Skip to main content
There are two different ways to capture invoices, bills and credit notes as booking proposals in DATEV Unternehmen Online:
  1. Upload documents, e.g., PDF-files, and letting Unternehmen Online capture the data using optical character recognition (OCR)
  2. Upload the documents together with structured data to provide more detail than visible on the document and avoid mistakes due to OCR-failures
The two approaches are described in the respective sections below.

​
Upload files only

Required: Before getting started, ensure that your end users have the Belegbilderservice enabled in their DATEV accounts
1

Authorize end user

Your end user must first authorize your application to access their data in DATEV Unternehmen Online through maesn Connect.
2

Retrieve companies

Fetch all the companies associated to your end users’s DATEV account using the GET /companies endpoint. The user will need to select a company to proceed, as the company ID will be needed for subsequent steps. Note that you can use the interactive authentication flow to eliminate this step.
3

Retrieve user info

Fetch the user info associated to your end users’s DATEV account using the GET /userInfo endpoint. Display the retrieved information in your application’s UI as required by DATEV (see ‘general requirements’ below).
4

Retrieve document types (optional)

Fetch the relevant document types from your end users’s DATEV account using the GET /documentTypes endpoint. The document types will be used to categorize the files you will upload. These may, for example, be presented to the end user as a drop-down menu at the point of file upload.
    IMPORTANT: it is sufficient to call the endpoint only once per user, as the document types are not expected to change frequently.
5

Check document extensions (optional)

If necessary, confirm the file extensions supported by the selected end user company (Mandant) by calling the GET /document-extensions.
    IMPORTANT: like in the step above, this endpoint should be called only once per user.
6

Upload the document

Upload the document to DATEV using the POST /files endpoint. Make sure to include all the required fields in the request body. Ensure your application checks the file size before uploading to avoid performance issues (see last step).
7

Check DATEV general requirements

Review the DATEV interface requirements to ensure that your application complies with DATEV’s specifications.
Optional:
1

Delete end user

If your user deletes their account, you may delete the end user from our API and revoke their token using the the POST /delete-end-users. This step ensures both actions are handled on the backend.

​
Upload files together with structured data

Required: Before getting started, ensure that your end users have the Rechnungsdatenservice 1.0 enabled in their DATEV accounts. In addition, they must have at least one fiscal year set up and the necessary access rights to write accounts payable (bills) and accounts receivable (invoices). These permissions are required for posting financial data through the API.
1

Authorize end user

Your end user must first authorize your application to access their data in DATEV Rechnungswesen through maesn Connect.
2

Get companies

Fetch all the companies associated to your end users’s DATEV account using the GET /companies endpoint. The user will need to select a company to proceed, as the company ID will be needed for subsequent steps. Note that you can use the interactive authentication flow to eliminate this step.
3

Retrieve user info (optional)

Fetch the user info associated to your end users’s DATEV account using the GET /userInfo endpoint. Display the retrieved information in your application’s UI as required by DATEV (see last step).
4

Retrieve ledgers

Fetch the available ledgers from your end users’s DATEV account using the GET /accounts endpoint. The user will need to select a ledger to proceed, as the ledger is required for the subsequent steps.
5

Create booking proposals

Create the booking proposal and upload it to DATEV Unternehmen Online using the POST /bookingProposals endpoint. Make sure to include all the required fields in the request body. You can include multiple files in the request.
6

Check status

Check the status of the upload using the GET /asyncTask endpoint. This will allow you to verify if the upload was successfully processed by DATEV. Read more about asynchronous tasks here
7

Check DATEV general requirements

Review the DATEV interface requirements to ensure that your application complies with DATEV’s specifications.
Optional:
0

Delete end user

If your user deletes their account, you may delete the end user from our API and revoke their token using the the POST /delete-end-users. This step ensures both actions are handled on the backend.