Privacy at X-Factura

Controller and your rights

X-Factura is operated by smact. Who is responsible for processing your data and how to reach them is stated in the legal notice (in German). The legal bases, your rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing and objection, and your right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority are described in the general privacy policy of smact (in German). This page supplements it for X-Factura.

Creating invoices

For an invoice, X-Factura processes what you enter in the form: name or company, address, contact details, tax and register numbers of the seller and the buyer, contact person, customer number and buyer reference (such as the Leitweg-ID), invoice number, dates and periods, the items with quantities and prices, payment terms and the bank details (IBAN, BIC).

The server of X-Factura checks and calculates the invoice and generates from it the e-invoice in the XRechnung format (XML) and, if you wish, a PDF with embedded XML (ZUGFeRD). No third-party service is used for this. The result page then shows the invoice number, the names of both parties and the amounts; this overview and the permission to download are kept in your session on the server. If X-Factura rejects a form, your entries remain in the session until the next page is opened, so that the form appears again filled in.

Without an account

Without logging in, your invoice is not stored permanently. The generated files (XML and PDF) are kept under names made of the invoice number and a random identifier that cannot be guessed, in a non-public directory of the server, and can be downloaded only from your session. Each file is deleted as soon as you have downloaded it; a file that is not downloaded is deleted by X-Factura automatically after 24 hours, at the next hourly clean-up.

So that your entries are not lost, your browser automatically keeps the state of the invoice you are writing on this device (local storage, entry xf-draft) – only there; X-Factura does not transmit it. It is deleted as soon as you have created the invoice or choose “Start over”. If you log in, X-Factura moves the draft into your account once and then deletes it from the browser.

Viewing invoices

Under “View invoice” you read in an e-invoice you have received (XML, or PDF with embedded XML). The uploaded file only serves to transmit it: X-Factura reads it, displays the invoice and removes the file from the server at the end of the request – also when you save the invoice. Only if you are logged in and choose “Save as incoming invoice” are the e-invoice (XML), unchanged – for a PDF the XML embedded in it –, and the invoice data it contains stored in your account; X-Factura does not keep the uploaded file itself. If the invoice resembles one already stored, X-Factura keeps its e-invoice (XML) in the server’s cache for up to 30 minutes so that you can take it over with “Import anyway”; after that it expires and is deleted at the next hourly clean-up.

With an account

For an account, X-Factura stores your name, your email address, the language of the interface and your password – the password only as an irreversible hash. No email is sent when you register.

When you are logged in, X-Factura stores every invoice you create in your account: the complete e-invoice (XML) and the invoice data it was created from – parties, items, amounts, dates, payment details and, if you use one, the logo it was issued with. A PDF is not kept as a file but generated anew from this data on every download; only for invoices stored by an earlier version of X-Factura may the PDF generated then still be on the server as a file – it stays with its invoice and is deleted with your account. If no company details are stored yet, X-Factura takes your own details from the first invoice as your company details. The other party of an invoice you create is saved as a contact together with the invoice unless you untick “Save to contacts”. Invoices you read in are stored only if you choose to – with their e-invoice (XML) and their invoice data, without the file you read in; their invoice issuer is then saved as a contact too. If the contact exists already, X-Factura links the invoice to it and only adds details it lacks; an invoice never overwrites stored details of a contact and does not change stored company details. For each invoice you can record whether it has been paid.

While you write an invoice when logged in, X-Factura automatically saves its state as a draft in your account – with the details of the form, without assigning an invoice number. A draft is deleted when you create the invoice from it or delete it yourself.

Your account can also contain what you create there yourself: further company details (such as website, bank details, payment terms, register details), contacts (customers and invoice issuers), drafts, saved services, a number range and your logo – as an image in the database, in every uploaded version that one of your invoices uses.

Your invoices remain stored until you delete them or your account. A deleted invoice disappears from your account; on the server it is only marked as deleted and remains stored with its data so that it can be restored. It is deleted permanently with your account or, before that, by the operator at your request (contact details in the legal notice); there is currently no automatic period for this.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account yourself at any time (company details, “Delete account”). Before that, X-Factura provides you with a complete archive of the invoice documents stored in your account – all years in one ZIP file, which is created when you download it and is not stored. The account can only be deleted once this archive has been transferred completely, you have confirmed that you have saved it, and you have confirmed your password shortly before; if your invoice data change after the download, a new archive is needed first. For this, X-Factura records that and when you received the archive, with the number of documents and with checksums of your session and of the state of your invoices – no contents; a new archive replaces this record, and deleting the account removes it. With the deletion, X-Factura removes your account with your login details (name, email address, password, two-factor authentication data, open logins) and all data of the account: company details, logos, contacts, drafts, saved services, your number range, an e-invoice still held for “Import anyway” and all invoices – issued and received, including those deleted before – with their invoice data and their e-invoice (XML). After that, these data are no longer available in X-Factura; you yourself are responsible for keeping your documents further. Technical backup copies of the operation may still contain data until they are overwritten in the regular cycle. They are not an archive and are not available for export or restoration.

Usage statistics

X-Factura itself counts which functions are used – for example how many invoices of which kind are created – in order to operate and improve the service. These statistics

• are kept exclusively on the server of X-Factura; there is no external analytics platform and no third-party analytics service,
• set no cookies and store nothing in your browser,
• store no IP address – neither in full nor shortened nor as a hash – and no identifier of a user, an invoice, a session or a browser,
• contain no invoice content: no names, addresses, bank details, invoice or customer numbers and no amounts,
• estimate only the country and federal state from the IP address at the moment of the request, with a database on the server of X-Factura and without asking third parties (no such database is currently set up; every region is recorded as “unknown”),
• keep individual events for at most 30 days and then combine them into daily totals,
• build no user profiles; groups with fewer than 5 events are not shown individually in reports.

Details: Usage statistics and local storage.

Storage in your browser

X-Factura stores only the following in your browser’s storage (local storage): your colour scheme, when you switch between the light and dark theme (entry xf-theme); the language of the interface, when you switch it (entry xf-locale, only the language, no identifier); only if you switch on “Remember sender details on this device”, your sender details including bank details (entry xf-sender; switching it off deletes it); and, without an account, the draft of the invoice you are writing (entry xf-draft, deleted when the invoice is created or with “Start over”). These entries do not leave your device.

Cookies

X-Factura sets only cookies that are necessary for its operation:

• xfactura_session – your session, for example for downloading your invoice and for logging in; it ends 1 day after the last request,
• XSRF-TOKEN – protects against forged form requests,
• only if you choose “Stay logged in”: a login cookie (remember_web_…) that keeps you logged in beyond the session, for at most 30 days or until you log out.

There are no cookies for statistics, advertising or tracking.

Logs

X-Factura writes warnings and errors to its own log files, for example when an invoice could not be generated or an email could not be sent. An entry contains the time, type and location of the error and the version of X-Factura, and in the case of an unexpected error during a login also the internal number of the account – no invoice content, no IP addresses and no passwords. How long these logs are kept depends on the configuration of the server.

Independently of this, the web server X-Factura runs on may log requests (for example IP address, time and requested address). The scope and retention of these access logs are set by the server operation; X-Factura does not evaluate them.

To protect against overload and abuse, X-Factura counts requests per IP address or per logged-in account, for logins per account and address, and for “Forgot your password?” additionally per email address – in each case only as a checksum. The counters expire after one hour at the latest and are then deleted hourly.

Emails

X-Factura sends emails only when you request them: the link for resetting your password (“Forgot your password?”) and, if you ask for it in your account, a link to confirm your email address. The reset link is valid for 60 minutes; until then only your email address is stored with a checksum of the link, after which both are deleted automatically. The emails are sent via the mail server the operator has set up for this. X-Factura does not send newsletters or advertising emails.

No third-party services

X-Factura loads no scripts, fonts or images from other servers and embeds no advertising, tracking or analytics services. Links to other websites (such as the legal notice and privacy policy of smact, or the help) are only opened when you click them. The link to the help names only the topic of the page you are on and the language – no data about you or your invoices.

As of: November 2026