Features

Everything Faktwise does

Automatic e-invoices for your Shopify store: ZUGFeRD, XRechnung, correct VAT, and an archive designed around the German GoBD record-keeping rules.

You set Faktwise up once; after that, invoices are created in the background whenever an order is paid. This page lists everything the app does, and just as openly, what it does not do.

The Faktwise dashboard in Shopify: invoice list with search, a credit note, and PDF and XML downloads

E-invoice formats: PDF, ZUGFeRD, XRechnung

Every invoice is created as a readable PDF plus ZUGFeRD. ZUGFeRD is a hybrid format: a regular PDF (PDF/A-3) with the machine-readable invoice XML per the EU standard EN 16931 embedded inside. When a public-sector buyer enters a Leitweg-ID (the routing ID German authorities use to deliver invoices internally), Faktwise issues an XRechnung instead, the structured XML format used for invoices to German public-sector buyers.

Readable PDF plus ZUGFeRD hybrid (PDF/A-3 with embedded EN 16931 XML) for every paid order
XRechnung for public-sector (B2G) orders that carry a Leitweg-ID
XRechnung needs your contact email and IBAN in Settings, because the standard's rules require seller contact and payment details; if they are missing, the order is issued as ZUGFeRD and the dashboard shows a notice
Invoice language German or English
Both formats are checked in CI against the official validators: KoSIT for XRechnung, Mustang and veraPDF for ZUGFeRD

Format deep dive: ZUGFeRD invoices with Shopify

The right VAT, applied automatically

Faktwise reads the order, picks the correct tax treatment, and prints the matching legal wording on the invoice automatically. A provided EU VAT ID is checked live against VIES, the official EU system for validating VAT IDs, at invoice time. If VIES is unreachable, Faktwise charges VAT as the cautious default.

German domestic sales: 19% VAT, plus the reduced 7% rate per line when the Shopify order data marks a line as reduced
B2B services to other EU countries: Reverse Charge under §13b UStG, meaning the buyer accounts for the VAT; the note is printed and no VAT is charged
B2B goods to other EU countries: tax-free intra-Community supply (§4 No. 1b, §6a UStG)
B2C sales to other EU countries: OSS at the destination country's standard VAT rate, once you have switched OSS on in Settings
Exports outside the EU: tax-free under §4 No. 1a, §6 UStG
Kleinunternehmer (the German small-business scheme under §19 UStG): invoices never show VAT, with the correct note

Deep dive: Reverse charge for intra-EU sales

Capture B2B and public-sector buyers

For a VAT ID or Leitweg-ID to end up on the invoice, the buyer needs somewhere to enter it. Faktwise ships a theme app block for the cart page that you add once in the theme editor. It stays collapsed behind a business-customer toggle, so private buyers only see a small switch.

Add it once: Online Store, then Themes, then Customize, switch to the Cart template, Add section (Apps), Faktwise VAT / Leitweg-ID, Save
Buyers expand the field and enter their VAT ID and/or Leitweg-ID
VAT ID format check on entry (a 2-letter country prefix plus 2 to 12 characters)
Works on all Shopify plans, because the field lives on the cart page; extra checkout-step fields exist only on Shopify Plus
The Faktwise Settings page deep-links straight to the right spot in the theme editor

The expanded Faktwise field in the Shopify cart with VAT ID and Leitweg-ID inputs

How it fits together: Shopify B2B invoices with VAT ID and Reverse Charge

A GoBD-ready archive

The GoBD are the German rules for keeping digital business records: complete, traceable, and protected against later changes. Faktwise is designed around these requirements and helps you meet them.

Gap-free sequential invoice numbers per year (for example INV-2026-00042); if a generation fails, no number is burned
Issued invoices are never edited afterwards; corrections happen only through credit notes
A refund in Shopify automatically creates a Gutschrift, a credit note with positive amounts that references the original invoice number
PDF and XML are stored for ten years, beyond the statutory eight-year German retention period
Every document, correction, and settings change is recorded in an append-only audit trail (the traceability the GoBD ask for)
Personal data is encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM)
Export your archive via the monthly export before uninstalling the app

More on the requirements: GoBD invoice archiving with Shopify

OSS report with BOP import file

The One-Stop-Shop (OSS) is the EU scheme that lets you report VAT on B2C sales to other EU countries in a single quarterly return, filed in Germany with the BZSt, the Federal Central Tax Office. Faktwise prepares the numbers so you do not have to add them up by hand.

Quarterly summary of your OSS sales grouped by destination country and VAT rate: net, VAT, and document count
Readable summary CSV for your records
BOP CSV in the official #v2.0 import format: import it into your OSS-EU return in the BZSt-Online-Portal (BOP) instead of typing the figures
Rows that cannot go into the file (for example a country whose refunds exceed its sales in the quarter) are listed with a note; corrections for earlier quarters are entered manually in the portal
Always check the figures in the portal before you submit

How OSS works with Shopify: EU OSS VAT for Shopify

Exports, email, and extras

Creating invoices is half the job; they also need to reach your accountant and your customer. Faktwise covers both.

Monthly export as a ZIP: all PDFs, all XMLs, and a summary CSV (semicolon-separated, opens cleanly in German Excel) for your accountant
Automatic invoice whenever an order is paid (on by default)
Optional automatic email of the invoice PDF to your customer, with a German or English template (off by default)
Dashboard with the invoice list (newest first), search by invoice number or order, and PDF plus XML downloads on every row
Reliable by design: if an invoice ever fails to generate (a temporary API hiccup), the job retries automatically with backoff, up to five attempts, and the dashboard flags anything that still fails so nothing is silently lost
GDPR: Faktwise responds to Shopify's customer data-request and redaction webhooks, and removes your operational personal data (contact, bank details, settings) after uninstall; issued invoices are retained for the statutory record-keeping period
Free validator: the invoice validator checks any XRechnung XML (official KoSIT validator) or ZUGFeRD PDF (Mustang, including PDF/A) at no cost

Hand-over to your accountant: The monthly export

What Faktwise does not do

Honesty saves you time: these are the things Faktwise deliberately does not do, or does not do yet.

No tax advice: Faktwise is software, not tax advice. Whether a tax treatment applies to your business is a question for your tax advisor.
OSS uses the destination countries' standard VAT rates; reduced destination rates are not applied. The EU-wide EUR 10,000 threshold is not computed automatically either: you decide when to activate OSS.
Reverse Charge covers EU cross-border B2B sales only; domestic German §13b cases are not covered.
A refund that touches only shipping or only a freely entered amount currently creates no credit note.
No DATEV booking export: the monthly ZIP is a summary for your accountant, not a DATEV booking file. The full Shopify-to-DATEV export is our separate app EasyBelege.
No template or layout editor: a legally valid e-invoice (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung) is a fixed, standardized format under EN 16931. That fixed structure is exactly what makes it accepted by the tax office and accounting software, so it is deliberately not freely redesignable. Faktwise produces the correct, compliant format; if you want to design invoice layouts freely, a layout app like Order Printer is the better fit.