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Working with your accountant: DATEV export and SAF-T

What the DATEV EXTF export and SAF-T file from OpenBusinessERP contain, what your accountant receives, and the limits stated plainly.

Last checked: Sources listed at the end

Not legal or tax advice. This page summarises public rules and describes what the software does. It does not replace advice from your tax adviser. The linked official sources, in their current version, are what counts.

Most accounting firms in Germany use DATEV. OpenBusinessERP therefore writes your postings in the DATEV format that accountants read in with a batch import. SAF-T is available too, for other countries and audits. Neither is certified by DATEV or any authority.

How it works

  1. Under Accounting › Reports › Export, enter the adviser number (Beraternummer), client number (Mandantennummer) and G/L account length once. Your accountant gives you these values. The same panel holds the personal-account number ranges, the dictation initials and the lock-on-import (Festschreibung) switch.
  2. Pick the period, for example last month, and download DATEV Buchungsstapel (EXTF CSV).
  3. Once, and again when you add customers or suppliers, also export debtors/creditors. Master data exports ignore the period.
  4. Send the files to your accountant. Document images (invoice PDFs) are not part of the export; the file only carries a document link (BEDI) with the document ID. Agree a separate way for the documents.
Export screen: DATEV Buchungsstapel format, period, adviser number, client number and G/L account length
Accounting › Reports › Export with the DATEV settings and the note that the files are not certified.

What the DATEV export contains

FileContent
Buchungsstapel (postings)EXTF header version 700, category 21, format version 13. Posted journal lines of the period. Windows-1252 encoding, CRLF line endings
Debitoren/Kreditoren (master data)Category 16, format version 5, 20 columns: account, name, addressee type, EU country, EU VAT ID, street, postcode, city, country and more. With a G/L account length of 4, personal accounts default to 10000 to 69999 for debtors and 70000 to 99999 for creditors; the ranges can be changed. Numbers are assigned in creation order

The posting file contains all 125 columns of the format. The following 21 are filled; columns without a data source in the program stay empty:

  • Umsatz
  • Soll/Haben-Kennzeichen
  • WKZ Umsatz
  • Kurs
  • Basis-Umsatz
  • WKZ Basis-Umsatz
  • Konto
  • Gegenkonto
  • BU-Schlüssel
  • Belegdatum
  • Belegfeld 1
  • Belegfeld 2
  • Skonto
  • Buchungstext
  • KOST1
  • KOST2
  • EU-Land u. UStID (Bestimmung)
  • Beleglink
  • Festschreibung
  • Leistungsdatum
  • Fälligkeit

Limits

These limits are stated in the source code and on the export screen. Your accountant should know them before importing the first batch:

  • Personal accounts: receivables and payables from invoices, bills and their payments are posted to debtor and creditor personal accounts. Entries without a known customer or supplier, and partners beyond the number range, stay on the collective account (SKR03 1400 and 1600, SKR04 1200 and 3300).
  • SKR03 and SKR04: the tax key mapping covers SKR03 and SKR04; which one applies is set in the export settings (default SKR03). Pick your accountant’s chart before you start booking. There is no DATEV mapping for the Austrian EKR or the Swiss KMU chart.
  • Tax lines: output and input VAT lines are folded into gross amounts. Automatic accounts (SKR03: 8400, 8300, 3400, 3300; SKR04: 4400, 4300, 5400, 5300) get no tax key; other accounts get keys 2/3 (output VAT) or 8/9 (input VAT). Tax lines without a matching counterpart stay as plain rows.
  • Multi-line entries are split into pairwise rows with the same document field 1 (Belegfeld 1).
  • Discounts and foreign currency: for payments with a cash discount (Skonto), the amount goes into the Skonto column and the discount row is dropped. Foreign-currency payments carry currency, rate and base amount on their first row.
  • No certification: neither DATEV nor a tax authority has reviewed the export. Have your accountant import a test file before the first real run.

SAF-T

SAF-T (Standard Audit File for Tax) is an OECD XML format for tax audits. OpenBusinessERP writes SAF-T 2.00 (namespace urn:OECD:StandardAuditFile-Tax:2.00) with a header, master files (G/L accounts, customers, suppliers, tax table) and general ledger entries. Country variants such as the Norwegian one or Polish JPK are not supported. Germany does not require SAF-T; for tax audits, the data access rules of § 147 (6) AO apply.

What to agree with your accountant

  1. Adviser number, client number and account length.
  2. Which number ranges apply to debtors and creditors, and whether dictation initials and Festschreibung should be set.
  3. How documents are sent, and who files the VAT return. The program has no submission to the tax office (ELSTER).
  4. A trial month: have them import the export and compare balances before you deliver regularly.

Check the invoices themselves with the invoice requirements checklist; how existing data gets into the program is covered in Switching from Excel.

Sources

  1. DATEV format: developer documentation (DATEV eG)
  2. § 147 AO, retention of records (German)
  3. OpenBusinessERP: DATEV and SAF-T export in the source, with documented limits