DATEV Interfaces: How to Automate Your Financial Accounting

DATEV is the most widely used accounting software in Germany – over 2.5 million companies rely on it. But many do not utilize its full potential. Manual data transfers, double entries, and missing integration with other systems cost time and cause errors. Targeted interface solutions can change that.

Common Interface Problems

In practice, I see the same problems again and again: bank transactions are manually transferred to DATEV. Invoice data from the ERP system is entered by hand into financial accounting. Travel expense reports arrive as Excel spreadsheets. Outgoing invoices from the online shop need to be booked individually. Each of these media breaks is a potential error source and wastes valuable working time.

Automation Possibilities with DATEV

DATEV offers various interfaces that solve many of these problems: DATEV Unternehmen online for digital document exchange with your tax advisor. The DATEV interface for automatic bank transaction imports. Booking data service for transfers from upstream systems. And the DATEV API for custom integrations. Additionally, tools like Python scripts or middleware solutions enable more complex automations: automatic account assignment, matching of delivery notes and invoices, or consolidation of data from multiple sources.

Case Study: Automating Invoice Processing

A typical project: a mid-sized company receives 500 incoming invoices monthly. Previously, these were manually entered into DATEV – time spent: approximately 40 hours per month. By implementing an OCR solution with DATEV integration, time was reduced to 8 hours. The software automatically reads invoice data, creates booking suggestions, and transfers data to DATEV. Staff only review edge cases.

Next Steps for Your Company

Every company has different starting conditions and needs. In a free initial consultation, I analyze your current DATEV processes and identify the biggest automation potentials. As an IT consultant with financial accounting experience, I speak both the language of your IT department and your accounting team. Contact me – the first consultation is free.