BillingEngine is invoicing software for people who would rather not think about invoicing: freelancers and small companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

It began in Hamburg in 2012. Our founder needed a program to write invoices and found only desktop relics and suites built for bookkeepers. So he built the missing thing. BillingEngine launched in 2014 and has grown with its users ever since — today over 2,500 businesses run their invoicing on it.

Simplicity is the feature, not the mood. Every field has to justify itself; where the law allows a default, we set it. An accepted quote becomes an invoice in one click, recurring invoices write themselves, and an AI reads amount, date, tax rate and supplier off a photographed receipt.

When Germany made e-invoicing mandatory in 2025, we were ready: every invoice is automatically a ZUGFeRD and XRechnung file under EN 16931, without anyone needing to know what that means. Receiving e-invoices is a legal duty, not a premium feature, so every plan includes a free inbox for them.

Around that sits the rest of the financial year: quotes, dunning, expenses, assets and depreciation, VAT returns, six languages, 32 currencies, a REST API, a DATEV export and read-only access for your tax advisor. Documents are archived unchangeably, GoBD- and GDPR-compliant, on servers in Germany. Prices are listed openly, and the free plan is genuinely enough for many small businesses.

We answer questions from people who never sign up, too: a glossary of German accounting terms, free templates, and free tools to validate or read an e-invoice — no account, no email address.

The name is literal. An engine is not the thing you admire, it is the thing that runs quietly while you do the work you are paid for. Clear over clever, concrete over aspirational. Support mail is answered in person, usually the same working day.

We are independent, we grow at the speed our users do, and we intend to still be here — and still be simple — the next time the law changes.