DATEV Export

With the DATEV Export addon, you can export all invoices, payments, and cancellations from Bookicorn as a DATEV-compliant CSV file. Your tax advisor can import this file directly into DATEV Unternehmen online or DATEV Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen, without any manual data entry.

Category: Finance

What is the DATEV Export?

DATEV is the most widely used accounting system in Germany, used by tax advisors and auditors. Bookicorn exports your financial data in the DATEV format version 700, Buchungsstapel (format version 13) as a CSV file with Windows-1252 encoding, which DATEV software can read directly.

What this means for you:

• You hand your tax advisor a ready-made export file instead of receipts in shoeboxes
• The tax advisor saves time on data entry, which saves you on advisory fees
• Fewer errors from manual data input
• Faster year-end closings and VAT advance returns

Who is the DATEV Export for?

The addon is particularly useful if:

• You work with a tax advisor who uses DATEV (around 90% of all German tax firms)
• You have monthly or quarterly VAT advance returns
• You regularly process invoices through Bookicorn
• You need a clean, GoBD-compliant bookkeeping record

Note: If you are a small business owner without input tax deduction and have few transactions, the PDF invoices from the Automatic Invoices addon may be sufficient. Discuss with your tax advisor which solution suits you best.

Activation in the addon store

Tip: Send your tax advisor a quick message: "I use Bookicorn for my course bookings and can export data in DATEV format version 700 as Buchungsstapel. Which client number should I use, which chart of accounts (SKR03 or SKR04), and which revenue accounts should I use?" The reply usually takes only a few minutes.

The DATEV Buchungsstapel format

The DATEV Buchungsstapel is a standardized CSV format with a header section and booking lines. Bookicorn generates the file fully automatically in the correct structure with 70 columns per line (DATEV spec for format version 13).

File structure (simplified example with shortened columns):

"EXTF";700;21;"Buchungsstapel";13;20260506140000000;;"BK";"My Studio";;1001;456;20260101;4;20260301;20260331;"March 2026";;1;;0;"EUR";;;;;;;;;;
Umsatz (ohne Soll/Haben-Kz);Soll/Haben-Kennzeichen;WKZ Umsatz;Kurs;Basisumsatz;WKZ Basisumsatz;Konto;Gegenkonto (ohne BU-Schlüssel);BU-Schlüssel;Belegdatum;Belegfeld 1;Belegfeld 2;Skonto;Buchungstext;...
59,00;S;;;;;8400;1200;;0103;FZ-26-0042;;;Credit purchase Mustermann;...
1,49;S;;;;;4970;1200;;0103;FZ-26-0042;;;Stripe fee FZ-2026-03-0042;...
29,00;H;;;;;8400;1200;;0503;FZ-26-0043;;;Cancellation Mustermann;...

Explanation of the key fields:

Encoding: The CSV file is encoded in Windows-1252 (DATEV requirement), not UTF-8. When opened in Excel or a text editor, German umlauts may at first appear incorrectly, but DATEV itself reads the file correctly.

Running an export

Import at your tax advisor

Your tax advisor imports the CSV file into their DATEV system:

For import errors: The most common causes are an incorrect advisor or client number, or an account number that does not match the client. Check your settings under Invoices → DATEV and align the data with your tax advisor.

What data is included in the export?

The export contains all Bookicorn invoices with brutto_betrag > 0 from the selected period, regardless of payment method.

Four payment methods are supported:

Cancellations and credit notes: A cancellation invoice is posted with reversed Soll/Haben indicator (H instead of S) and a positive amount. The reference to the original invoice is in the Buchungstext.

Stripe fees are automatically posted separately: For Stripe direct payments, Bookicorn reads the actual Stripe fee from the studio transactions and creates a second booking line on expense account 4970 (SKR03 Nebenkosten Geldverkehr) or 6855 (SKR04). This way your tax advisor has gross revenue and fee separately available.

Not included

• Credit redemptions on course bookings (the customer pays with previously purchased credits, no separate invoice is generated for this). The original credit purchase is included
• Free course bookings (€0 bookings)
• Vouchers as such (the underlying payment when the voucher is purchased is included, the redemption itself is not posted separately)
• Studio plan subscription payments to Bookicorn (this is your incoming invoice from Bookicorn, it is not in your revenue account but would have to be posted separately on your side)

Note: If you use Subsidized Courses and corporate clients pay invoices through external channels, discuss with your tax advisor how to account for these.

Chart of accounts and default account assignments

SKR03 (Bookicorn default, more common for smaller businesses)

SKR04 (more common for larger businesses)

Important: Bookicorn is preset by default to SKR03. If your tax advisor uses SKR04, you must enter the accounts manually in the DATEV tab (Bookicorn does not automatically update the suggested values when switching the chart of accounts). Get the correct accounts from your tax advisor.

Note on cash and manual payments: Bookicorn currently uses the same offsetting account for all payment methods (Stripe, cash, bank transfer, manual), as entered in the DATEV tab (default 1200 SKR03 / 1800 SKR04). If your tax advisor would prefer cash receipts to be posted to the cash account (1000 SKR03 / 1600 SKR04), they can correct this afterwards in DATEV, or you can choose mainly one of the accounts.

Tips for smooth bookkeeping

Monthly export rhythm

Tip: At the end of each month, always export the same period (full month). This way your export aligns exactly with the booking month in DATEV and there are no duplicate or missing entries.

Consistency with time periods

• Always export complete months, no partial periods
• Do not overlap export periods (e.g. exporting 1-20 March and then again 15-31 March would lead to duplicate bookings)
• Note: Bookicorn generates each CSV file fresh, without storing in the system which periods have already been exported. Make sure yourself that you export each month exactly once

Align chart of accounts with your tax advisor

Clarify once with your tax advisor:

1. SKR03 or SKR04?
2. Which revenue accounts should Bookicorn use (default or specific accounts)?
3. How should Stripe fees be posted (4970 SKR03 / 6855 SKR04 is the Bookicorn default)?
4. How should cancellations be handled (Bookicorn uses Soll/Haben reversal with positive amount)?

This one-time conversation saves months of trouble.

Combination with the Automatic Invoices addon

If you also use the Automatic Invoices addon, your tax advisor gets double the benefit:

• DATEV Export for bookkeeping (automatic import)
• ZUGFeRD PDFs as supporting documents (machine-readable and archiving-compliant)

This combination makes your year-end closing as straightforward as possible.