AccountingDE for Germany: setup, year-/month-end close, BWA, balance sheet/P&L, GoBD export

Dolibarr accounting for German requirements - from setup to the year-end close

Dolibarr records invoices and payments reliably. What German bookkeeping needs on top has so far been manual work: once, the configuration for German requirements (a complete SKR03 or SKR04 chart of accounts, the standard German charts, and account assignment for invoices); then every month booking accruals and provisions, calculating depreciation, rebuilding the balance sheet and the BWA (the German short-term income statement) in a spreadsheet and protecting closed months from later entries; and finally closing the fiscal year. BuchhaltungDE (AccountingDE in the English interface) does this inside Dolibarr - with a preview before every posting and without overwriting existing data.

Why this module?

• Chart of accounts up to date: Missing accounts of the DATEV standard for SKR03 or SKR04 are added, including the hierarchy. A preview shows first what will be created; existing accounts, labels and entries stay untouched.
• Automatic account assignment set up: Default accounts for customers, suppliers, output VAT, input VAT and reverse charge under section 13b of the German VAT Act, accounts per VAT rate and switches for German rules - with checked proposals. Only what you tick is applied; accounts without a value yet and recommended switches that were never set are ticked in advance.
• Year-end close in Dolibarr: With SKR03/SKR04, Dolibarr's year-end close does not find the account classes and closes the year without booking anything. AccountingDE takes over this step: the balances of all balance sheet accounts are carried forward into the new year and the result is booked to retained profit or loss - in one step, nothing is left behind if it fails. The module proposes the settings for it (account classes, result accounts, journal for the opening entries); at year end the cockpit shows what is still open.
• Balance sheet, P&L and BWA: Balance sheet and P&L by the nature of expense method with the previous year, the BWA as a short-term income statement. Every amount opens down to the single entry; all three also as PDF. Fiscal years that differ from the calendar year are supported.
• Month-end close in a cockpit: A checklist per month in closing order (documents bound and transferred, closing entries, reconciliations, finalisation, VAT return, EC sales list, DATEV export), a quarter view and year-end hints. One run books accruals, recurring entries, provisions, depreciation and bad debts in a fixed order - with preview, log and, if you like, as a scheduled job. If an invoice or bank entry is not yet in the general ledger or a line has no account, the cockpit shows it, with a link to the account assignment or the journal - for earlier months as well.
• Accruals, recurring entries, provisions: Deferrals spread over months, rent and leasing as templates, provisions with use and release. The holiday provision has a kind of its own with matching accounts.
• Bad debts with VAT correction: When you close a customer invoice in Dolibarr with the reason "customer does not pay" (uncollectable or partially paid), Dolibarr only changes the status - the receivable stays in the general ledger and the VAT is not corrected. BuchhaltungDE writes off the open remainder: net to bad-debt losses per VAT rate, the VAT reversed under § 17 (2) no. 1 UStG (SKR03 2406/2401 with 1776/1771, SKR04 6936/6931 with 3806/3801), tax-exempt EU supplies and sales without VAT to accounts of their own, the receivable with the customer account on the credit side. If the customer pays after all, reopen the invoice and record the payment; the module reverses the write-off pro rata on the payment date and the VAT is due again. Everything with preview and confirmation in the cockpit and the month-end run, accounts adjustable in the setup.
• Fixed assets: On top of the Dolibarr asset module: depreciation run into the general ledger, preview and simulation, transfers with a PDF voucher, inventory list per key date and the asset straight from the supplier invoice, proposed by the low-value asset threshold.
• Closed stays closed: Locked months accept no more entries: no invoice validation and no changing, cloning or deleting in the Dolibarr ledger. Invoices already transferred to accounting cannot be deleted. Optionally the journal transfer needs approval by a second person (with WorkflowHub).
• Clean invoices: Before validation the module checks the point of tax date and the VAT: does the rate fit the customer - domestic, EU with or without VAT ID, non-EU? Is the mandatory notice on reverse charge, intra-Community supply, export or small business missing? The matching text is proposed. You choose the German term for credit notes yourself - Stornorechnung, Rechnungskorrektur or Gutschrift.
• Ready for the tax audit: The GoBD export creates the data carrier (Z3) under section 147(6) of the German Fiscal Code in the format the audit software IDEA reads: journal, chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, document list, open items at the cut-off date and, if you like, the invoice PDFs cross-referenced to the entry.
• Master-data history: Which address, VAT ID, tax number and accounts applied to a third party when the invoice was issued? Every change is recorded with old and new value, time, user and origin - on the third-party card, through the REST API and when merging; changes by import are added by a daily reconciliation. Entries are only appended, never changed. The state on any date can be shown and is part of the GoBD export.
• With handbook: The BuchhaltungDE handbook (PDF, in German) explains setup, reports, month-end close and fixed assets step by step with screenshots, on 32 pages with a cheat sheet.

How it works

1. Set up: Activate the module, align the chart of accounts, take over default accounts and report structure with one click.
2. Book: Transfer invoices and payments to accounting as usual.
3. Close the month: Check in the cockpit that all documents are transferred, start the run with preview (accruals, provisions, depreciation, bad debts), tick off the checklist, lock the month.
4. Close the year: In December the cockpit shows what is open at year end; the period lock closes the year and carries the balances forward.
5. Report: View BWA and balance sheet/P&L, follow conspicuous amounts down to the entry, pass them on as PDF.

A tool, not audited financial statements

Balance sheet, P&L and BWA are preliminary reports of your entries, as you need them to steer the company and to talk to your bank or tax advisor. The year-end close in Dolibarr closes the fiscal year in the ledger; the annual financial statements under the German Commercial Code (HGB) are still prepared by your tax advisor. Balances are right once the opening balance is booked; the VAT on your invoices remains your decision, the checks and previews only make it visible.

What the module does not do

• It sends nothing to the tax office and does not create the VAT return or EC sales list.
• It does not export to DATEV.
• The P&L is only available by the nature of expense method, not by the cost of sales method.
• No payroll; salaries come in as an entry from another system.

User interface languages: German, English
Charts of accounts: SKR03 and SKR04

Requirements

Dolibarr 22 or later. Each major version (22 to 24) is tested with its current patch release; please keep your major version on its current patch release. PHP 7.4 to 8.5 (PHP 8.5 from Dolibarr 23, as Dolibarr 22 itself supports PHP up to 8.4).

• Database MySQL 5.7 or later or MariaDB 10.3 or later. PostgreSQL is not supported.
• Accounting module (double-entry bookkeeping) with SKR03 or SKR04
• For the fixed asset functions: the Dolibarr asset module
• Optional: WorkflowHub for the journal transfer approval, ControllingHub for cost centres

Included

With the purchase of the module you receive:

• A ZIP file for download and self-installation
• The BuchhaltungDE handbook (PDF, German)
• Updates within one year after purchase (downloadable from the Dolistore)

Please note, NOT included are:

• Installation and setup in your system
• Training and answering general user questions
• Tax advice
• Custom adaptations and extensions

If you are interested, we will be happy to make you an offer.

Documentation & demo

The BuchhaltungDE handbook comes with the module as a PDF (folder doc, in German) and describes setup, reports, month-end close and fixed assets with screenshots.

Try the module before you buy in our demo instance: https://demo.portal.dolicenter.com