One post tagged with "German B2B mandate"

Create a ZUGFeRD Invoice in Power Automate from a Dropbox PDF + XML: A 5-Action Workflow

June 5, 2026 · 20 min read

SEO and Content Writer

Germany's Wachstumschancengesetz (Growth Opportunities Act) turned ZUGFeRD-style hybrid e-invoices from a "nice to have" into a B2B requirement. From 1 January 2025 every German business must be able to receive structured e-invoices, with full sending obligations phased in by 2028. The fastest path for any Microsoft 365 team is a five-action Power Automate flow: Manually trigger → Dropbox Get file content (PDF) → Dropbox Get file content (XML) → PDF4me Create ZUGFeRD Invoice → Dropbox Create file. The XML payload is embedded inside a PDF/A-3 archival shell, producing one file that humans open and accounting systems parse. This walkthrough uses the exact screenshots captured in the canvas: /pdf4metest/sample/10 page.pdf for the visual carrier and /pdf4metest/zugfred invoice/version2.xml for the structured data, with the hybrid output landing in /pdf4meoutput under a unique GUID-prefixed name. Production-ready in under 10 minutes.

The flow at a glance

1. Manually trigger a flow

Manual trigger for testing. Swap for SharePoint When a file is created, Dropbox When a file is created, or any storage trigger in production.

2. Dropbox Get file content (PDF)

Reads the visual carrier from /pdf4metest/sample/10 page.pdf with Infer Content Type Yes. This is the PDF the recipient sees.

3. Dropbox Get file content (XML)

Reads the structured ZUGFeRD XML from /pdf4metest/zugfred invoice/version2.xml with Infer Content Type Yes. This is what accounting systems parse.

4. PDF4me Create ZUGFeRD Invoice

Combines both inputs as 2.0-XML format, XmlWithPdf output mode, BASIC conformance, Render Invoice on PDF Yes, Language de. Embeds the XML inside a PDF/A-3.

5. Dropbox Create file

Writes the hybrid file to /pdf4meoutput with guid()+headers/FileName so reruns never collide.