In the skilled trades, work is mostly carried out on site—on construction sites, at the customer’s premises, or during ongoing operations. Billing is project-based, often in the form of progress, partial, and final invoices, supplemented by measurements, supplementary claims, and materials used. This way of working stands in clear contrast to the structured requirements of EN 16931. In practice, this shows up in a host of concrete challenges: individual services and variable pricing logic can be standardized only to a limited extent, while media discontinuities between the construction site, the office, and accounting lead to manual transfers and delays. On top of this come inconsistent software solutions without end-to-end integration, as well as incomplete master data. Differing requirements from public and private clients add even more coordination effort.

The “Skilled Trades” Industry Center brings together businesses from various trades with the industry association and application developers in order to work on these very questions in a practical way. Starting from concrete workflows—for example, in measurements, supplementary claims, or progress invoices—typical challenges are gathered, structured, and developed further together. This gives rise to implementation recommendations geared to the actual working conditions in the skilled trades. Businesses that get involved ensure that their own challenges are taken into account and feed directly into the work. At the same time, a reliable foundation is created that helps other businesses in the skilled trades make e-invoicing workable in everyday practice.

Key Focus Areas

Structuring project-based billing models

Representing individual services, supplementary claims, and variable pricing logic

Reducing media discontinuities and manual processes

Integrating heterogeneous software solutions

Ensuring consistent master data and customer requirements