Create a credit note
Pick 381 for a plain credit note, 384 when you are correcting an invoice already sent; only the 384 names the original. Download it as XRechnung 3.0.
How to fill this in
XRechnung 3.0 for German public buyers. Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 when your customer works over the Peppol network, plain EN 16931 for everything else. The checks inside the file follow the one you pick.
381 is the usual pick here: a credit note reversing part or all of an invoice already sent. 384 replaces an earlier invoice with corrected content and has to carry its number. 389 applies when the buyer wrote the original themselves.
German public buyers give you a Leitweg-ID, the routing code shaped like 04011000-1234512345-06: enter it in both fields, and the invoice prints it once. If your customer also gives you a separate order or reference number, put that number in Buyer reference only, and the two different values print each under its own name. One of the two has to be on the invoice or it will not be accepted.
Typed once and kept on this device. The form opens empty next time; the My saved details button puts it back.
Two different numbers, and an invoice can carry both. The VAT ID is the one you file your VAT returns under. The company reg. number is your entry in the commercial register.
Type quantity, unit price and VAT % and the totals work themselves out, one VAT line per rate.
Leave it blank. As long as the VAT % is above zero the file gets the standard rate, which is what reduced rates use as well. You only set it yourself when the rate is zero, because a zero can be an exemption, reverse charge, an intra-EU supply or an export, and the file has to say which one.
The account you want the money in, and how long the buyer has to pay. Both are printed on the invoice and both travel inside the file.