DATEV interface

Export posting batches for your tax adviser, import DATEV files as master data, opening balances, current-year postings and payroll postings, and reverse imports.

Available in the plans: Business Pro

Under DATEV you exchange data with your tax adviser's DATEV: you export your postings as a DATEV posting batch, import customers, suppliers, account names, opening balances, postings of the current year and payroll postings from DATEV files, and see all earlier exports and imports. The page has the tabs Export, Import and History.

Set up the DATEV settings first: without the Beraternummer and Mandantennummer, the export shows a notice with the link Open the DATEV settings.

Export postings

Open the Export tab.
Under Period, choose a Month, a Quarter, a Year or a Custom period with From and To. The period must lie within one calendar year.
Under Also include, choose what should be included as well (see the table).
Click Export.

Without extras you receive the posting batch as a CSV file. With extras, Kontelio creates a ZIP package in the background; a progress bar shows how far it is, and the download starts by itself as soon as the package is ready. Give the file to your tax adviser.

Option	Meaning
Debitoren/Kreditoren (customers and suppliers)	Master data of customers and suppliers. Needed if you chose one account per business partner in the DATEV settings.
Sachkontenbeschriftungen (names of your own accounts)	The names of your own accounts and sub-accounts, so they are named correctly in DATEV.
Documents (receipts and invoices with the link to the postings)	The document files, linked to the postings. This makes the package larger.
Include payroll bookings	Imported payroll postings. Off by default, because they usually already come from your tax adviser's office. Only tick it if the office does not do your payroll. Imported postings of the current year are always included in the export.

Import DATEV files

In the Import tab you read in DATEV files, for example from your tax adviser or from your previous accounting software when you switch to Kontelio. Kontelio recognises the type of file itself:

Debitoren/Kreditoren become customers and suppliers. Existing business partners are recognised by the linked DATEV account number or the VAT ID and updated.
Sachkontenbeschriftungen become account mappings: Kontelio remembers which of its own accounts corresponds to a DATEV account. No new accounts are created.
What a Buchungsstapel becomes is your choice, made before uploading under A Buchungsstapel contains (see the table).

Choice	What it becomes
Opening balances of a closed year	The balances of the balance sheet accounts at year end are carried forward to the following day as opening balances. Profit and loss accounts are not carried forward.
Bookings of the current year	Each row becomes a posting of its own in the current year and is checked like any other posting.
Payroll bookings	The posting batch of your payroll program: wages, wage tax and social security become postings without VAT.

How to proceed:

Under A Buchungsstapel contains, choose what the posting batch contains. For customer/supplier files and account labels the choice does not matter.
Under DATEV file (CSV or ZIP), choose a CSV file or a ZIP with several DATEV files, at most 9 MB. The DATEV export of other accounting software as a ZIP is read too.
Click Show preview. Nothing is changed yet. A ZIP produces one preview per file it contains.
Check the preview: type of file, Beraternummer / Mandantennummer, Period, Chart of accounts and each row with Action and Note.
Opening balances only: accounts with Account missing need a Kontelio account. Choose it in the Kontelio account column and click Save account assignment.
Click Import and confirm. Or discard the preview with Discard.

For current-year postings and payroll postings the preview looks different; the next section describes it.

Action	Meaning
Create	Is created (for the posting batch: becomes an opening balance).
Update	An existing record is updated.
Map	The DATEV account is mapped to a Kontelio account.
Skip	The row is not taken over.
Error	The row contains an error; the reason is shown under Note.

Under Earlier imports you see the previous imports with type and status. The same file can only be imported once, unless the import was reversed. Bank statements are not read in here but through the bank import.

Import current-year and payroll postings

With Bookings of the current year or Payroll bookings, each row of the file becomes a posting of its own in the journal. All rows must lie in the year of the file, in months that are still open. For a closed year, choose Opening balances of a closed year.

Check the preview

Read the counters above the table: how many rows are ready, need a tax code, are possible duplicates or errors, and how many will be posted, are skipped or are still open.
If a DATEV account has no Kontelio account yet, a list with DATEV account and Kontelio account appears. Choose a Kontelio account for each one and click Save account assignment. Kontelio remembers the mapping for future imports and checks the rows again.
If you have several activities, choose under Default activity the activity for all rows whose cost centre (KOST1) matches none of your activities. KOST1 is compared with the name or the invoice prefix of the activity.
Under Effect per month (UStVA/EÜR), check what reaches the VAT return and the EÜR in each month: Revenue (net), Output VAT, Purchases (net) and Input VAT.
Decide the open rows (see the table). With Show you show only the rows of one status.

Row statuses

Status	What to do
Ready	The row will be posted (Will be posted). Nothing to do; with Skip you leave it out.
Tax code missing	The BU-Schlüssel is unknown or matches several tax codes. In the Decision column, pick a tax code under Choose the tax code…; the codes Fitting the BU-Schlüssel are listed first. Or skip the row.
Possible duplicate	An identical row (date, accounts, amount, BU-Schlüssel, Belegfeld 1) has already been imported with another file. Only click Post anyway if it really is a second posting; otherwise click Skip.
Error	The row cannot be imported. You can only skip it.

When you skip, Kontelio asks for a reason; it is saved with the import. Above the table, a button skips all error rows at once, with one shared reason.

Common reasons for Error:

Reason	Meaning
Kontokorrent (open items) is not imported: book the invoice or expense in Kontelio	Customer and supplier accounts (Kontokorrent, open items) are not imported.
Fixed assets and depreciation belong in the fixed assets module	Record the asset under Fixed assets; the depreciation is created there too.
The month is closed or locked	For example after the VAT return was filed. See Periods.
DATEV account without Kontelio account	Save the account mapping (step 2 above).
Date outside the year of the file	The file contains rows of another year.
Foreign currency is not supported	Only postings in euros are imported.
Payroll rows must not have a BU-Schlüssel	Payroll postings are always without VAT.

Import

As soon as no row is open, all accounts are mapped and, if requested, the default activity is chosen, click Import and confirm.
Kontelio checks every posting like any other posting. It is all or nothing: if one row is refused, nothing is posted, the message names the row, and the import stays in the preview.
Large files are posted in the background; a progress bar shows how far it is. If a part fails, what was already posted is reversed and the import returns to the preview. The journal then shows the posting and its reversal side by side; nothing remains posted.

The history

The History tab lists each export with Created, Kind, Period, Rows, file name with checksum and Notes. A repeated export of a period is marked with Replaces an earlier export. The history cannot be changed or deleted.

Under Imports you find the imports with Content and Status. To undo an import of current-year or payroll postings:

Click Reverse import in its row and confirm.
Every posting of the import is cancelled in the background by a reversal posting; nothing is deleted. The import then has the status Reversed.
You can then import the same file again, for example with different decisions.

Good to know

The DATEV interface is part of the Business plan.
Users with the right to export data may export and see the history; only users with the right to import data may import and reverse (owners, administrators and accountants). You only see the tabs you are authorised for.
Kontelio creates files that your tax adviser reads into DATEV. There is no direct transfer to DATEV.
Open items of customers and suppliers (Kontokorrent) and fixed assets are not imported. Record invoices and expenses in Kontelio and assets under Fixed assets.
An imported posting is not a receipt. Kontelio keeps the original file unchangeable; the receipts themselves stay with you or in your previous software.