Digital invoice processing

In February 2019, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) introduced the processing of electronic invoices. Starting with the MPG’s General Administration (Administrative Headquarters), all institutes will make this change. Here you will find information, at what time each Max-Planck-Institute will make the switch towards reception of digital invoices.

Legal basis

With this project, the MPG will implement the federal government’s Regulation on Electronic Invoicing (E-Rechnungsverordnung), which results from the E.U. Directive 2014/55/EU.
With this regulation, all federal authorities and connected institutions are required to be able to receive invoices in electronic form, process them strictly without media disruption and store them.

Purposes and advantages

• Implementation of the Regulation on Electronic Invoicing
• Reception and processing of electronic invoices and supporting documents without media disruption
• Reduction of bureaucracy
• Reduction of costs and time required
• Faster processing and payment
• End-to-end information about the process status of each invoice

Policy

• Printed invoices will not be accepted by the MPG’s Administrative Headquarters any longer.
• Every individual e-mail must contain one invoice only.
• Invoice supporting documents must be sent in PDF format attached to the same e-mail containing the invoice. More than one document may be attached to each invoice. The file names of supporting documents must begin with “AT”. Example: Attachment = “AT54321.PDF”. The file name of the invoice itself must not begin with “AT” or “AN”.
• The Administrative Headquarters and each institute has its own email account. The System does not read the mails body, but processes the attachments automatically. Please do not send any questions or other documents.

All Max Planck Institutes now process invoices and credit notes digitally.