DATEV & ERP: Connecting Accounting Properly

The short answer up front: your ERP creates the documents and journal entries, and DATEV processes them at your tax advisor's practice. The two are connected either through a file export (the classic route, the DATEV format as a file) or through a genuine interface that transfers entries and documents automatically. What makes the difference for a clean connection is a matching chart of accounts (SKR03 or SKR04), complete journal entries and an end-to-end document transfer – all GoBD-compliant. This guide shows you what matters in practice.

Why the DATEV-ERP connection matters at all

DATEV is the de facto standard in Germany for exchanging data between companies and tax practices. More than 40 percent of German businesses run their accounting through DATEV software. For your ERP, that means it has to deliver the booking data in a format the practice can read in without rework.

The benefit of a clean connection is concrete. Instead of capturing documents twice, outgoing invoices, incoming invoices and payments flow automatically from your inventory management into the financial accounting. That saves time, lowers error rates and makes working with your tax advisor predictable. Wherever the connection is missing or breaks, media disruptions appear – someone retypes numbers, and that is exactly where errors creep in.

Export or interface: the two routes to DATEV

There are fundamentally two ways to move data from the ERP into DATEV. Both are valid – the choice depends on document volume, booking frequency and the degree of automation you want.

The classic DATEV export

With the export, your ERP generates a file in the DATEV format (today usually the DATEV "EXTF" format, or its successor in the context of the DATEV format descriptions). You transfer this file – or your tax advisor imports it – into the DATEV software. The export is simple, widely used and works even with systems that bring no deep integration.

The downside: it stays a manual step. Someone has to trigger the export regularly, check it and hand it over. With a handful of documents per month that is uncritical; at high volume it becomes a recurring source of errors.

The end-to-end interface

A genuine interface transfers journal entries, and often the document images too, in an automated way – for example via DATEVconnect, DATEV Unternehmen online or a REST API coupling maintained by the ERP vendor. Entries reach the practice promptly, documents are linked in an audit-proof way, and the manual export disappears.

The effort lies in the setup: account assignment, mapping of document types and coordination with the practice all have to be set up cleanly once. Anyone who wants to build this coupling professionally is well served by a structured ERP integration.

The chart of accounts: SKR03 or SKR04

For entries to be assigned correctly, the ERP and DATEV need the same chart of accounts. Two DATEV standard charts of accounts dominate in Germany: SKR03 and SKR04. Both map the same facts, but arrange the general ledger accounts differently.

SKR03 vs. SKR04

SKR03 is structured by process – the order of accounts roughly follows the operational sequence (purchasing, inventory, sales). SKR04 is structured for the financial statement and follows the ordering scheme of the balance sheet and profit and loss statement under the German Commercial Code (HGB). Which of the two fits is usually decided by your tax advisor; the only thing that matters is that your ERP uses the same one.

In practice that means: every accounts receivable customer and accounts payable vendor in the ERP needs the correct account or number assignment, and revenue as well as expense accounts have to match the practice's number ranges. If the mapping is off, entries land on the wrong accounts – a classic among the error sources.

Handing over journal entries and documents cleanly

The actual content of the transfer is the journal entries and the documents that belong to them. Both have to be complete and traceable, otherwise the practice has to rework.

What belongs in a journal entry

A journal entry following the debit and credit principle needs at minimum: document date, document number, amount, tax key or VAT identifier, contra account and posting text. If a tax key is missing or wrong, the advance VAT return will not add up later. The open items from receivables and payables should be transferred too, so the practice can keep the payment reconciliation.

Include the document images

Modern connections transfer not just the booking line but also the digital document image (the PDF of the invoice). That is central to GoBD compliance: documents have to be archived in an audit-proof and unalterable way and linked to the entry. A proper procedural documentation describes how this path from document to entry runs technically – it is mandatory during a tax audit.

Keep the e-invoice in mind in this context: in the German B2B space, the obligation to receive e-invoices has been in force since 1 January 2025. The obligation to issue them is staggered – in principle from 1 January 2027 for companies with more than €800,000 in prior-year revenue, and from 1 January 2028 for all others. What counts is a structured format according to EN 16931, such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. Your ERP and the DATEV route have to process these formats cleanly.

Working with your tax advisor

Even the technically best connection is of little use if the coordination with the practice is missing. Clarify early who books what: does your ERP capture the documents completely (financial accounting in-house), or does it only deliver raw data that the practice assigns to accounts? That determines how deeply the account logic has to be set up in the ERP.

A short alignment on these points makes sense:

• Chart of accounts – SKR03 or SKR04, set it firmly
• Document ranges and number ranges – so document numbers are unique and gapless
• Handover frequency – daily, weekly, monthly
• Document transfer – journal entries only or including the document image
• Access route – file export, DATEV Unternehmen online or a direct interface
• Responsibility for corrections – who cleans up faulty entries

When you select a new system, DATEV capability belongs on the criteria list. Cloud-native systems such as xentral or weclapp bring DATEV export or interfaces out of the box; a look at the ERP directory shows how the individual vendors solve it.

Common error sources in the DATEV connection

Most problems arise not from the technology but from messy master data and missing coordination. These errors show up again and again:

• Wrong or mixed chart of accounts – the ERP uses SKR03, the practice books in SKR04
• Missing or wrong tax keys – leads to a wrong advance VAT return, especially with reverse charge and intra-community supplies
• Gaps in the document numbering – violates the GoBD principles
• Entries without a linked document – makes auditing and audit-proofing harder
• Duplicate exports – the same period is handed over twice, and entries double up
• Delay in the transfer – documents reach the practice too late for timely filings

A clean field mapping between the ERP and the DATEV format, plus consistent master data on both sides, prevents most of these cases. When in doubt, always clarify contested points with your tax advisor – an ERP connection is no substitute for tax advice.

Austria: BMD instead of DATEV

What DATEV is in Germany is largely handled by BMD in Austria. BMD NTCS is the widespread accounting and practice software in the Austrian market, and the logic of the connection is comparable: your ERP exports journal entries and documents into a BMD-readable format, or transfers them via interface to the tax advisory practice.

The basic principles stay the same – an agreed chart of accounts, complete journal entries, audit-proof documents. Only the formats, tax keys and legal framework are Austria-specific. Anyone working across borders in the DACH region should check whether their ERP covers both routes – DATEV and BMD.

Conclusion

A clean DATEV-ERP connection stands or falls on three things: the right route (file export for small volumes, an interface for high volume), the agreed chart of accounts (SKR03 or SKR04) and complete journal entries together with the document transfer – GoBD-compliant throughout. The most frequent problems are homemade: wrong account assignment, missing tax keys and a lack of coordination with the practice. Whoever sets the chart of accounts early with the tax advisor, sets up the mapping cleanly once and delivers documents in an audit-proof way saves rework and trouble at the next tax audit. In Austria the same principle applies – only there the standard is called BMD.