FeRD (Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland) is the German industry body behind the ZUGFeRD e-invoice standard. Founded in 2012 under the AWV umbrella, its membership spans ERP vendors, accounting software companies, the German federal government, and large enterprise buyers — the people who actually needed to make structured invoicing work in practice.
FeRD co-maintains ZUGFeRD jointly with France's FNFE-MPE, which is why ZUGFeRD 2.x and Factur-X 1.x are the same format under two names. The two bodies aligned their versioning to avoid the fragmentation that plagued earlier national e-invoice formats.
If you're implementing ZUGFeRD or Factur-X, the FeRD website (ferd-net.de) is where you'll find the current specification, profile documentation, and validation resources.
Key facts
- Full name: Forum elektronische Rechnung Deutschland
- Founded: 2012
- Parent organisation: AWV e.V.
- Maintains: ZUGFeRD (jointly with France's FNFE-MPE as Factur-X)
- Members: SAP, DATEV, Bundesdruckerei, German ministries, and others