Germany · VAT & accounting

Accounting software for German businesses

HelloBooks computes your Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung (UStVA) boxes directly from your ledger — standard-rated supplies, output VAT, input VAT, and net VAT payable. ELSTER filing remains manual for now; direct API submission is on the roadmap.

The hard part of German VAT is rarely the submission. It is having every line on the right rate, in the right period, with the input VAT you are entitled to deduct actually captured.

Live today

VAT return computation — Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung (UStVA) boxes 1–7 calculated from your ledger; copy totals into ELSTER
Multi-currency accounting in EUR
AI categorisation and bank-feed reconciliation
Invoicing, AR/AP ageing, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow

On the roadmap

Direct ELSTER API submission (no manual copy-paste)
Datev export for tax advisors
German payroll (Lohnsteuer, social insurance)

How German VAT works

The points below describe the German regime itself, not HelloBooks — they are the rules your books have to line up with.

Standard rate — 19%: Applies to most goods and services supplied in Germany.
Reduced rate — 7%: Covers categories such as most groceries, books and newspapers, public transport and hotel accommodation.
Zero-rated supplies: Exports to customers outside the EU, and intra-EU dispatches to a buyer with a valid VAT identification number where you hold the supporting evidence.
Kleinunternehmerregelung: A business whose turnover was no more than EUR 25,000 in the previous calendar year and is not expected to pass EUR 100,000 in the current one may choose not to charge VAT — and cannot then deduct input VAT.
Monthly or quarterly: Advance returns run monthly or quarterly, following the VAT you were liable for in the previous year. Your Finanzamt confirms the cycle; new businesses are treated separately.
Deadline — the 10th: The UStVA is due on the tenth day after the end of the month or quarter it covers. A granted Dauerfristverlängerung moves that by one month.
Annual reconciliation: Advance returns are provisional. The annual Umsatzsteuererklärung reconciles the year against them.
Where it is filed: Mein ELSTER at elster.de, administered by your local Finanzamt. VAT identification numbers are issued by the Bundeszentralamt für Steuern.

From your ledger to the UStVA boxes

Every sales invoice you raise carries its VAT rate, and every bill you record carries the input VAT you are entitled to deduct. At period end those lines are totalled into the shape the UStVA asks for: standard-rated turnover, output VAT, zero-rated and exempt supplies, deductible input VAT, and the net amount payable or refundable. You review the figures against the transactions they came from, then enter them in Mein ELSTER yourself or pass them to your Steuerberater. HelloBooks transmits nothing to the Finanzamt.

The bank feed is what keeps that computation honest between periods: transactions come in, AI categorisation proposes the account and the VAT treatment, and you confirm or correct. By the tenth of the following month the return is a review job, not a reconstruction job.

See the UStVA box-by-box breakdown

Bank connections in Germany

HelloBooks connects to banks across Germany through Plaid, our open-banking partner — securely import EUR transactions for automatic AI categorisation and reconciliation. Supported institutions include:

Deutsche Bank
Commerzbank
Sparkasse
DKB
Postbank
ING
HypoVereinsbank
Volksbank Raiffeisenbank
N26
Revolut

…and thousands more institutions via Plaid open banking. Connections are read-only and bank-grade secure — HelloBooks never sees your login. Prefer not to connect? Upload a statement and HelloBooks’ AI reconciles it line by line.

Who this is for

GmbH and UG companies that need a euro ledger, VAT-rated sales and purchases and monthly management accounts without running a full ERP.
Freiberufler and Einzelunternehmer who submit their own advance returns and would rather have the totals computed than assembled by hand in a spreadsheet.
Online sellers shipping into and out of Germany, who need zero-rated dispatches and domestic sales kept apart on the same ledger.
German subsidiaries of foreign groups that invoice in other currencies but keep their books and report in euro.

Questions German businesses ask

Does HelloBooks file my UStVA with ELSTER?

No. HelloBooks computes the UStVA boxes from your ledger and shows you the figures. You, or your Steuerberater, enter them in Mein ELSTER. Direct ELSTER API submission is on the roadmap above, not something the product does today.

Which VAT rates does it handle?

The 19% standard rate, the 7% reduced rate, zero-rated exports and intra-EU dispatches, and exempt turnover — each classified per line, so a single invoice can carry more than one rate.

I am a Kleinunternehmer. Is this useful to me?

You are not charging VAT and cannot deduct input VAT, so the UStVA computation matters less. The bank feed, AI categorisation, invoicing and the profit and loss still do the daily work — and are already in place on the day the exemption stops applying.

Do I file monthly or quarterly?

That is set by your previous year VAT position rather than by your software, and your Finanzamt tells you which cycle you are on. HelloBooks computes the return for whichever period you select.

Can I invoice in dollars and still report in euro?

Yes. Multi-currency accounting on a EUR base is live today. Foreign-currency invoices and bills are converted into your euro ledger, so your VAT totals and your financial statements stay in the currency the Finanzamt expects.

Is there a DATEV export for my tax advisor?

Not yet — a Datev export is a roadmap item. Today you can share the computed figures and the underlying reports with your advisor directly.

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Page last reviewed: 2026-09-05.