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16/02/2021
PROMOS News
Invoices with that Xtra something – PROMOS uses its own in-house solution for XRechnung
How do we implement XRechnung in our company? This was a question that the financial accounting department at PROMOS consult also had to resolve. How convenient, then, that a team of specialists was available down the hall in their own offices. The company has been successfully sending invoices to contracting authorities via XRechnung since November of last year. Our report on internal digitisation explains how things are going.
XRechnung is the new standard for electronically exchanging invoices in Germany. And since 27 November 2020, all companies are legally required to use this method when sending outgoing invoices to federal authorities. Just like many other companies, PROMOS consult had to accommodate these new legal requirements – the company counts 22 established customers from public administration.
First-hand expertise
When the general transition deadlines were announced, it was immediately clear to the Berlin software specialists that they would develop their own solution to implement these requirements. “SAP® is the main accounting system our company uses for posting and invoicing. It was therefore out of the question for us to use external portals requiring manual entry,” says Ines Schulze-Leifheit, Director Accounting, in explaining the decision. “The diverse solutions we offer to customers in our portfolio are characterised by a high capacity for integration. In this case, we had the luxury of actually being able to enjoy the advantages of our own solutions. For the introduction of XRechnung, we optimised our internal processes so that we were promptly able to serve public authorities with the new digital invoice format – and all without the need for any additional effort for generating invoices.
No sooner said than done. XRechnung, delivered right into customers’ hands
A team of consultants, developers and financial accountants successfully worked together to implement the minimum XRechnung requirements in such a way that the specified data set is now sent instead of a PDF without additional effort. At the click of a button, the generated XML file is enriched with all invoice information from SAP® – from the invoice number and date on to totals and tax amounts and all the way to settlement units in days, hours or weeks. The invoice can then be sent directly from SAP® to the customer with no media discontinuity. Furthermore, there are evaluation options for the financial accounting team to see who sent what to whom and when. “The files are attached to the invoiced documents in SAP®, providing ideal archiving for inspection purposes,” says Schulze-Leifheit of the new system’s excellent documentation.
Data sets in the new XRechnung format can be generated from existing FI documents in SAP® at the press of a button.
Time for optimisation
With over 80 percent of PROMOS customers now sending invoices entirely digitally – either through e-mails with PDF files or, since November 2020, also via XRechnung – the feedback regarding the in-house digitisation process remains positive. “We are very satisfied with our ability to meet the legal requirements for digital invoicing entirely through our own solution. We are also looking forward to benefiting from its further development in the future when, for example, activity reports or other attachments can be included in the XRechnung invoice,” Schulze-Leifheit explains, giving an outlook on subsequent product development.
Do you also want – or need – to integrate XRechnung into your SAP® system and are you looking for the right partner who knows what crucial points need to be considered? Then feel free to contact us. Our experts will be happy to help with an analysis at your company.
Further information on XRechnung in SAP®:
