Welcome to our FAQ page! Here you’ll find answers to the most common questions about our products and services. This page is designed to provide you with quick and helpful information to support you in using our platform. Whether for setup, troubleshooting, or tips for optimal use, our FAQs offer comprehensive support.
Warning
The DATEV export is available from Xentral version 23.17.3 and later versions.
If you are working with a very old DATEV export version (before 2018) or preparing the DATEV export for other accounting systems, new features in the export and the related API may mean that old functions are no longer available or have been replaced by new fields on the part of Xentral and DATEV. If you experience problems with your version, you can quickly find the most important questions and answers in the following FAQ collection.
If you can’t find your question here, please contact support@xentral.com.
The validation checks the export for valid characters according to Datev requirements, which otherwise might be truncated, ignored or imported incorrectly when imported into DATEV. This does not necessarily mean that this check is relevant in your case. Therefore, please deactivate the CSV validation in the Financial Accounting Export module first (Option: Deactivate CSV validation) and check if your export is ok. Feel free to create a support ticket if you have problems despite deactivating the validation.
The DATEV export takes place in two steps: 1.) the transfer from Xentral to DATEV, and 2.) the import of the transferred files into DATEV. The success message refers to step 1. Xentral doesn’t receive any feedback from DATEV about a successful import (step 2). Step 2 can fail even if step 1 was successful. Therefore, check the following to find the cause:
-
First, check whether the receipts can be found in the log in Xentral (the link is located next to the success message).
-
If the receipts can be found here, step 1 was successful, but it fails at step 2 within DATEV. Please check the import log in DATEV Unternehmen Online for notes or errors. Step 1 doesn’t check all the requirements for a successful DATEV import in step 2. Find the error and fix the cause in Xentral or DATEV (for example, in the settings). The export can then be attempted again. A common cause is, for example, duplicate invoice numbers in liabilities, which DATEV doesn’t allow.
-
If the receipts are already missing from the Xentral log file, make sure the technical limits (a maximum of 5,000 files per export and the maximum file size) are met. If necessary, export the receipts by week instead of by month.
The cause is incorrectly written currency codes for individual liabilities (including their pre-accounting), which were entered manually instead of selected from the list. Check all liabilities that aren’t invoiced in EUR for correctly written currency codes. Use the CSV export for liabilities to identify the affected liabilities - if necessary, you must first activate the Deactivate CSV validation option in the accounting export. Make sure your employees always select currencies from the list and don’t enter them manually. Alternatively, you can run a database query on the verbindlichkeiten and verbindlichkeiten_kontierung tables to display all liabilities and pre-accounting entries that aren’t in EUR.
Please deactivate the CSV validation in the Financial Accounting Export module (option: Deactivate CSV validation) or store a pseudo advisor/client number in the Settings tab.
For the DATEV export, a client and consultant number is mandatory, so that your tax office receives an automatic assignment of your data to your company. If you import the DATEV accounting export into other systems and don’t have a consultant and client number, you can assign a five-digit number yourself. This number is transferred in the export format, for example in the header.
If you have only used the DATEV export for individual projects and haven’t assigned a consultant number as the default, add an entry without a project as a fallback. This consultant number is used for exports without a project assignment and prevents you from getting this error message.
Add an entry without a project by entering the consultant number, client number, G/L account length, and fiscal year in a new entry. In this case, just leave the Project field empty.
Our export is designed for DATEV and therefore always supports the latest DATEV format. Please contact support@xentral.com to let us know if and why you can’t use the new format, and we’ll be happy to look into your case.
Make sure that the customer/supplier numbers in Xentral are within the DATEV-compliant number range, and that exactly these numbers are transferred during export.
If you use deviating debtor numbers: also check whether the deviating debtors are correctly stored in the addresses and adopted in the invoices. What matters is that the deviating debtor number is present in the receipt. For manually created sales orders, the collective debtor must also be entered manually if the Manual order entry option isn’t activated in the collective debtor settings.
DATEV Unternehmen Online doesn’t support the transfer of cost centers from outgoing invoices. To transfer cost centers, you must use the classic financial accounting export. Alternatively, you can use the manual DATEV Unternehmen Online – XML/document transfer method, although no dedicated settings for cost centers exist here either.
A fully automatic, scheduled export of invoices to DATEV isn’t currently possible natively in Xentral, because DATEV requires authentication that’s valid for a maximum of 24 hours.
In the new version of the financial accounting export, we’ve adjusted the file names so that they correspond to DATEV’s recommendations and requirements. The old file name was previously chosen individually by Xentral.
The financial accounting export includes a check of your data (validation). Among other things, the bank details (IBAN, BIC) stored in your contacts are checked for validity and conformity.
Please deactivate the CSV validation so that the export still works. In the exported file, you can identify the incorrect IBANs/BICs (usually too short or too long) and correct the affected address (under Address/Contacts > Bank details) in Xentral.
Xentral checks whether there’s a currency conversion available when exporting receipts in a foreign currency, which must be stored or can be retrieved in the Currency Conversion module. If not, it must be added. You can find more information here: Currency management and currency conversion.
The easiest way is to load the rates from the ECB and activate the process starter to keep them up to date, as shown in the following screenshot:
The same error also occurs if the currency in a liability (or its pre-accounting) is stored incorrectly. A common cause: it was typed in manually instead of selected from the Drop-down menu. Open the affected liability and correct the currency field.
This is a current bug in some instances that causes the error message to be displayed incorrectly and prevents the export from being carried out. We’re already working on fixing this issue. As a workaround, please deactivate the CSV validation so that the export still works.
Before exporting in the DATEVconnect Online / DATEV Datenservice and DATEV Rechnungsdatenservice 1.0 modules, the user must connect to DATEV. If authentication doesn’t take place beforehand and you click on Export, this error message is displayed.
Previously, the export in DATEV Connect took place asynchronously in the background. This was because the old export was slower, which made a progress display necessary. This is no longer the case, since the new export is triggered and executed directly after you click on Export. The data is already validated during the export, so the progress display is no longer necessary.
We’ve already received feedback that this would be useful and will adjust the interface accordingly soon. If you no longer know the last exported time period, you can view it in the Database View module in the datevconnect_online_export table. Please sort by ID here.
DATEV doesn’t allow invoice postings with an amount of €0.00, because the amount field technically requires a value other than zero. For this reason, the DATEV Unternehmen Online export in Xentral doesn’t support zero-euro invoices. The Also export receipts with an amount of 0 EUR option applies exclusively to the CSV export under Export invoices/credit notes. Zero-euro invoices can be exported using this method.
Yes, this is technically possible – fields for accounts, debtors, and creditors are alphanumeric. However, leading zeros aren’t used by default and can cause confusion during export/import or reconciliation.
How are nominal accounts recorded in DATEV? (Zeros)
The default is a 4-digit account number (e.g., 1000 for cash). An entry like 01000 is reduced to 1000. Recommendation: always use 4 digits, without leading zeros.
Which number ranges apply to debtors and creditors? (Zeros)
Debtors: from 10000, creditors: from 70000. A customer number like 00123 can be imported, but it doesn’t comply with the standard.
Is there a difference between leading zeros and padding zeros?
Leading zeros are purely visual and are omitted by default. Padding zeros are necessary when a field must have a fixed length (for example, for certain interfaces).
What is the recommended practice for zeros?
Nominal accounts: always 4 digits, no leading zeros. Debtors: from 10000, no leading zeros. Creditors: from 70000, no leading zeros.
The basic requirement is that the transaction number is present in the receipt. Open the receipt in Xentral and check in the log whether the number is present under Transaction. If not, the cause lies in the sales order import: either there’s a problem here, or the data isn’t provided by the shop system. If the transaction number is present in the receipt, check the following: in the Financial Accounting Export module, on the Settings tab, the Extend receipt field 1 for invoices and credit notes with internet and transaction number option must be activated for credit notes and invoices.