Since 1 January 2025, German businesses must be able to receive electronic invoices under § 14 UStG. From 2027/2028 onwards, the issuing side becomes mandatory too: B2B invoices must be sent as e-invoices (XRechnung or ZUGFeRD), not as PDFs or Word documents. itdatex E-Invoice Output generates these formats directly inside your WordPress installation.
What it does
- Issues invoices in three formats:
- XRechnung 3.0.2 UBL — the standard B2G format used via Leitweg-ID
- XRechnung 3.0.2 CII (UN/CEFACT) — the EN 16931 syntax also used by ZUGFeRD and Factur-X
- ZUGFeRD-PDF — a hybrid PDF/A-3 with both a human-readable invoice and the embedded CII XML
- Pre-validates the generated XML against the EN 16931 XSD schema before saving
- Stores each issued invoice with a random filename in a protected upload directory and chains every file’s SHA-256 with the previous one
- Provides an admin form with built-in checks for KoSIT-mandatory fields (BR-DE-*, R010/R020 electronic address, BT-10 buyer reference, BR-DE-9 postal code, BR-DE-15 buyer reference)
- Catches SHA-256 duplicates: re-issuing the exact same draft returns the existing invoice id instead of creating a second row
- Logs every action (issue, download) in a dedicated audit table
- Ships a WP-CLI command
wp ausrg issue --from=draft.json [--format=cii]for scripted issuing
KoSIT-validated output
The output of all three builders is accepted by the official KoSIT Validator using the XRechnung 3.0.2 / EN 16931 1.3.15 configuration. The plugin includes a test script (tools/e2e-validate.php) that you can run against a local KoSIT Validator instance to verify this on your own server.
Privacy by design
The free version performs all generation locally on your own server. No invoice data leaves your WordPress installation. There is no telemetry, no automatic update check against a third party, no analytics, no external font or asset loading.
A separate Pro version (sold via wp.itdatex.support, not part of this free plugin) adds optional cloud-assisted features — KoSIT deep validation via API, AI-based KoSIT-error explanations in plain German, e-mail dispatch — and is opt-in only.
GoBD-supporting, not GoBD-certified
The plugin supports GoBD-conformant processes through immutable storage, SHA-256 hash chaining and a complete audit trail. As with any tooling: software cannot be “GoBD-certified” — conformity is a property of your process. Consult your tax advisor.
Sister plugin
If you also need to receive incoming e-invoices, install itdatex E-Invoice Intake alongside this plugin. The two plugins share the same database schema and upload directory, so incoming and outgoing invoices live in the same hash chain. Either plugin works standalone; if both are installed, the order of activation does not matter.
Open source
The full source code is released under GPL-2.0-or-later. You can verify, audit and adapt the plugin yourself. Dependencies (josemmo/einvoicing for UBL, horstoeko/zugferd for CII/ZUGFeRD-PDF, setasign/fpdf for the PDF layout) are vendored with prefixed namespaces so they cannot conflict with other plugins in the same WordPress installation.