DATEV & tax advisor export
Does your tax advisor work with DATEV? Then in future they get a posting batch from you instead of a shoebox — at a click, with account suggestions.
Why the handover is so often the bottleneck
Most small companies capture invoices twice: once when writing them, and once when the firm retypes them for the bookkeeping. That costs firm time (which you pay for) and produces transcription errors. Structured documents make the double entry unnecessary — provided they arrive in the right format.
| Format | Contents | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| DATEV posting batch (EXTF CSV, version 700) | Posting records with amount, debit/credit, account, contra-account, BU key, document date, document field, posting text | Firms using DATEV |
| Tax advisor CSV (UTF-8 with BOM) | Neutral document list: number, date, partner, net, VAT, gross, category | Firms without DATEV, own analyses |
| Statistics overview | Totals per period, per category, per month — outbound and inbound separated | You yourself, for controlling |
| Field | Example | Source in CoolHanX |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover (amount) | 2.975,00 | Gross amount of the document |
| Debit/credit | S | Outbound = S, inbound = H |
| Account / contra-account | 10000 / 8400 | Collective debtor / SKR suggestion for the category |
| BU key | 9 | from the tax category (e.g. 19% VAT) |
| Document date | 1107 | Invoice date (DDMM) |
| Document field 1 | RE-2026-00041 | Invoice number |
| Posting text | Customer Alpha GmbH | Partner name |
SKR account suggestions — a suggestion, not a presumption
You assign a tax category to each document (the German standard set of 18 categories incl. SKR03 accounts and BU keys is preinstalled; pre-accounting proposes automatically for incoming documents). The export carries this assignment over as a suggestion — the professional decision and the final posting expressly remain with your tax advisor. CoolHanX does not replace a firm; it provides it with better working foundations.
Nothing quietly falls through the cracks
Documents without a posting assignment or without a usable amount are not glossed over on export but flagged — with a reason („no tax category linked“). So you always see what’s in and what’s still missing. An export that looks complete but isn’t would be more dangerous than none at all.
The month-end close with CoolHanX
- 1 · Choose the periode.g. the previous month — from/to date, done.
- 2 · Check open assignmentsThe statistics show documents without a category; two clicks per document, usually via the pre-accounting proposal.
- 3 · Export EXTFDownload the file and send it to the firm — or let it be retrieved directly from the firm’s workflow.
- 4 · DoneNo document copies, no retyping, no queries about illegible numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Which DATEV version is supported?
The posting batch follows the EXTF format version 700 (format name „Buchungsstapel“, category 21, version 12) with German number formatting.
My tax advisor doesn’t use DATEV.
Then they use the neutral CSV — any accounting software can import it.
Are incoming invoices exported too?
Yes, outbound (debit) and inbound (credit) with a collective debtor/creditor — cleanly separated and marked.
Can the firm access it directly?
A dedicated firm portal is planned; today the handover is via an export file.
SKR04 instead of SKR03 — is that possible?
The account suggestions in the standard set are editable — store your firm’s SKR04 accounts once in the tax categories.
How do payment details reach the firm?
IBAN, due date and payment term are in the document and the export in structured form — open-item lists are still maintained by the firm’s software.
Can I export retroactively?
Yes — the period is freely selectable; the archive holds all documents.
What a DATEV posting batch (EXTF) contains
The EXTF format is the established interface through which document data is imported into DATEV. A posting batch consists of a header record (format, advisor/client number, financial year, chart of accounts) and, per document, a posting line with amount, debit/credit, contra-account, document field, date, posting text and tax key (BU). CoolHanX generates this structure from your validated documents — with German number formatting and correct character encoding, so the import succeeds without rework.
| EXTF field | Meaning | Source in CoolHanX |
|---|---|---|
| Turnover | Gross amount of the posting | Document total (BT-112/115) |
| Debit/credit indicator | Posting direction | Invoice type (outbound/inbound) |
| Account / contra-account | General ledger/personal account (SKR) | Pre-accounting proposal (confirmed) |
| BU key | Tax key | VAT category/rate from VAT automation |
| Document field 1 | Invoice number | BT-1 |
| Posting text | Short description | Partner + service |
SKR03/SKR04 and the BU key — a suggestion, not a rule
The chart of accounts (SKR03 or SKR04) and the tax key determine how a document lands in the financial accounting. CoolHanX suggests the account and BU based on the type of service and the VAT category and learns from your corrections — but the binding assignment is made by your tax advisor. That is why the suggestions are visibly justified and can be overridden at any time; nothing is fixed in the background.
Two paths, one goal — EXTF or CSV
Firms that work with DATEV import the EXTF posting batch directly. If your firm works with a different program, CoolHanX delivers the same data as a clearly structured CSV (with BOM/UTF-8, so umlauts stay correct). In both cases the retyping of document copies is eliminated — the firm gets analyzable data instead of a stack of PDFs.
Related topics
Allgemeine Produktinformation — keine Rechts- oder Steuerberatung. Verbindliche Auskünfte gibt Ihr Steuerberater bzw. Ihre Rechtsberatung.
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