Datev export

Under Accounting → Datev & closing you create a package for your tax advisor. It contains the posting batch in Datev format (EXTF), the journal as CSV, the document files, the list of accounts and tax keys and a checksum file. Everything comes from the unchangeable journal; Leadmode adds nothing of its own.

How to proceedCopy link to heading

1. Choose a period. Whole months, at most one fiscal year. Datev reads only the day and month from the document date, so a batch belongs in one fiscal year. After the booking start and not in the future.
2. View the status of the months. The page shows open months with the Lock button. It uses the same function as Periods and closing: gapless, only after the end of the month.
3. Read the check. The page reports what is missing (for example a Datev key on a tax key).
4. Download the package.

Locked or provisionalCopy link to heading

• If all months of the period are locked, the package is locked.
• You can still export from open months if you explicitly confirm. The package is then called provisional (file name, README, log). In open months, entries can still change.

In the posting batch itself it always says ‘no lock’. Locking in Datev is done by your tax advisor.

Contents of the packageCopy link to heading

You can deselect the document files. The package is limited (100,000 journal lines, 3,000 files, 150 MB); if it is exceeded, Leadmode asks for a shorter period.

How the lines are structuredCopy link to heading

• A journal line is a batch line. Account is the debit account, offset account the credit account, the indicator is always ‘S’, the turnover is the gross amount.
• Reversal entries appear as separate lines with swapped accounts, just as the journal holds them. There is no reversal indicator and no general reversal in Datev: the journal is unchangeable, and a reversal entry refers to Leadmode lines that Datev does not know. The totals remain correct.
• Tax: The gross amount is in the line, and the tax is contained in the BU key (the Datev key of the tax key). On automatic accounts (revenue and goods received at 7 % and 19 %, cash discounts 19 %), the BU key stays empty; the list is derived from the template. With a custom chart of accounts, no account counts as an automatic account.
• Document field 1 is the outgoing invoice number or the internal number of the incoming receipt (ER-…). The file for it is in the directory and as document info ‘Document file’. Characters that Datev does not allow there become ‘-’.
• Cost centre (KOST1) is the project name.
• Document date as DDMM.

Foreign currencyCopy link to heading

The batch knows only euros. For amounts in a foreign currency, Datev needs an exchange rate and euro amount; Leadmode keeps neither and converts nothing. The export therefore rejects the period if lines in a foreign currency are in it. You can explicitly choose to output them separately: they are then missing from the batch and appear in fremdwaehrung-nicht-im-stapel.csv; the README and the log say so. The batch is then not complete.

Collective accountsCopy link to heading

Receivables and payables continue to run on collective accounts (for example 1400 or 1600), not on personal accounts per customer or supplier. Debtor/creditor master data and open items in Datev are not part of the package. That is open and would need a decision with your tax advisor.

LogCopy link to heading

Every export is recorded unchangeably in the log: period, number of lines, number of documents, checksum of the batch, person, time, status of the months (locked/open) and the highest journal number. The checksum later allows proof that a file is unchanged. Leadmode does not store the file itself.

Proofread before first useCopy link to heading

The Datev format is a third-party interface, and requirements differ from firm to firm and program version. Compare the file before first real use with a sample file from your tax advisor:

1. Ask for a sample file (posting batch export or an import file that works for them) and put it next to our file.
2. Header line: EXTF, 700, 21, posting batch, format version (12 or 13), consultant number, client number, start of fiscal year, ledger account length.
3. Origin indicator (‘RE’), field ‘SKR’ (03/04) and ‘lock’ (0).
4. Column line: 125 columns in the same order.
5. Character set Windows-1252, line ending CRLF, umlauts and euro signs correct in the import log.
6. Amounts with a comma, indicator ‘S’, reversal entries as separate lines.
7. BU key: empty on automatic accounts, otherwise the tax key’s key. Is the list of automatic accounts right for your client?
8. Document date DDMM, one fiscal year per batch.
9. Document field 1 and the document info ‘Document file’: does Datev accept them?
10. Cost centres: does the spelling match the cost centres in the client?
11. Collective accounts: Is that intended for your open items?
12. First import a small sample (one month), read the import log, compare debit and credit. Only then the whole period.

If your tax advisor reports deviations, contact support.

What the export does not doCopy link to heading

• It transmits nothing to Datev or the tax office.
• It replaces neither the procedure documentation nor the review by your tax advisor.
• It does not keep debtor/creditor master data, fixed assets or payroll entries.