How the authority receives your invoice

You have written an invoice to a public office, a city council or an authority, Zirko has finalized it — and now what? This is exactly the point at which most trade software leaves you on your own: it produces the file and says not a word about where it should go.

Here it is written down. First the essentials, then the route for each country.

The essentials first

Two things decide what you have to do: which country your business is based in and whether your client is a public authority. Find your country below — the routes differ, and none of them is hard.

1. In Germany, Zirko produces the e-invoice when you finalize (XRechnung, an XML file) and attaches it automatically when you send. You see in the sending dialog what goes along.
2. In Italy, Poland and Romania Zirko also produces the official file — but there you submit it to the state portal yourself. See the section below.
3. In almost all remaining countries, Zirko has produced an e-invoice since 13 September 2026 as well — depending on the country Peppol BIS, ebInterface (Austria), ISDOC (Czechia), Finvoice or TEAPPS (Finland), NLCIUS (Netherlands), PINT A-NZ (Australia, New Zealand) or ZUGFeRD. The route to the authority still differs by country; it is set out below.
4. Only in Canada, the USA and Japan does it stay with the PDF. There is no e-invoicing regime there to follow — and inventing a format nobody accepts would be no help.
5. Where an e-invoice is required, you usually may not simply email it to your contact at the authority: there is a dedicated invoice receipt office, and only what arrives there counts as submitted.
6. In Germany there is one more rule: without the correct Leitweg-ID (the German routing ID) the invoice is rejected. It is the postal address of the authority inside the portal.

Germany: the OZG-RE

The federal government and most federal states receive invoices through the OZG-RE (Onlinezugangsgesetz-konforme Rechnungseingangsplattform, the invoice receipt platform under the German Online Access Act). It is free of charge; you register once.

There you have four routes, and you only need one:

Point of contact and registration: e-rechnung-bund.de.

Which address applies for the email route is in your portal account — it differs from account to account, which is why we name none here. You can change the recipient in the sending dialog before sending; that is where you enter it.

The Leitweg-ID

The Leitweg-ID is the address of the authority inside the portal. It looks like 02000000-KFB0000001-20 — coarse addressing, fine addressing, check digit. The first two digits are the federal state; 99 stands for the federal government. The middle part can be missing, in which case there are only two blocks.

Where you get it: not from us and not from a list on the internet. It is in the order, the contract or the tender of the authority — there it is a mandatory detail. If you cannot find it, ring your contact and ask for the Leitweg-ID; it is a question they get asked daily.

Where it belongs in Zirko: on the customer, not on the individual invoice. You enter it once on the authority as a customer, and every further invoice to that client gets it automatically. If the same authority has several offices with different Leitweg-IDs, each one is a separate entry.

Austria: e-Rechnung.gv.at

Invoices to the federal government go through e-Rechnung.gv.at (the Austrian federal e-invoicing portal), reachable through your USP account (Unternehmensserviceportal, the Austrian business service portal). The account is free of charge, and registration runs once through ID Austria (Austria’s national digital identity). After that you can upload the invoice or enter it in the online form.

Point of contact: erechnung.gv.at.

Switzerland: PDF by email to the federal government

In Switzerland it is easiest: since mid-2023, invoices to the federal administration go as a PDF by email, one file per invoice. For invoices to the federal government this is free of charge, and you need no portal and no registration. That is exactly what Zirko can do today — the PDF hangs on the email.

It is widely stated that from an order value of CHF 5,000 the electronic invoice is mandatory; on the page of the Federal Finance Administration itself this threshold does not appear. So do not rely on it, but on what is in your order.

Point of contact: efv.admin.ch.

The remaining countries

In these countries Zirko produces the e-invoice — but the route to the authority runs through a portal or simply through email, and you need to know it. We have looked up how it really works in each country and name the body by name.

Netherlands and Luxembourg — portal with an entry form

In the Netherlands, invoices to the state go through the Leveranciersportaal of the Rijksoverheid (the Dutch central government’s supplier portal). You type the invoice in there, the portal converts it into the mandatory format and delivers it. Free of charge. You need the OIN of the receiving body — that is their identification number, and it is in the order. The route is meant for a few invoices a month, not for continuous operation. Point of contact: rvo.nl — Factuurportaal.

In Luxembourg it runs through MyGuichet.lu. There are two forms there: one for uploading a finished e-invoice and one for typing it in by hand — both with and without signing in. MyGuichet.lu is the route the law provides alongside Peppol, so you do not have to buy anything extra. Point of contact: guichet.public.lu.

Sweden and Finland — one portal per client, by invitation only

These two are the only case in which you cannot start anything yourself: you need an invitation from your client.

In Sweden there is no central portal. Instead the individual authority provides a supplier portal (leverantörsportal), free of charge for you — the Skatteverket and the Statens servicecenter, for example, do this. Ask your client for the invitation, once per client. Whether every municipality and every region also offers such a portal, we could not establish; when in doubt, ask them. Point of contact: upphandlingsmyndigheten.se.

In Finland the portal is called Handi (Toimittajaportaali). There you create and send the invoice free of charge. Here too: without an invitation from your client you cannot get in — give them your email address for that. Point of contact: valtiokonttori.fi.

Italy, Poland and Romania — Zirko makes the file, you submit it

These three are the special case: there every invoice goes through a state portal, not just the ones to public bodies. Zirko produces the officially prescribed file — you upload it yourself and then record the receipt or number on the document. All three portals are free.

• Italy: FatturaPA via the SdI, reachable through Fatture e Corrispettivi of the Agenzia delle Entrate. Record the SdI receipt on the document.
• Poland: FA(3) via KSeF. You get a KSeF number back.
• Romania: RO_CIUS via the SPV (e-Factura). Three things differ from Italy and Poland, and all three also appear on the document: SPV access needs a qualified electronic signature (token or cloud) from a Romanian provider; the file must reach the system within five working days of the invoice date (OUG 89/2025 — missing the deadline means a fine); and the transmission does not replace the invoice to your customer, who receives the PDF as usual (art. 10^1 para. 4 OUG 120/2021).

Ireland, the United Kingdom and Czechia — you have to do nothing special

In these three countries there is no obligation on you as a supplier. Only the authority has to be able to receive an e-invoice — you may send whatever you have agreed with them.

• Ireland: paper, PDF or e-invoice, your choice, as long as the contract does not require anything else. From November 2028 this changes, initially for large companies.
• United Kingdom: outside the health service there is no obligation. For NHS contracts through NHS SBS you send the invoice as a PDF by email to sbs.apinvoicing@nhs.net or use the free Tradeshift portal, to which NHS SBS invites you. A nationwide mandate has been announced for April 2029. Point of contact: sbs.nhs.uk.
• Czechia: send the invoice by email or through the data box (ISDS), which your business has by law anyway. The only obligation here is on the authority to be able to receive — not on you to send electronically.

What Zirko takes off your hands — and what it does not

This is what Zirko does — for businesses in Germany:

• The XRechnung is created when you finalize the invoice, from the frozen values of the document.
• When you send by email, it is attached automatically, together with the PDF. The sending dialog writes down what goes along.
• If the e-invoice is missing although one would be expected, the dialog warns before sending instead of afterwards.

This is what Zirko does in the other countries: the e-invoice as well — which one depends on your customer's country, and you can also choose it on the customer yourself. The PDF is always there beside it. Only in Canada, the USA and Japan does it stay with the PDF alone.

This is what you have to do yourself:

• Register once with the portal of your country — except in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Czechia and Switzerland, where you need none.
• In Germany, store the Leitweg-ID on the customer.
• Upload the invoice in the portal, type it in, or email it to the portal address — invoice by invoice.

When it does not work

• The portal rejects the file. Usually the Leitweg-ID is wrong or a mandatory detail is missing. The portal’s message names the field — send it to us if you cannot make anything of it.
• The email does not arrive and nobody answers. Authority inboxes discard emails whose sender cannot be verified, without a reply. What has to be set up for that is under Setting up email sending.
• You only sent a PDF where an e-invoice was required. Then the invoice has not been submitted, and the payment period is not running. You do not have to cancel it — submit the same invoice through the portal. In Ireland, the United Kingdom, Czechia and Switzerland the question does not arise: there the PDF is the regular route.
• It drags on and on, and you have many public-authority jobs. Then it is not down to you. The route through a portal is manual work per invoice — see the box above.