Since September 2025, the federal administration has been receiving electronic invoices via a central platform: the OZG-RE. One year after the consolidation of the ZRE and OZG-RE, it is clear what benefits this consolidation has brought for public administration and businesses.
As part of the Federal Modernisation Agenda for State and Administration (Bund), the project “D‑Easi – incoming e‑invoice processing automated, secure, integrated” has been launched with the aim of automating invoice processing in the direct federal administration and making it more efficient.
On 27 November 2020, the obligation to submit electronic invoices to the federal administration entered into force. Since then, both invoice recipients and suppliers in the field of public procurement have made significant progress. Time for a brief review.
(Article last updated on 23 July 2025) The two federal government invoice submission portals, the Federal Central Invoice Submission Portal (ZRE) and the Online Access Act-compliant Invoice Submission Portal (OZG-RE), will be consolidated in 2025.
Now that the OZG-RE invoice submission portal has been linked to “Mein Unternehmenskonto” (a user account based on the ELSTER tax software), senders and recipients of electronic invoices may choose to access the OZG-RE via “Mein Unternehmenskonto”.
1 February 2024 saw the release of XRechnung version 3.0.1, which can now be used to send electronic invoices (e-invoices) to any recipients connected to the ZRE or OZG-RE invoice submission portals.
At the end of July 2023, the two federal invoice submission portals (ZRE and OZG‑RE) were updated with new versions, making them even more user‑friendly.
Since 12 December 2022, the OZG‑RE invoice submission portal has been available with an accessible user interface in line with the Ordinance on Accessible Information Technology (BITV 2.0).
The OZG‑RE invoice submission portal is now available with an improved web interface for invoice recipients, in line with the Ordinance on Accessible Information Technology (BITV 2.0).
Since 01 March 2022, the ZUGFeRD 2.2.0 profile ‘XRECHNUNG’ can also be used to send electronic invoices to invoice recipients in the Federal Administration.
The project ‘Introduction of e‑invoicing in the Federal Administration’ is an important part of the 9-point plan for digitalisation by State Secretary Dr Richter and was recognised as a flagship project of the Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Procurement Office).
Since 27 November 2020, when it became compulsory for suppliers of the German Federation to submit invoices electronically, the use of the federal invoicesubmission portals and the submission of invoices to them have risen considerably. In December 2020, almost five times as many electronic invoices were received than had been received in November.
