Columbus DoXite 2.5.1 supports the exchange of electronic invoices in accordance with ZUGFeRD and XRechnung standards

Document composition solution delivers EU-compliant eInvoicing ahead of November deadline

Crawley, UK, March 11, 2020 - Macro 4, a division of UNICOM® Global, has announced a new release of the Columbus DoXite document composition software which enables companies to comply with all EU electronic invoicing standards and meet the November 2020 deadline for public sector eInvoicing in Germany. The new version, Columbus DoXite 2.5.1, fully supports the latest ZUGFeRD and XRechnung standards, which are based on European Directives 2014/55/EU and EN 16931.

"The use of eInvoicing in public procurement has become a digital transformation priority for the EU," said Carsten Owerfeldt, Head of Development for Columbus DoXite. “Using common eInvoicing standards helps to foster trade while improving security, streamlining business processes and reducing environmental impact.

"Since last year the German central government has only accepted machine-readable electronic invoices and by November 27 all other public authorities must follow suit," said Carsten Owerfeldt. "Any organization which sells to the public sector must be ready to produce XML eInvoices in line with the XRechnung standard. In B2B eInvoicing many companies want to provide a PDF similar to a printed invoice as well, which is covered by ZUGFeRD. UNICOM Global customers can achieve both of these aims by using Columbus DoXite."

Hybrid electronic invoices in accordance with ZUGFeRD 2.0 A previous release of Columbus DoXite (version 2.3) introduced support for hybrid invoices in line with the ZUGFeRD 1.0 directive. This involves creating a PDF for human invoice recipients, together with an XML file for automated processing, which is embedded in the PDF. The XML contains all invoice information such as the final amount, due date and IBAN and describes the meaning of each value. This makes invoice contents readable by online banking applications and other systems. In accordance with the specifications of ZUGFeRD, Columbus DoXite also provides tamper-evident archiving of electronic invoices.

Columbus DoXite 2.5.1 supports the requirements of the new ZUGFeRD 2.0 standard, and also enables organizations to convert documents from ZUGFeRD 1.0 to ZUGFeRD 2.0.

As with ZUGFeRD 1.0, companies can use three alternative invoice types in ZUGFeRD 2.0, known as profiles. Columbus DoXite users can select a different profile depending on whether they wish to define only basic attributes for machine processing or present the entire invoice content in a machine-readable form. The selected profile determines the format of the PDF as well as the embedded XML file. The ‘comfort’ profile supports fully automated invoice processing and is compliant with directive EN 16931.

Columbus DoXite 2.5.1 also offers a validation tool which companies can use to check whether their ZUGFeRD or XRechnung documents comply with nationally defined business rules. These rules may specify, for example, that a value may not be negative or they may define calculation rules for total values. The validation tool uses the Schematron validation language.

Many standards, one invoice: XRechnung in Columbus DoXite 2.5.1 In addition to ZUGFeRD, there are a number of other standards for electronic invoicing, including XRechnung and Factur-X, which are also based on the 2014/55/EU and EN 16931 directives. Columbus DoXite 2.5.1 supports these standards.

In Germany, ZUGFeRD and XRechnung are the most commonly used standards. While ZUGFeRD 2.0 allows a hybrid invoice, XRechnung allows only XML data. In addition, XRechnung can reference additional documents such as delivery notes instead of embedding them directly.

Document import in any format The new release also saves users valuable working time by making it even easier to import document templates from third-party systems into Columbus DoXite. Existing corporate templates such as document headers, footers, background images or whole documents can be quickly imported, adapted and then extended in Columbus DoXite. Users can import documents in a wide range of formats, such as PDF, PCL and SAPGOF.

Further information about Columbus DoXite can be found at: https://www.macro4.com/products/columbus-doxite/.

About Columbus The Columbus enterprise information management (EIM) suite helps organizations to share business content across multiple channels and applications, create compelling, personalized communications, and meet their regulatory obligations for managing documents and unstructured data. Columbus DoXite, a core component of the Columbus suite, is a powerful document composition software product that gives enterprises everything they need to create one-to-one communications quickly and cost effectively.