Construct a ZUGFeRD Invoice with Encodian and Power Automate

As electronic invoicing becomes increasingly standardised across Europe, many businesses are adopting ZUGFeRD to meet compliance requirements and enable end-to-end invoice automation.

What is ZUGFeRD?

ZUGFeRD (Central User Guide of the Forum for Electronic Invoices Germany) is a hybrid e-invoice format that embeds a machine-readable XML file inside a human-readable PDF.

This dual structure enables:

• Automated invoice ingestion and validation
• Standardised data extraction
• Full auditability and versioning
• Human-friendly visual review

This tutorial demonstrates how to automatically:

• Combine ZUGFeRD-compliant XML files with a PDF invoice
• Convert the output into the PDF/A-3 archival standard
• Produce a compliant, automation-ready hybrid invoice

All using Encodian’s ‘PDF – Create ZUGFeRD Invoice‘ Power Automate action.

For a deeper dive into the ZUGFeRD format and Germany’s invoicing regulations, see Stripe’s guide to ZUGFeRD invoices.

If you need to process (rather than create) ZUGFeRD invoices, please see our related guide:
Automating ZUGFeRD Invoice Processing in Power Automate with Encodian Flowr →

Before You Begin

Download the sample files for testing:

• factur-xml.xml
• Invoice.pdf

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Build the Power Automate Flow

1. Create a new ‘Instant cloud flow‘.

1.a. Flow name: Provide a name for your flow

1.b. Trigger: Select the SharePoint ‘Manually trigger a flow‘ trigger action

1.c. Click ‘Create‘.

2. Configure the ‘Manually trigger a flow’ trigger action.

2.a. Create two ‘File‘ inputs named ‘Invoice‘ and ‘XML‘

We now need to add the XML file as a PDF attachment.

3. Add the Encodian ‘PDF – Create ZUGFeRD Invoice‘ action.

3.a. File Content: Select ‘Invoice contentBytes’ from the outputs of the ‘Manually trigger a flow’ trigger action.

3.b. ZUGFeRD File Content: Select ‘XML contentBytes‘ from the outputs of the ‘Manually trigger a flow‘ trigger action.

Finally, we will send the output PDF via email.

4. Add the Power Automate ‘Send an Email notification (V3)’ action.

4.a. To: Enter a recipient email address.

4.b. Subject: Enter a suitable subject line message.

4.c. Body: Enter a suitable body message.

4.d. Attachment: Select the ‘File Content’ output from the Encodian ‘PDF – Create ZUGFeRD Invoice‘ action.

4.e. Attachment File Name: Enter ‘Invoice.pdf’.

5. Test the flow

5.a. From the Power Automate designer, select ‘Test’ > ‘Manually’.

5.b. Invoice: Select the test invoice PDF file supplied.

5.c. XML: Select the test XML file supplied.

5.d. Run Flow

Review the email received

Review the PDF Invoice

The PDF will demonstrate compliance with the PDF/A standard, with factur-x.xml embedded as an attachment.

What if my XML is not already in a file?

It could be the case that you generate the XML dynamically within the Flow or that it comes from a 3rd party system not already in a file format.  In this case you would need to convert the XML to binary file content so that it can be ingested by the Encodian ‘PDF – Create ZUGFeRD Invoice‘ action.  The following steps build on the previous flow to simulate this scenario by starting with the XML in a string variable.

1. Edit the ‘Manually trigger a flow’ action to remove the XML file variable.

2. Add the Power Automate ‘Initialize variable’ action.

2.a. Name: Enter ‘XML’  as the variable name.

2.b. Type: Select ‘String’.

2.c. Value: Enter the contents of the file ‘factur-x.xml’.

3. Add the Power Automate ‘Compose’ action.

3.a. Inputs: Add the expression ‘base64(variables(‘XML’))’.

4. Update the Encodian ‘PDF – Create ZUGFeRD Invoice‘ action.

4.a. ZUGFeRD File Content: Enter the express ‘base64ToBinary(outputs(‘Compose’))’.

5. Test the flow

Test the flow again using the same steps as before without the requirement to upload the XML file.

Next Steps and Extensions

Once you’ve automated ZUGFeRD invoice creation, you can further expand the solution to include:

• Extract invoice data automatically
  Using the Encodian’s ‘AI – Process Invoice‘ action to read invoice details and automatically generate the XML content required for ZUGFeRD.
• Validate ZUGFeRD compliance
  Call a third-party ZUGFeRD validation API using the Encodian ‘Utility – HTTP Request‘ action to ensure regulatory compliance before distribution.

Finally…

We hope this guide helps you automate the creation of ZUGFeRD-compliant invoices using Power Automate and Encodian Flowr.

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