DATEV Export for Accounting for OpenCart

Overview

Hand your tax adviser a file they can import: your OpenCart orders and credit notes as a DATEV booking batch (EXTF) and the debtor master data, with SKR03 and SKR04 account presets, VAT, intra-community and OSS handling, a validation report and an optional scheduled export.

Honest scope: this extension creates an export file for your tax adviser. It is not DATEV-certified and it does not talk to DATEV online services.

Key features

• Booking batch in the DATEV format (EXTF, version 700, category 21 "Buchungsstapel"): amount with decimal comma, Soll/Haben (S/H), account, counter account, booking date (DDMM), Belegfeld 1 (document number), booking text; Windows-1252, semicolon separated, CR/LF.
• Debtor master data file (category 16 "Debitoren/Kreditoren") for the customers that were booked.
• SKR03 and SKR04 presets: revenue accounts for 19 %, 7 % and 0 % VAT, intra-community supplies, tax-free exports, optional separate accounts for shipping and payment fees.
• OSS (one-stop shop): one revenue account per EU country, mapped by the delivery country.
• Debtor numbers: one collective debtor, or one number per customer from a start number (the number stays with the customer).
• Credit notes: orders in "refund" statuses and, when installed, the credit notes of our PDF Invoices & Credit Notes extension are booked Haben.
• Payments: optional clearing-account bookings, one account per payment method.
• Belegfeld 1 is the OpenCart invoice number, or the number of PDF Invoices & Credit Notes, otherwise the order number.
• Validation report before you download: missing VAT or OSS accounts, missing client numbers, periods over two fiscal years, orders you can skip.
• Download by date range and order status, or write files automatically into a server folder from the OpenCart cron.
• Events and cron only, no OCMOD, no core edits; the extension only reads orders.

Compatibility

• OpenCart 4.1.0.4 (the version we test); no OpenCart 3 edition.
• PHP 7.4 to 8.3 as your OpenCart version allows.
• The default currency of the shop must be EUR.

Next steps

DATEV is a trademark of DATEV eG. This extension is independent software; it is not made, endorsed or certified by DATEV eG.

Installation

Requirements

• OpenCart 4.1 (tested on 4.1.0.4), PHP 7.4 to 8.3 as your OpenCart version allows.
• The default currency of the shop must be EUR (System > Localisation > Currencies, and the shop setting).
• Administrator access to the admin panel.
• The consultant number (Beraternummer) and client number (Mandantennummer) your tax adviser uses for your company.

Install the extension

1. Download kv_datev_export.ocmod.zip from your Kavio Labs or opencart.com account.
2. In the admin panel open Extensions > Installer, upload the file and click the green install button.
3. Open Extensions > Extensions, choose the type Modules, find DATEV Export for Accounting and click the green Install button, then the blue edit button.
4. Enter the license key in the License box and save. Without a key the extension works for 14 days; the admin pages are never blocked.
5. Open Sales > DATEV Export > Accounting settings and follow Configuration.
6. For the scheduled export make sure the standard OpenCart cron job runs on your server (cron.php or the web address of the OpenCart cron, see System > Maintenance > Cron); the install registers a daily entry.

Update

Upload the new package in Extensions > Installer and install it. Your settings, debtor numbers and export history are kept. See the CHANGELOG.

Uninstall

Uninstall the module in Extensions > Extensions > Modules, then remove the package in Extensions > Installer. Uninstalling removes the settings, the debtor numbers, the export history and the exported flags (four database tables), the events, the cron entry and the permission. Export files you downloaded or that were written to a server folder are not touched.

Configuration

All accounting settings are on one page: Sales > DATEV Export > Accounting settings. The module page in Extensions only holds the on/off switch and the license.

Ask your tax adviser for the values marked (adviser). The account numbers in the presets are the standard accounts of SKR03 and SKR04; many companies customise their chart, so let your adviser confirm them once.

Client data (adviser)

Chart of accounts and revenue accounts

• Chart of accounts: SKR03 or SKR04. The buttons "Reset to SKR03/SKR04 preset" restore the standard accounts.
• Standard / reduced VAT rate: 19 and 7 by default. A tax line of the order with another rate in your own country is reported as an error until you map it.
• Revenue accounts: 19 %, 7 %, without VAT (domestic), intra-community supplies (EU, VAT ID), tax-free exports (non-EU). SKR03 presets: 8400, 8300, 8200, 8125, 8120. SKR04 presets: 4400, 4300, 4200, 4125, 4120. Revenue accounts of the standard charts carry the VAT automatically, so no BU key is written.
• Shipping and payment fee accounts (optional): empty means the same account as the goods of that VAT rate. With an account set, the shipping part (or the payment fee) is booked on its own line.
• OSS revenue accounts per country: one line per country, for example FR=8338. OSS account numbers are company specific, so there is no preset: your adviser gives you the numbers. Orders to an EU country without an account are reported as errors. An optional default account covers all other EU countries.
• EU orders without VAT: with the option on, such an order is booked as an intra-community supply (a warning is shown when no VAT ID is stored; the VAT ID comes from our EU VAT Number Validation extension when it is installed; OpenCart itself has no VAT ID field).

Orders and documents

• Order statuses: orders in these statuses are booked as invoices (Processing, Shipped and Complete by default).
• Refund statuses: orders in these statuses are booked as full credit notes. The credit notes of PDF Invoices & Credit Notes are always included.
• Document number prefix: put in front of the order number when the order has no invoice number (Belegfeld 1). An invoice number generated in OpenCart (prefix and number) is used as it is.
• Use invoice numbers, dates and credit notes of PDF Invoices & Credit Notes: shown when that extension is active. The invoice number becomes Belegfeld 1, the invoice date the booking date.

Payments and clearing accounts

• Also book the payment: adds a second line per document, clearing account against the debtor (Haben for credit notes).
• Statuses that count as paid and one clearing account per payment method (empty = the default clearing account). Presets: 1360 (SKR03) and 1460 (SKR04), the standard "Geldtransit" accounts. The payment date is the document date.

Debtor numbers

• One collective debtor (10000 by default) or one number per customer from a start number. Numbers run up to 7 times the account base minus 1 (69999 at account length 4) and stay with the customer (registered customers by user id, guests by e-mail address).

Tax rates

OpenCart stores the name of every tax rate on the order, not its percentage. The extension looks the rate up by that name in System > Localisation > Taxes > Tax Rates: keep the name of a rate unchanged once orders exist, or the old orders report "tax rate cannot be read". Fixed-amount rates cannot be mapped to a revenue account and are reported.

Scheduled export

• Tick Write a file automatically, choose the period (previous day, week or month) and an absolute server folder outside the web root (the OpenCart storage folder is fine, for example .../storage/datev).
• The extension registers one daily entry in the OpenCart cron; the standard OpenCart cron job runs it. Only documents that were not exported yet are written; the history shows these runs as "Scheduled".

Usage

How it works

Open Sales > DATEV Export. Pick a period and the order statuses, press Validate to see what would be exported, then Download booking batch. The file EXTF_Buchungsstapel_<from>-<to>.csv is what your tax adviser imports into DATEV Rechnungswesen (they know the import under the DATEV format / "Buchungsstapel").

For every order the extension books the receivable (debtor, Soll) against the revenue account of its VAT scenario (Haben). Credit notes are booked the other way round. With "Also book the payment" there is a second line per document that moves the amount from the debtor to the clearing account of the payment method.

The amounts are taken from the order itself (total, tax lines, shipping, fees). Coupons and reward points lower the taxable amount as OpenCart does; gift vouchers and store credit count as payments, not as discounts. The booked lines always add up to the order total to the cent.

Common tasks

First export

1. Open Sales > DATEV Export > Accounting settings, enter the consultant number and client number of your tax adviser, choose SKR03 or SKR04 and save.
2. If you sell to other EU countries with OSS, add the OSS accounts (FR=8338).
3. Open the Export tab, choose last month, press Validate, fix what the report lists, press Download booking batch.
4. Press Download debtor master data if you use one debtor number per customer; your adviser imports it first so the numbers exist.

Fix a validation error

The report lists the order, the document number and the problem. Typical ones: no OSS account for a country, a domestic VAT rate that is neither the standard nor the reduced rate, a missing consultant number, a period over two fiscal years. Fix the setting and validate again, or tick Skip documents with errors to export the rest and book the listed documents by hand.

Export again

Each download marks its documents as exported, and Only documents that were not exported before (on by default) keeps the next export free of them. If your adviser needs a file again, press Release in the history and export the same period once more.

Scheduled export

See Configuration. The folder must be on the server and outside the web root; the OpenCart cron job does the rest.

Good to know

• Exports are in the default currency of the shop, which must be EUR (OpenCart stores order totals in it). A store with another primary currency gets an error instead of a file with wrong amounts.
• The file is Windows-1252 as DATEV expects; characters outside that code page become "?".
• Booking text and Belegfeld follow DATEV's limits (60 and 36 characters; Belegfeld 1 only letters, digits and $ & % * + - /).
• The extension never changes orders. It only reads them and keeps its own tables (settings, debtor numbers, export history).

Developer notes

Technical reference for developers who work with DATEV Export for Accounting. The extension creates export files for your tax adviser; it is not DATEV-certified. See Format conformance for the file format.

Extension identity

Booking model

Mapper::map() (pure PHP, unit tested) turns a normalized document into booking lines:

1. Gross amount per VAT rate from the tax lines of the order (tax amount and rate give the gross of the rate); what no tax line explains is the untaxed rest. Rounding differences are put on the largest rate, so the lines always add up to the order total.
2. Revenue account by delivery country and rate: domestic 19/7/0, EU zero VAT = intra-community, EU with VAT = OSS account of the country (error when missing), non-EU = export.
3. Optional split of shipping and payment fee onto their own accounts.
4. Soll for invoices, Haben for credit notes; optional payment line (clearing account against the debtor).

Source::fromOrder() builds the documents from OpenCart data: product lines (order_product.price, tax per unit), the order_total rows (sub_total, shipping, tax, other rows) and the tax rate percentage looked up by the name on the tax row. Coupons and reward points scale the product tax; the tax left over after the product tax is the tax of the shipping. voucher and credit rows are payments, not discounts.

Data sources

• Orders: order, order_product, order_total, country (ISO code of the delivery address, else the payment address). Orders with status 0 (missing orders) are ignored.
• kv_invoice_builder (optional): table kv_ib_document for invoice numbers, issue dates and credit notes (type I / C).
• kv_eu_vat (optional): table kv_euvat_order for the validated VAT number of the buyer.
• OpenCart invoice numbers (order.invoice_prefix, invoice_no) when present.

Events and cron

Database tables

All queries go through the escaping placeholders of compat.php (?i, ?s, ?a, ?n, ?u, ?e); admin output is escaped in the templates.

Tests

php81 tests/unit.php and php83 tests/unit.php (95 checks: layout against the official sample data, mapper scenarios, order reading), STORE=oc41 node tests/e2e.js (64 checks in a browser on OpenCart 4.1.0.4: install state, settings, validation, downloads, bytes of the files, debtors, scheduled export by the OpenCart cron, uninstall).

Conformance with the DATEV format description (OpenCart 4)

What the extension writes, against the DATEV developer portal (developer.datev.de, "DATEV Format": Getting started, Character set, Format description, Sample data; read November 2026). The layout is checked in tests/unit.php against the official sample files EXTF_Buchungsstapel.csv and EXTF_DebKred_Stamm.csv (header line, column line and first data line are kept in tests/fixtures/). The extension has not been run through DATEV Rechnungswesen itself: send the first file to your tax adviser as a test.

Flagged: not verifiable from public sources

• The field-by-field descriptions of the individual formats are separate DATEV documents that are not freely retrievable. Column order, header layout and the data types per column therefore follow the official sample data, not a specification we could read.
• The standard accounts of SKR03 and SKR04 in the presets (8400, 8300, 8200, 8125, 8120 and 4400, 4300, 4200, 4125, 4120, clearing 1360 and 1460) are the commonly used standard accounts; many companies customise their chart. Confirm them with your tax adviser.
• OSS accounts have no preset on purpose: they are company specific.
• BU keys, cost centres, document links and Festschreibung are not written (the revenue accounts of the standard charts carry the VAT automatically; files are written unlocked, 0).
• Whether a particular DATEV installation accepts the file depends on the client set-up (account length, fiscal year, consultant and client number).

Not covered in 1.0.0

Foreign currencies (the shop currency must be EUR), fixed-amount taxes, margin schemes, partial payments over several bookings, cost centres, document images, recurring bookings, DATEV online services and APIs, creditor files.

Trademarks

DATEV is a registered trademark of DATEV eG. This extension is independent software and is not made, endorsed or certified by DATEV eG. The DATEV logo is not used anywhere.

FAQ

Is this DATEV-certified? Does it connect to DATEV?

No. It creates an export file for your tax adviser, following the DATEV format description published on the DATEV developer portal. It is not DATEV-certified and does not use DATEV online services or APIs. DATEV is a trademark of DATEV eG; this product is independent of DATEV eG and not endorsed by it.

Will my tax adviser's DATEV accept the file?

The file follows the published layout (header, 125 booking columns, Windows-1252, decimal comma). The extension is tested against the official DATEV sample data. Account numbers, tax keys and fiscal-year rules are specific to each client, so send the first file to your adviser as a test before you rely on it.

Which VAT cases are covered?

Domestic 19 % / 7 % / 0 %, intra-community supplies (reverse charge) for EU orders without VAT, tax-free exports, OSS per delivery country, shipping and payment fees. Not covered in 1.0: foreign currencies, fixed-amount taxes, taxes on handling fees that differ from the shipping tax, margin schemes, partial payments over several bookings, cost centres, document images (Beleglink).

Why is my order not in the file?

Only orders in the selected statuses are exported, once (see "Only documents that were not exported before"). Open the validation report: orders with errors are listed there.

Which invoice number is used?

Belegfeld 1 is the invoice number of our PDF Invoices & Credit Notes extension when it is installed and used, else the invoice number generated in OpenCart, else the order number with your optional prefix.

Which OpenCart versions are supported?

OpenCart 4.1 (tested on 4.1.0.4), PHP 7.4 to 8.3. There is no OpenCart 3 edition.

Will it slow down my store?

No storefront output at all: the extension only runs in the admin panel and from the OpenCart cron. A large export reads the orders of the period once.

How do I get updates?

Install the new package in Extensions > Installer. See Installation.

How do I get support?

Write to us through the support channel of the page where you bought the extension.

My license shows "Trial period"

A fresh install works for 14 days without a key. Enter the license key from your account on the module page and press Check now; the status changes to Active. The admin pages are never blocked; without a valid license only the creation of files is switched off.