Combining

What for. To turn an existing invoice PDF and an existing invoice XML into a ZUGFeRD/Factur-X hybrid PDF.

In. Two files in two fields:

Field	The note on the page
Visual PDF	“The human-readable invoice PDF (ideally PDF/A-3).”
Invoice XML	“XRechnung, ZUGFeRD/CII, Peppol and others — converted to ZUGFeRD/CII where needed.”

If one is missing: “Please upload both a PDF and an XML file.”

Out. The hybrid PDF for download, marked with ZUGFeRD / Factur-X and the compliance level achieved, along with the EN 16931 validation of the embedded XML and — with an account — archiving.

Two conversions that may happen on the way

They appear as a notice if they were necessary:

• “The {format} XML was converted to ZUGFeRD/CII before embedding.” — an XRechnung is UBL, but a hybrid PDF needs CII.
• “The uploaded PDF was not a PDF/A-3 and was converted to PDF/A-3 automatically before embedding.”

PDF/A-3 is only claimed when it is true

If your PDF cannot be lifted to PDF/A-3 — because fonts are not embedded, for instance — the mark is absent and a warning box says why. The file is still produced; it is then a PDF with an attachment, not a PDF/A-3. For the machine recipient that makes no difference, for audit-proof long-term storage it does.

If combining fails altogether: “Combining failed”, along with the reason.

When this is the right tool

When you have a finished invoice PDF from your own system and want to add the structured data to it. If you want to build the invoice afresh, Create is the route — the hybrid PDF is produced there in one go. And if your PDF has no XML to go with it, read it with PDF to e-invoice.