How to support DATEV automatic accounts (Automatikkonten)?

Overview

To support automatic accounts (Automatikkonten) in DATEV, you can configure JustOn to use gross values when creating bookkeeping data. To this end, you enable the global setting Enable Accounting in Gross Values as described in Enabling Gross Value Bookings.

If, in addition, you use revenue recognition rules to distribute revenues to future booking periods (deferred revenue), you must, in addition,

enable the global setting Accounting Gross Taxes on First Month,
enable the automatic tax calculation for the gross booking details – using the custom booking code field BuCode with the relevant booking details (see Additional Fields),
optionally, create the BuCode field as a formula that returns the required value according to your use cases, like, for example, IF(ONB2__IsGross__c, 101, null)

Example 1: Automatic Accounts for Revenue and Deferred Revenue

This example illustrates bookings for both the revenue and the deferred revenue to DATEV automatic accounts.

Assume an invoice for electronic services or software licenses in a subscription model – so-called SaaS business models. A typical invoice could look as follows:

Title	Service Period Start	Service Period End	Tax	Subtotal (net)
Service	2022-04-01	2023-03-31	19%	1200,00
			Subtotal (net)		1200,00
			VAT		228,00
			Grand Total		1428,00

Usage fees for electronic services in the subscription model are usually paid for a year in advance, but revenues are often booked proportionally per month in the service period. To illustrate this approach, assume the following conditions:

Service period: 1 year
Complete payment on service period start
Monthly revenue deferral
Tax due and payable with the payment on service period start
Bookings for revenue and deferred revenue to DATEV automatic accounts

Here are the relevant booking accounts:

No.	Account Name	Booking Detail Field
8400	Revenue 19% VAT	G/L Account Number
10001	Debtor	Contra Booking Account
0990	Deferred Revenue	G/L Account Number

In the first month of the service period (04/2022), the entire invoice amount (1428,00) is booked from the debtor account and posted to:

Revenue 19% VAT → 119,00 (gross)
Deferred Revenue → 1309,00 (gross)

#	No.	Account Name Debit	Amount	No.	Account Name Credit	Amount
1	10001	Debtor	1428,00	8400	Revenue 19% VAT	119,00
				0990	Deferred Revenue	1309,00

In the following months (05/2022 – 03/2023), the deferred revenue is periodically reversed and booked as revenue (net):

#	No.	Account Name Debit	Amount	No.	Account Name Credit	Amount
2..12	0990	Deferred Revenue	100,00	8400	Revenue 19% VAT	100,00

To make JustOn create booking details for the bookings shown in the example, it requires the following settings:

Object	Field	Value
Global Settings	`Create Bookkeeping Data`	`true`
	`Enable Accounting in Gross Values`	`true`
	`Accounting Gross Taxes on First Month`	`true`
Invoice Line Item	`Recognition Rule`	`Default` or `Booking Month`
Booking Detail	`BuCode` to be created as a formula field	`IF(ONB2__IsGross__c, null, 40)`

Be aware that DATEV automatic accounts only work with bookings that originate from business within Germany (a German company with a German customer). That is, if your business operates foreign markets as well, your BuCode formula must make sure to set the required value only for German business, including a condition that evaluates, for example, the appropriate tax rule or an according business entity/billing country combination.

Now applying this configuration, JustOn generates these gross booking details for the first month of the service period (04/2022):

#	Booking Period	Amount	Debit/Credit Flag	G/L Account Number	Business Partner Account Number	Is Gross	BuCode	Type
1	04/2022	119,00	H	8400	10001			Revenue
2		1309,00	H	0990	10001			Deferred

Booking to a DATEV automatic account with an empty booking code initializes the automatic tax calculation. DATEV will calculate the tax for both the revenue and the deferred revenue. That is, it takes 19,00 off the revenue and 209,00 off the deferred revenue, gaining the complete tax amount of 228,00 in the first month.

To reallocate the deferred revenue in the following months (05/2022 – 03/2023), JustOn also generates the following net booking details:

#	Booking Period	Amount	Debit/Credit Flag	G/L Account Number	Business Partner Account Number	BuCode	Type
3	05/2022	100,00	H	8400	10001	40	Revenue
4		-100,00	S	0990	10001	40	Deferred
5	06/2022	100,00	H	8400	10001	40	Revenue
6		-100,00	S	0990	10001	40	Deferred
..
23	03/2023	100,00	H	8400	10001	40	Revenue
24		-100,00	S	0990	10001	40	Deferred

The booking code 40 deactivates the automatic tax calculation on DATEV automatic accounts, treating the given amounts as net values.

Example 2: Automatic Account for Revenue, Standard Account for Deferred Revenue

In this example, the bookings for the revenue are to be allocated to a DATEV automatic account, whereas the deferred revenue bookings are to be allocated to a "standard" account (without automatic tax calculation by default).

Assume an invoice for electronic services or software licenses in a subscription model – so-called SaaS business models. A typical invoice could look as follows:

Title	Service Period Start	Service Period End	Tax	Subtotal (net)
Service	2022-04-01	2023-03-31	19%	1200,00
			Subtotal (net)		1200,00
			VAT		228,00
			Grand Total		1428,00

Usage fees for electronic services in the subscription model are usually paid for a year in advance, but revenues are often booked proportionally per month in the service period. To illustrate this approach, assume the following conditions:

Service period: 1 year
Complete payment on service period start
Monthly revenue deferral
Tax due and payable with the payment on service period start
Revenue bookings to a DATEV automatic account, bookings for deferred revenue to a standard account

Here are the relevant booking accounts:

No.	Account Name	Booking Detail Field
8400	Revenue 19% VAT	G/L Account Number
10001	Debtor	Contra Booking Account
0990	Deferred Revenue	G/L Account Number

In the first month of the service period (04/2022), the entire invoice amount (1428,00) is booked from the debtor account and posted to:

Revenue 19% VAT → 119,00 (gross)
Deferred Revenue → 1309,00 (gross)

#	No.	Account Name Debit	Amount	No.	Account Name Credit	Amount
1	10001	Debtor	1428,00	8400	Revenue 19% VAT	119,00
				0990	Deferred Revenue	1309,00

In the following months (05/2022 – 03/2023), the deferred revenue is periodically reversed and booked as revenue (net values):

#	No.	Account Name Debit	Amount	No.	Account Name Credit	Amount
2..12	0990	Deferred Revenue	100,00	8400	Revenue 19% VAT	100,00

To make JustOn create booking details for the bookings shown in the example, it requires the following settings:

Object	Field	Value
Global Settings	`Create Bookkeeping Data`	`true`
	`Enable Accounting in Gross Values`	`true`
	`Accounting Gross Taxes on First Month`	`true`
Invoice Line Item	`Recognition Rule`	`Default` or `Booking Month`
Booking Detail	`BuCode`	formula

The BuCode formula must return one of three possible values:

101 (or another code according to the applicable tax) to trigger the tax calculation for the gross deferred revenue booking in the first month
null for the gross revenue booking in the first month (triggers the automatic tax calculation) as well as for the net deferred revenue bookings in the following months
40 for the net revenue bookings in the following months to deactivate the automatic tax calculation

Accordingly, the formula may look like

IF(
    AND(
        ISPICKVAL(ONB2__Type__c,"Deferred"),
        ONB2__IsGross__c
        ),
    101, 
    IF(
        AND(
            ISPICKVAL(ONB2__Type__c,"Revenue"),
            ONB2__IsGross__c
            ),
        null,
        40
    )
)

Be aware that DATEV automatic accounts only work with bookings that originate from business within Germany (a German company with a German customer). That is, if your business operates foreign markets as well, your BuCode formula must make sure to set the required value only for German business, including a condition that evaluates, for example, the appropriate tax rule or an according business entity/billing country combination.

For the first month of the service period (04/2022), JustOn consequently generates gross booking details for the revenue and for the deferred revenue:

#	Booking Period	Amount	Debit/Credit Flag	G/L Account Number	Business Partner Account Number	Is Gross	BuCode	Type
1	04/2022	119,00	H	8400	10001			Revenue
2		1309,00	H	0990	10001		101	Deferred

Booking to a DATEV automatic account with an empty booking code initializes the automatic tax calculation. Passing a booking code like 101 to an account that is not set as an automatic account will initialize the tax calculation according to the booking code. Consequently, DATEV will calculate the tax for both the revenue and the deferred revenue. That is, it takes 19,00 off the revenue and 209,00 off the deferred revenue, gaining the complete tax amount of 228,00 in the first month.

To reallocate the deferred revenue in the following months (05/2022 – 03/2023), JustOn also generates the following net booking details:

#	Booking Period	Amount	Debit/Credit Flag	G/L Account Number	Business Partner Account Number	BuCode	Type
3	05/2022	100,00	H	8400	10001	40	Revenue
4		-100,00	S	0990	10001		Deferred
5	06/2022	100,00	H	8400	10001	40	Revenue
6		-100,00	S	0990	10001		Deferred
..
23	03/2023	100,00	H	8400	10001	40	Revenue
24		-100,00	S	0990	10001		Deferred

The booking code 40 deactivates the automatic tax calculation on DATEV automatic accounts, treating the given revenue amounts as net values. Accordingly, the empty booking code for standard target accounts does not trigger any tax calculation, so the deferred revenue amounts are treated as net values as well.