Monthly or quarterly bookkeeping is often an expensive burden for self-employed professionals. A significant portion of your tax consultant's bill does not stem from high-level tax advice, but from basic data entry: manually typing invoices, receipts, and bank transactions into their firm's accounting system.
Handing over an unsorted folder of PDFs or a shoebox of paper receipts at the end of the month means paying the full hourly rate for routine clerical work. The solution to this problem is a technical standard: the DATEV EXTF 700 format.
In this guide, we explain what this format entails and how freelancers and small businesses can use it to drastically cut their accounting costs.
1. What is the DATEV EXTF 700 Format?
The abbreviation EXTF stands for DATEV External Format, a structured CSV data layout developed by DATEV. DATEV is the market leader for tax firm software in Germany, and a DATEV-compatible export can spare your tax consultant the manual work of entering your receipts into their practice-management system (such as DATEV Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen).
An EXTF 700 file contains all the essential information from your outgoing or incoming invoices in a tabular, machine-readable format:
- Invoice number and invoice date
- Client name and debtor account number
- Net, tax, and gross amounts
- Applied VAT rate and revenue accounts (Erlöskonto)
Instead of manually typing every invoice, your tax consultant can import this file into their system with a single click. Hundreds of invoices are turned into complete bookkeeping entries within seconds.
2. Why Freelancers Should Use DATEV Exports
Switching to structured DATEV exports offers three major advantages:
A. Substantial Cost Savings
German tax advisors bill according to the Tax Advisor Remuneration Ordinance (StBVV). The less time the firm spends sorting and typing out receipts, the lower your ongoing bookkeeping fees will be. Speak directly with your advisor about reducing fees when providing pre-assigned DATEV files!
B. Elimination of Transfer Errors
Manual data entry is prone to human error when copying IBANs, invoice numbers, or decimal amounts. An automated DATEV export transfers exact data directly from your billing tool into the accounting system with 100% accuracy.
C. Faster Evaluations and Reports
Because processing takes seconds, you receive your monthly business evaluation (BWA) and VAT return confirmations much faster, keeping your financial overview up to date.
3. How DATEV Export Works with Solobuch
Many legacy ERP systems charge high fees for DATEV export modules. With Solobuch, seamless data exchange with your tax advisor comes standard.
Here is how to optimize your workflow:
- Issue Invoices: Create your standard e-invoices (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung) in Solobuch.
- Select Period: At the end of the month or quarter, navigate to the export section and select your desired date range.
- Generate Export: With one click, generate a valid DATEV EXTF 700 CSV file.
- Forward to Advisor: Send the file directly to your tax consultant or upload it to DATEV Unternehmen online.
You can also assign your individual chart of accounts (such as SKR03 or SKR04) so the export perfectly matches your accountant's setup.
4. Key Takeaways
Sending unstructured PDFs to your tax advisor means overpaying for manual data entry. Digitizing your accounting process requires no technical overhead—just the right tool.
Use modern solutions like Solobuch to issue GoBD- and e-invoicing-compliant documents and transfer your accounting data smoothly to your tax firm via DATEV export.
