DATEV export: send invoices to your accountant as a journal batch
Download outgoing invoices as an EXTF journal batch for DATEV: set the options, check the preview, understand which invoices are missing and why, hand the file to your accountant.
The DATEV export turns your outgoing invoices into a journal batch in EXTF format — the file your accountant imports directly. You find it under Integrations → DATEV.
The export produces journal entries, not documents. If your accountant also needs the PDFs, use the document export — the two complement each other.
The video shows how to trigger the document export, set up DATEV with the advisor and client number and assign revenue accounts to products, locations and categories.
You’ll find the individual steps written out below as well.
1. Set the options (once)
Without options there is no export section. You need:
| Field | Where from |
|---|---|
| Consultant number and client number | your accountant |
| Chart of accounts (SKR03 or SKR04) | your accountant |
| Account length | usually 4 |
| Fiscal year start | normally 1 January |
| Default debtor account | collective account for customers without their own debtor number, e.g. 10000 |
| Revenue account per tax rate | one row per rate, e.g. 19% on 8400 and 7% on 8300 in SKR03. Add as many rates as you need, including 0% |
| Posting key per tax rate | either a posting key or the "Automatic account" checkbox. On an automatic account DATEV derives the tax from the account itself and the key stays empty |
| Default cost centre | optional, applies when neither the product nor the category carries one |
Save — the export section then appears above.
1a. Setting revenue accounts and cost centres
The export looks for both in a fixed order and takes the first hit:
| Order | |
|---|---|
| Revenue account | invoice line item → product → product category → venue → default per tax rate |
| Cost centre | product → product category → venue → default cost centre |
Set the revenue account on the product under Inventory → Product → Accounting, or on the product category when a whole group shares one account. The cost centre lives in the same two places.
Posting two sites separately
If you run two houses and your accountant needs the revenue kept apart for trade tax, set the revenue account per tax rate directly on the venue (under Locations, accounting section). It applies to every event held there, but only where neither the product nor the category carries an account.
That way your catering business without a venue stays on the default accounts, and only what actually takes place in one of the houses is posted separately. You do not have to duplicate the products.
Filling in accounts in Excel
Under Inventory there is an Export products button. The file carries revenue account and cost centre as their own columns and imports back unchanged. So you can fill in the accounts in Excel at your own pace and put the file back, instead of opening every product one by one.
On re-import only empty fields are filled. An account that is already set stays as it is — open the product to correct it.
2. Check the preview (recommended)
Pick a period and click Check preview. The preview creates no file and marks nothing as exported. It tells you:
- how many invoices go into the batch and how many journal lines they produce,
- which invoices are NOT in the batch — with document number and reason,
- how many invoices post to the collective debtor account,
- how many line items land on the default revenue account,
- whether any line items have no revenue account at all.
This is worth doing because the export itself is not repeatable without consequences: it records on every included invoice that it has been exported (see step 4).
Why is an invoice missing from the batch?
| Notice | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| No postable line item | Every line item is deleted, optional, not charged or part of a bundle — there is nothing to post. Common for invoices from a data migration that only have a header and no line items. | Open the invoice and check whether line items are missing. If the amount is correct but there is no line item, it belongs in the books by hand. |
3. What the notices about default values mean
Neither is an error — for many businesses this is exactly the intended setup:
- "post to the collective debtor account" — the contact has no debtor number. All those customers land on the same account. Your accountant can post that, but cannot keep an open-item list per customer. If you need one, enter a debtor number on the contact. If the contact belongs to a company, the number on the company is enough — contact persons inherit it.
Many numbers at once: the contact import has a Debtor number column, and Export contacts → Excel gives you a list with customer number, debtor number, name and address. Export the existing base, fill it in at your own pace and import it back.
Your tax advisor also needs the debtors themselves in DATEV: Export contacts → CSV (DATEV) downloads a file DATEV reads directly as debtor master data (semicolon-separated, Windows character set, street and house number in one column, country as a code such as
DE). DATEV does not import Excel files automatically.
- "post to the default revenue account" — neither the product nor the product category has a revenue account, so the default per tax rate applies. If you want revenue split by line of business (food, drinks, rentals), set the revenue account on the product or the category.
- "have NO revenue account at all" — this one is a real problem: the journal line would have no contra account and DATEV rejects it. Add the default revenue accounts in the options.
4. Export
Export journal batch downloads the CSV file and records on every included invoice that it has been exported. The next export therefore leaves those invoices out — so your accountant never posts anything twice.
If you need a full period again, tick "Include already exported invoices".
⚠️ Invoices that were not in the batch do not get that mark — they show up again in the next export as soon as they have postable line items.
5. Which invoices qualify at all
Invoices in the states issued, sent, paid, overdue and cancelled, plus credit notes in the states issued, sent and settled. Quotes, delivery notes and drafts stay out.
A cancelled invoice and its credit note both go in: the invoice was issued to the customer and has to be posted, the credit note balances it out. The credit note appears as a credit entry, so with the opposite direction.
The period refers to the document's issue date.
6. Service date
Besides the invoice date, every booking line carries the service date (column “Leistungsdatum” in the batch). That lets your tax advisor assign the revenue to the month in which you delivered — an invoice dated 3 September for an event on 12 August belongs to August for VAT purposes.
The date comes from:
- the service period in the document header (start),
- otherwise the start of the event the document belongs to,
- otherwise the field stays empty — DATEV then uses the invoice date.
For multi-day events the first day counts. Credit notes take the service date of their invoice.