Klarna e‑invoicing: Pay Later and installments, invoiced automatically

Klarna connected directly, no webhook workarounds

In Germany, Klarna is the go-to provider for Pay Later (Rechnungskauf) and installments. Technically, though, Klarna is built differently from Stripe or Mollie: there are no webhooks that report new payments to your systems, and no interface that lists orders. The reliable source is Klarna's settlement data, where every payment, refund, dispute and fee is listed individually.

Rechnungskit uses exactly this source and turns it into an automatic process: new transactions are pulled every 4 hours and payouts are reconciled daily. Klarna has one quirk here. Payments only appear in the settlement data once Klarna has processed them for payout, one to several days after the purchase depending on your payout schedule. The order shows up in the Klarna Merchant Portal right away, but connected systems run on Klarna's own schedule. Every Klarna payment becomes a ZUGFeRD invoice with a PDF and embedded XML, checked against the mandatory details under § 14 Abs. 4 UStG (German VAT Act), archived in an audit-proof way and prepared for the DATEV export. Customers with a Leitweg-ID (the routing ID German public bodies use), such as authorities or universities, get the same invoice as XRechnung 3.0.

How to connect Klarna, step by step

1. Open the Klarna Merchant Portal and sign in with your merchant account.
2. Go to Settings and then to Klarna API credentials. Create new credentials: Klarna shows you a username and an API key. Copy both; the key is shown only once.
3. Enter the username and key in Rechnungskit under Connections → Connect, at Klarna.
4. Rechnungskit checks the credentials against the Klarna API right away and detects automatically whether they are live or Playground credentials.

That is the whole setup. There is no webhook URL, because Klarna offers no webhooks; Rechnungskit handles the polling.

Matching via the order number

Every Klarna transaction carries the order number that your shop plugin stores when it creates the Klarna order. Rechnungskit uses it to find the matching order from Shopify, WooCommerce or Shopware and creates the invoice with the order's actual line items, tax rates and customer details instead of a lump-sum amount.

If you refund a payment, the cancellation invoice (Stornorechnung) is created automatically. If your shop loses a buyer dispute, the invoice is deliberately not cancelled: the receivable reopens and you get a task, because the goods were delivered and the invoice was correct.

Fees and payouts in the DATEV export

In the settlement, Klarna shows the fee for every single payment, plus the commission per payout. Rechnungskit reads both and separates what would otherwise be manual work for your tax advisor:

Each payment provider gets a transit account of its own; that is the only way to check per provider whether payments, fees and payouts add up. All accounts can be changed freely in the DATEV settings so they match your tax advisor's chart of accounts. In the payment list you see the fee for each payment individually, with a breakdown one click away.

When you need this integration and when you don't

This integration is for merchants with their own Klarna contract who have Klarna wired directly into the checkout. If Klarna runs as a payment method through Mollie, Stripe or Unzer, you do not need it: the Klarna payments already come in through that connection, including fees and payout reconciliation.