You do not have to buy an invoice template, or pay for one with your email address: the structure is below in full, in two versions, one with VAT and one as a small business invoice with no VAT shown. Unlike a quote, where the list of fields is good practice under German law, on an invoice it is law: section 14 (4) of the German VAT Act (UStG) lists ten details an invoice must contain, two of them only in particular cases. Two special cases get relief: the small business invoice under section 34a of the VAT Implementing Regulation (UStDV) with five standing details and "Gutschrift" only for self-billing by the customer, and the small amount invoice up to 250 euros under section 33 UStDV with four. One thing no template can do for you, and it is the crux: the sequential invoice number under section 14 (4) no. 4 UStG, which has to be assigned only once.
That is why no invoice of mine starts life in a template file any more. It starts in the invoicing tool, because that is where the number range and the immutability come from anyway. What the path from inbox to draft looks like here is in AI Agent for Bookkeeping and Inbox, and the concept behind it is on Hiring AI employees. This post first delivers what most people are actually looking for: the finished structure. A word on format up front: a PDF is the invoice for the human eye, while an e-invoice in the sense of the law is a structured data set that the recipient's software reads. This is the legal position under the provisions cited below, and it is not tax advice for your particular case.
Why the rules here are not the rules for a quote
Both documents go to the same client, often two weeks apart, and they stand on completely different ground.
In practice: you may rebuild a quote template to taste, an invoice template only within what the law names. The other side of that is in Free Quote Template: Word, Excel, PDF and in How to Write a Quote That Convinces.
Version 1: invoice with VAT
Everything in square brackets is a placeholder. Type the structure out once, save it as a template file, and work with copies from then on.
[Your company name]
[Street and number]
[Postcode and town]
[Phone] · [Email]
Tax number [number] or VAT ID [number]
[Client company]
[Contact person]
[Street and number]
[Postcode and town]
INVOICE
Invoice number [YYYY-NNN]
Invoice date [DD.MM.YYYY]
Date of supply [DD.MM.YYYY or month YYYY]
No. Description Qty Unit price Amount
1 [Quantity and type of goods [No.] [Amount] EUR [Amount] EUR
in their commercial
designation, or extent and
type of the service]
2 [Description] [No.] [Amount] EUR [Amount] EUR
Net total [Amount] EUR
plus [19 or 7] % VAT [Amount] EUR
Invoice total [Amount] EUR
Payable in full by [date] to
[Bank], IBAN [IBAN].
Please quote the invoice number as the payment reference.
[Your name]
Here is how that maps to the statute, so you know what not to touch:
Three everyday traps. On no. 5, "consulting" is not enough; what is asked for is the commercial designation, so rather "strategy workshop, one day". On no. 6 the calendar month of the supply is sufficient, which section 31 (4) UStDV expressly allows. And no. 7 requires the breakdown by VAT rate: if 19 and 7 percent appear on one invoice, each rate needs its own subtotal.
Version 2: small business invoice with no VAT shown
As a small business under section 19 UStG your supplies are exempt, no VAT appears on the invoice, and instead of the ten details section 34a UStDV asks for five standing details. Only where your customer invoices on your behalf does "Gutschrift" become a sixth detail. The consideration is shown as a single sum, together with a reference to the exemption.
[Your company name]
[Street and number]
[Postcode and town]
[Phone] · [Email]
Tax number [number]
[Client company]
[Street and number]
[Postcode and town]
INVOICE
Invoice number [YYYY-NNN]
Invoice date [DD.MM.YYYY]
No. Description Amount
1 [Quantity and type, or extent and
type of the service] [Amount] EUR
2 [Description] [Amount] EUR
Invoice total [Amount] EUR
No VAT is charged in accordance with section 19 UStG.
Payable in full by [date] to
[Bank], IBAN [IBAN].
[Your name]
There is no fixed wording for the reference, it only has to identify the small business exemption unambiguously. And the invoice number is in there voluntarily: section 34a UStDV does not require one, your records still have to be orderly (section 146 of the Fiscal Code, AO). The thresholds, the switch to standard taxation and the costliest mistake, a VAT line left over from an old template, are covered in detail in German Small Business Invoices: The Rules.
The small amount invoice up to 250 euros
For small amounts there is a third, shorter version. Where the total amount of the invoice does not exceed 250 euros, section 33 UStDV asks for only four details:
- Name and address of the supplying business, so yours. The recipient's details are absent here, which is the most striking difference.
- The date of issue.
- Quantity and type of the goods supplied, or extent and type of the service.
- Consideration and tax amount as a single sum, plus the applicable rate, or where an exemption applies a reference to it.
This is the version you know from till receipts, and for small amounts it is complete. Three limits: the 250 euros include VAT, they are not a net figure. The relief does not apply to supplies under sections 3c, 6a and 13b UStG. And as a small business the reference to the exemption belongs here too.
The invoice number, and how to assign it
The common assumption is stricter than the rule. Section 14 (4) no. 4 UStG asks for "a sequential number with one or more series of numbers, assigned once by the issuer to identify the invoice". Several series are therefore expressly allowed; the point is that each number is unique, not that there is one unbroken counter across everything.
Four rules are enough to start with:
- A format you will still understand in five years. Year plus running number, so
2026-001, is boring and unambiguous. If you split by division or location, give each series its own prefix, such as BER-2026-001.
- No number twice, not across a year change and not across a change of tool. When you move, either continue the old series or start a visibly new one.
- Correct traceably, do not delete. Section 146 (4) AO requires the original content and later changes to remain ascertainable. In many invoicing systems, cancellation followed by reissue is the clearest and safest route.
- Decide when the number gets assigned. My house rule: when you send, not when you create the draft, so drafts that never went out leave no gaps behind. Many programs assign it as soon as an entry is committed or posted, and then their rule applies.
The tax authorities treat the number as a control, not a formality. Under the controls meant to ensure complete and gapless recording, the GoBD expressly list gap analysis and multiple-assignment analysis on document numbers in margin number 40.
Where a template runs out
The point the post turns on: a template solves the form problem, not the order problem. It makes sure the ten details are on the page. It does not make sure that each number is assigned only once, that nobody alters an old file afterwards, and that in four years you still find what an auditor asks for. Run your invoices as individual files and you have no control over the numbers at all: a number handed out twice shows up only when somebody from outside goes looking. A gap on its own is no proof of an improper entry, but you still have to be able to explain it.
Margin number 77 of the GoBD calls the unique document number a "criterion for the completeness check" and states that with a large volume of documents, allocation and identification can regularly no longer be derived unambiguously from the document date or other features. Translated: with five invoices a year a look in the folder does it, with two hundred it does not. And margin number 110 states that storing data and electronic documents in a file system regularly does not meet the immutability requirements unless additional measures are taken. A folder full of .docx files is fine as a workshop and not as an archive.
On top of that come two periods that reach beyond the template:
- Eight years. You keep a copy of every invoice you issue for eight years (section 14b (1) sentence 1 UStG), and accounting vouchers for eight years too (section 147 (3) AO). Your files have to stay legible that long.
- For supplies from 2028 the grace period for PDFs ends. In domestic business-to-business trade the e-invoice as a structured data set is then mandatory, so XRechnung or ZUGFeRD; small amounts up to 250 euros, transport tickets and small businesses stay exempt. Out of the box neither a word processor nor a spreadsheet outputs those formats, and a PDF export does not produce a structured data set; ordinary invoicing programs supply them. The dates and exemptions are in German E-Invoicing: Dates and Exemptions.
As soon as that becomes a regular run of invoices, the question shifts from "which template" to "which tool".
When the invoice starts life as a draft
Most of the building sites above are not about the text of the invoice but about where it is created. The number range, the immutability and the invoice format are properties of the tool; the VAT rate and the bank details are master data. What is left is the actual work: line items, quantity, type, price.
That is the part Anton, my AI employee for quotes and invoices, takes over here. He builds the quote as a PDF from the services and prices you have given him, and on acceptance he creates the contact, the quote and the invoice as drafts in the accounting tool, here Lexware Office. So he does not write the invoice into a file, he prepares it where the number and the immutability come from anyway. Anyone on a different tool builds the connection through an adapter on the same pattern, and not on their own: in the community and in the calls there are people who have already built that adapter for their tool.
Two limits are built in, and they are why this holds up day to day: he drafts, you approve, and no price without a source. He never finalises on request alone; he names the consequences first, such as the invoice number then assigned for good. Anton is available as a finished package in my community, in two forms: build it yourself on the Standard tier at $9 a month, or take the finished employee folder with 13 lessons on Premium at $45 a month (as of September 2026).
Frequently asked questions
Is there really a free invoice template with no sign-up?
Yes, and you need no download for it: the two structures above are complete. Many template sites ask for a registration in return, or tie the file to a subscription. What matters here is not the file anyway, but the mapping of the fields to the statute.
What has to be on a German invoice?
Section 14 (4) UStG names ten details: both addresses, your tax number or VAT identification number, the date of issue, the sequential number, quantity and type of what you supplied, the date of the supply, the consideration broken down by VAT rate, and the rate together with the tax amount. Two more apply only in special cases: the note on the retention obligation and the word "Gutschrift".
Word or Excel for an invoice template?
The word processor if layout matters and the line items are few. The spreadsheet as soon as you multiply quantity by unit price and want the totals to add up, especially across several VAT rates. Either way what goes out is a PDF export. Once invoices run regularly, an invoicing program beats both.
Do I need a sequential invoice number?
For an invoice with VAT yes, section 14 (4) no. 4 UStG requires one. It does not have to be a single unbroken counter though: the statute expressly allows one or more series, and what matters is that each number is assigned only once.
Which template do I need as a small business?
The second version above. It has no VAT rate and no tax amount, shows the consideration as a single sum and carries the reference to the exemption under section 19 UStG underneath. If you show VAT by accident, you owe the amount. The details are in German Small Business Invoices: The Rules.
Where to go from here
Take your last invoice and check it line by line against the table of ten details. Then write down two things: how your invoice numbers are built, and when they get assigned. Those two sentences are worth more than any template, because they settle the one thing a template cannot.
Which tasks in your business are suited to handing off at all is sorted out in Which Tasks You Can Hand Off to AI, and from the perspective of a one-person operation in AI for Freelancers: What Pays Off. The finished quotes-and-invoices employee, course included, is in my community Claude Practitioners.
