Does this program work in Germany? and does it connect with german banks and datev tax inputting software?

QuickBooks Online helps you manage your company in once place, barbara-lifearti.

Yes, our software supports subscribers from Germany. The moment you sign up, you can select a country. It gives you options on what plan you'll want to use according to your business preference. You can click here to choose the accounting plan that's right for you. 

We also have the online banking feature that allows you to connect your banks into QuickBooks. If you're unable to look for the bank, you can always request it to be added and we'll surely work on adding it soon. 

Once you set up the basic information when signing up, you can then manage your sales taxes. The information is automatically generated based on the company information. Check out these articles for more details:

• How do I set up sales GST/VAT rates and use them on forms? (International QBO)
• VAT Feature Update FAQ

The Community Help articles will give you further details on which section of QuickBooks you need help with. 

I'm just around the corner to keep an eye on your reply if you need anything else. You take care always and have a good one!

@barbara-lifearti 

For your reference

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/quickbooks-online-and-datev-german...

Having had experience of both systems, the issue is like night and day...

The problem is that DATEV is a highly organised lobby with 40000 members and 7000 employees and nearly €1billion in revenues. It has a stranglehold on German business and is like a herbicide for the ecosystem of German start-ups, micro-enterprises and SMEs.

The issue comes down to whether the local Finanzamt will accept QuickBooks. DATEV will lobby hard to ensure that it won't! But that is down to basic audit trails etc.

The DATEV vs QuickBooks issue then comes down to 2 issues:

- The chart of accounts and the SKR (Standardkontenrahmen)

- The Tax Codes (Steuerschussel).

(There are other issues, like the number of invoices per month or transactions per day etc... and above a certain level, QuickBooks is not good - but those issues are not relevant for a DATEV vs QuickBooks comparison)

You could easily add in the entire SKR03 or SKR04 into QuickBooks, as well as the entire DATEV Steuerschussel, and go with that. If you did that, then you would be probably be saving about 50% of time and costs compared to using DATEV alone.

But in reality, you only use a fraction of the SKR accounts, so you only need to enter those. You only use a fraction of the Steuerschussels, so you should only enter those. So you should save more time.

The other issue is that this would still be a very flat chart of accounts and could benefit from a hierarchy -which is easily put in place in QuickBooks.

VAT (Mehrwertsteuer) is very straightforward with QuickBooks - unless you are availing of some really complex VAT laws then this is not a reason not to choose QuickBooks over DATEV.

Then the issue comes to stock, management accounts etc... These sort of issues are much much better with QuickBooks. Getting a management report? I am sure that the entire SME sector in Germany is still looking at self-made Excel files... QuickBooks is so much better. Document and customer management, etc etc... I could go on. 

So then you might need 2 systems for a while... and possibly an interface. So you might need to figure out which one leads, and which one follows... Horses for courses. Not easy to say from afar. But you can do everything with QuickBooks - you just need to ensure that the local Finanzamt will accept it. Ask them. 

IMHO, the DATEV co-operative is one of the reasons that Germany is among the least entrepreneurial countries in Europe for the last 20 years. Really - they are killing SMEs by enforcing their monopoly power. It is very sad - for all of Europe.

Hi there, @ Stirling.

When it comes to integrating Datev and Elster into QuickBooks Online, contact Customer Support since this is a third-party application. Any concerns about syncing or integrating the third-party software into your account are best handled by their technical support.

Just in case you need a third-party application to synchronize your Datev and Elster into QBO, just check out the tools available here at https://apps.intuit.com/app/apps/home. This is to ensure the application is integrated into QuickBooks.  

If there's anything else you need help with, please don't hesitate to visit us again. 

We're always here to assist you. Stay safe always.

Wow, thank you for your comprehensive review. We're based in the UK and use quickbooks for management accounts and reports. Our German tax advisors in Berlin, use DATEV for preparing the VAT and financial accounts. For a long time I have been wondering why we use two systems, now I understand. Very clear.