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E-Invoice Documentation

SoftwareSilo E-Invoice turns Magento invoices and credit memos into structured electronic documents. It can generate hybrid PDF/XML files for ZUGFeRD and Factur-X, or XML-only documents for XRechnung, EN 16931 and PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0.

The extension creates, validates, stores and distributes files from Magento. It does not submit them to a PEPPOL access point, government portal or recipient network on its own.

Choose the output your recipient expects

Format Output Typical use
ZUGFeRD 2.5 PDF with embedded CII XML, plus separate XML when stored German and cross-border B2B invoicing where people and accounting systems use the same document
Factur-X 1.09 PDF with embedded CII XML, plus separate XML when stored French and cross-border B2B invoicing
XRechnung 2.2, 2.3 or 3.0 CII XML German recipients that explicitly request XRechnung
EN 16931 CII XML European workflows built around the EN 16931 semantic model
PEPPOL BIS Billing 3.0 UBL XML Documents that will be passed to a separate PEPPOL delivery service

Invoices and credit memos use the same store-level default format. All five formats are available for both document types. Credit-memo generation has its own enable switch, trigger, processing mode and email settings.

A sensible first setup

  1. Install the package.
  2. Complete seller, payment and tax details under Stores > Configuration > MageB2B > E-Invoice.
  3. Select the format required by the recipient rather than the format with the most features.
  4. Start with manual generation on a non-production store view.
  5. Generate one representative invoice and, if refunds matter, one credit memo.
  6. Inspect the XML, run validation and have the intended receiver or integration partner test the actual file.
  7. Only then enable email attachments, queue processing or scheduled batches.

Use the Configuration Guide for field-by-field guidance and the Go-Live Checklist before enabling automatic delivery.

What the extension handles

  • manual, immediate, queued and scheduled generation workflows;
  • separate invoice and credit-memo processing;
  • store-view-specific configuration;
  • hybrid PDF/XML creation for ZUGFeRD and Factur-X;
  • XML generation for XRechnung, EN 16931 and PEPPOL BIS;
  • VAT-category, exemption-reason, payment-term and accounting-reference mapping;
  • permanent or on-demand file generation;
  • optional email attachments;
  • status, error and generated-at information in Magento Admin;
  • admin actions, mass actions, REST endpoints and CLI commands;
  • optional customer downloads in the account area (invoice XML/PDF/ZIP, credit-memo XML/PDF);
  • a native checkout field for the buyer reference / Leitweg-ID.

Understand the boundary

  • Schema validation checks document structure. It does not guarantee that a specific customer, portal or access point will accept the file.
  • XRechnung generation does not upload the file to ZRE, OZG-RE or another portal.
  • PEPPOL BIS generation creates UBL. Network addressing, participant registration and transmission belong to your PEPPOL provider or integration.
  • A fallback buyer reference can make a file structurally complete while still being wrong for the receiver. Use the real procurement reference whenever one is required.
  • Accounting and tax settings should be reviewed by the people responsible for your invoicing process.

Terms you will meet

  • CII and UBL are the two XML syntaxes e-invoices use. ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, XRechnung and EN 16931 are CII-based; PEPPOL BIS is UBL-based.
  • ZUGFeRD (German) and Factur-X (French) are hybrid formats: a normal PDF with the XML embedded, so people and software read the same file.
  • XRechnung is the German standard for invoices to public-sector recipients; EN 16931 is the European semantic model behind these formats.
  • PEPPOL is a delivery network with its own document rules; this module creates the files, an access point delivers them.
  • Leitweg-ID is a routing reference German public-sector recipients assign to their suppliers.
  • EAS codes identify the kind of electronic address a PEPPOL participant uses.
  • BT/BG/BR numbers refer to the EN 16931 business terms, groups and rules used throughout the configuration screens.

Documentation map

Requirements

  • Magento 2.4
  • PHP 8.1 or newer within the range supported by your Magento release
  • Composer 2
  • Magento cron for scheduled generation and stale-claim recovery
  • a running message-queue consumer when queue mode is selected