Billbee alternative for invoicing: e-invoices, archive and DATEV

For invoicing yes, for everything else no. Rechnungskit takes over invoices, credit notes and cancellations from Shopify, WooCommerce and Shopware, with e-invoices, a locked archive and DATEV bookings including fees. Order processing, shipping labels, stock and marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay stay with Billbee; the two work side by side as long as only one of them writes the invoices.

Yes, and that's the usual way to switch. You run both systems in parallel for one billing period and compare documents and bookings before you switch over.

They stay where they are. Rechnungskit doesn't import or archive invoices created elsewhere; you keep meeting your retention duty for old documents (eight years under § 14b (1) UStG and § 147 (3) AO) in your previous system. What Rechnungskit can pull in are past orders and payments from your connected shops and payment providers, which then become new, validated invoices. For the number sequence, you set the number Rechnungskit continues from, so nothing overlaps with your old documents.

Documents are stored tamper-proof and unchangeable for eight years for as long as your account exists (WORM archive with checksums). Eight years is the retention period for invoices and accounting records (§ 14b (1) UStG, § 147 (3) AO); the requirements for the archive are set out in the GoBD. You can export them at any time, and for 90 days free of charge after you cancel. The final assessment of your process documentation (Verfahrensdokumentation) is up to your tax advisor.

Billbee is order management software for online sellers, made by Billbee GmbH in Twistetal, Hesse. It pulls orders from over 150 shops, marketplaces and services into one list, prints shipping labels and delivery notes, tracks stock and automates workflows with rules. Billbee creates invoices, credit notes and cancellation invoices from the order data, and since January 2025 also as ZUGFeRD invoices.

Billing is by orders per month, with all features included. According to the price calculator on billbee.io, 100 orders cost €48, 500 orders €125, 1,000 orders €171 and 2,000 orders €229 net a month; at the top end the calculator shows 8.4 cents per order. The minimum is €9. Credit notes and cancellation invoices count as orders too. Rechnungskit costs a €9 base fee plus €0.15 to €0.03 per document, so €68 at 500 documents and €105.50 at 1,000. The comparison is lopsided, though, because Billbee's price also covers shipping and the warehouse (as of October 12, 2026).

Since January 1, 2025, Billbee has created ZUGFeRD invoices in format 2.2.0, but only when you generate invoices one at a time or as a ZIP, not in the combined PDF. The help center names no ZUGFeRD profile and no check before sending. XRechnung and the Leitweg-ID don't appear in the help center or the blog. In Rechnungskit every invoice is created as ZUGFeRD 2.5 under EN 16931 and checked before sending; if a Leitweg-ID is stored for the customer, it becomes an XRechnung 3.0. Businesses in Germany have had to be able to receive e-invoices since January 1, 2025; transition periods for issuing them run until the end of 2027 (§ 27 (38) UStG).

GoBD compliance always applies to your whole process, including its process documentation, and a single program only contributes its part. The Billbee help center says that documents are not archived in Billbee. Only the order data is stored, and Billbee regenerates the invoice from it when needed. If you change the order data, you get a new invoice; Billbee itself notes that a cancellation invoice may then be needed. The product page, on the other hand, promises audit-proof archiving. The GoBD require that a record, once created, cannot be changed without leaving a trace (§ 146 (4) AO). With Billbee you need an archive behind it for that, such as DATEV or another archiving system. Rechnungskit locks every invoice from the moment it is created and stores it with a checksum for eight years, as long as your account exists.

Billbee exports revenue, including OSS accounts, as a file or via the DATEV booking data service, optionally with invoice PDFs; DATEV charges its own fees for storing them. Payments only have a manual export. According to the help center, Billbee doesn't import fees from shops and payment providers, and payouts aren't documented. Your tax advisor then books those by hand from the PayPal, Stripe and other statements. Rechnungskit sends revenue, payments, fees and payouts to DATEV as matched bookings, each invoice booking with a document link to its image.

Yes, and for many sellers that's the most sensible setup. Billbee stays in charge of orders, shipping and the warehouse, and you connect Rechnungskit directly to your Shopify, WooCommerce or Shopware store. Then you switch off Billbee's invoice rule for that store, because each sale gets exactly one invoice. Two invoices showing VAT for the same sale can trigger the VAT a second time (§ 14c (1) UStG). Marketplace orders from Amazon, eBay or Etsy stay with Billbee, since Rechnungskit doesn't connect those channels yet.

Billbee has no cancellation as such: you delete the account in your user settings, and that deletes all orders and order documents. Billbee can restore a deleted account for 21 days at most. Back up your invoices first, because the eight-year retention duty is yours (§ 14b (1) UStG, § 147 (3) AO). Alternatively, put Billbee on standby: without new orders it costs €9 a month and your data stays available. Rechnungskit doesn't take over invoices from other systems, so you keep archiving the old ones yourself.

From the providers' publicly available sources, checked on October 12, 2026, with footnotes for each row. Where we found no reliable source, the table says "Not documented". If you spot a mistake, write to support@rechnungskit.de and we'll correct it and re-date the page.