des Bundes, ZFB).

If you have any questions or problems with the buyer reference at federal level, you can reach the responsible contact person by email via our contact form.

Please note that companies or invoice issuers do not generally need their own buyer reference, not even to implement the obligation to exchange invoices electronically between companies (B2B) that will apply from 1 January 2025. The Federal Ministry of Finance is responsible for legal questions regarding invoicing in the B2B sector.