DATEV Export for WHMCS

What does the DATEV export do?

You choose a period, usually one month, and the addon builds a DATEV posting batch from your WHMCS invoices: an EXTF file in format version 13 with the full 125-column layout, Windows-1252 encoding and the header line DATEV expects, carrying your consultant and client numbers. Your tax advisor imports it in DATEV through batch processing. If you tick the option, every invoice of the period goes into a ZIP as a PDF, made with WHMCS's own invoice PDF, so the vouchers travel with the postings.

Each invoice becomes one posting per revenue account. The debtor account is your starting number plus the WHMCS client ID, so 10000 plus client 25 gives 10025. The contra account depends on the customer's country and the VAT on the invoice.

How does it pick the revenue account?

One button fills in the usual account proposals for SKR 03 or SKR 04. Your tax advisor should confirm them, and the settings page reminds you of that.

How does it stop mistakes reaching the tax advisor?

Nothing is exported blind. The preview lists every posting with its accounts and flags anything unusual: a missing country, an odd tax rate, an EU customer without a VAT ID, VAT on a third-country invoice. Real errors, such as a missing account or a debtor number of the wrong length, block the export until you fix them. A batch can only cover one fiscal year, and drafts and canceled invoices are never exported. The overview shows the last twelve months and marks any month that has invoices but no export yet.

Every export stays in a history with its DATEV file, a plain list for Excel and the PDF archive. If you also use my SEPA direct debit module, amounts billed again after a return debit are left out, because they were already exported with the original invoice.

Who is it for?

Businesses in Germany that bill in WHMCS and have their bookkeeping done in DATEV by a tax advisor, and are tired of sending invoice lists that someone has to type in again.

What do you need, and what are the limits?

Requirements: WHMCS 9, the shared core addon included in the download, the consultant number and client number from your tax advisor, and a writable folder outside the web root for the PDF archives. It replaces my earlier DATEV export 1.2 and takes over its account settings when activated.

Limits: it exports invoices, the revenue side only; payments, bank transactions and expenses are not part of the file. It writes a file for import and does not connect to DATEV online services. It is built for invoices in euro.

It costs $299 once for a lifetime license with twelve months of updates and support, an instant download and license key, and a seven-day refund window.