What the Leitweg-ID is: format, check digits and where it goes in an XRechnung

Every e-invoice to a German public body needs a Leitweg-ID. It is the address that routes the invoice from the central portal to the right office, and the first thing a portal checks. A wrong or missing Leitweg-ID is the most common reason a formally correct XRechnung comes back.

What it is for

Public bodies in Germany receive e-invoices through central portals: the ZRE for the direct federal administration, the OZG-RE for the indirect federal administration and several Länder, and the Länder's own portals. Behind each portal are thousands of receiving units. The Leitweg-ID (Leitweg means routing path) identifies the unit an invoice is for, so the portal can deliver it without human sorting. The public body assigns its Leitweg-ID and communicates it to its suppliers, usually with the order; a supplier never invents one.

The format

A Leitweg-ID has two or three parts separated by hyphens: a coarse address, an optional fine address and two check digits.

04011000-1234512345-06
│        │          └─ check digits (2 digits)
│        └─ fine address (optional, up to 30 characters)
└─ coarse address (2 to 12 digits)

• The coarse address (Grobadressierung) is numeric, 2 to 12 digits. Its first two digits name the level: 01 to 16 for the sixteen Länder in their official order (04 is Bremen, 11 Berlin), 99 for the federal level. The following digits, when present, follow the official regional key of the municipality or district.
• The fine address (Feinadressierung) is optional: up to 30 letters and digits that the public body uses to distinguish its own units. Where it is absent, the identifier has only two parts, such as 991-33333TEST-33.
• The check digits (Prüfziffer) are two digits computed with ISO 7064 MOD 97-10 over the coarse and fine address (letters converted to numbers). They catch typing errors: a portal rejects an identifier whose check digits do not match.

The whole identifier is at most 46 characters long, without spaces. Upper and lower case letters in the fine address are distinct in the specification, so copy it exactly as given.

Where it goes in the invoice

In an XRechnung, the Leitweg-ID is the buyer reference, business term BT-10 (cbc:BuyerReference in UBL, ram:BuyerReference in CII). The German rule BR-DE-15 requires this field, which is why BR-DE-15 is one of the first errors people meet: the field is empty or holds an order number instead of the Leitweg-ID. In a ZUGFeRD invoice for a public body (profile XRECHNUNG), the same element ram:BuyerReference carries it. Some Länder ask for the Leitweg-ID in a different field or in addition to an order reference; the ordering body's instructions prevail.

Where to find it

• On the order, the framework contract or the public body's supplier information page.
• For the federal administration, the ZRE and OZG-RE portals explain how a public body publishes its identifier; there is no public directory of all Leitweg-IDs, because the fine addresses are the bodies' internal structure.
• If in doubt, ask the invoicing contact of the public body before sending: a rejection costs more time than a question.

How to check one

The Leitweg-ID validator on this site checks the structure and recomputes the check digits in the browser; it tells you whether the identifier is well formed and, if not, which part is wrong. It cannot tell whether the identifier is registered at a portal: only the public body knows that. The XRechnung validator checks that the field is present and that the invoice as a whole follows the rules; together they catch the two usual failures, a malformed identifier and a missing one.

Sources

• KoSIT, Leitweg-ID format specification: xeinkauf.de/leitweg-id
• E-Rechnung Bund, information for suppliers: e-rechnung-bund.de
• Federal invoice portals: xrechnung.bund.de (ZRE), xrechnung-bdr.de (OZG-RE)
• ISO 7064 (check character systems): iso.org