Lexware Office vs sevDesk

Lexware Office

SKR03 and SKR04 are supported and a switch migrates every booking to the new chart, and the monthly automatic Festschreibung with its protocol gives a real lock on the month. The fiscal year is hard-wired to the calendar year, and I found no public information on manual free postings, journals, opening balances, cost centres, recurring entries or accruals.

sevDesk

Double-entry is claimed, with trial balance, cashbook and cost centres in the Pro tier — but the evidence never names SKR03/SKR04, journals, opening balances, or a month-end close that locks. That is roughly half of the 5-anchor bundle missing, so I interpolate to 4 rather than take 'einfache und doppelte Buchführung' on faith.

Lexware Office

The automatic monthly Festschreibung is described in substance — GoBD-conformant locking with a cutoff rule back to the second-to-last month and a protocol of every execution — which is more than a marketing claim. But I found no public information on a Verfahrensdokumentation, a change history for corrections booked as reversals, the statutory retention period, or a GDPdU export for the auditor.

sevDesk

Not a single word on GoBD, immutability, retention periods or a Verfahrensdokumentation anywhere in the captures — no GoBD claim, no retention statement, no documentation. That is the 0 anchor by its own definition; a Buchhaltungssoftware marketing page and privacy policy with nothing on audit survival tells me the record may not survive a Betriebsprüfung.

Lexware Office

The USt-VA is filled automatically from the transactions and goes out with one click, ELSTER confirmation, SEPA or transfer payment, and locking of the submitted period; Ist/Soll timing, Mindest-Ist-Besteuerung, §13b reverse charge and Dauerfristverlängerung are all documented. OSS appears only as guidance that destination-country taxation must be reported elsewhere, retroactive filing stops at the second-to-last year, and I found no public information on Zusammenfassende Meldung, §19 small business, EÜR or E-Bilanz.

sevDesk

UStVA goes straight to ELSTER without an extra certificate, and EÜR, GuV and depreciation are in the plan — that is the core of the 5 anchor. But reverse-charge, intra-community supply, OSS, ZM, §19 and Dauerfristverlängerung are all unevidenced, so it earns 5 clean and nothing toward 8.

Lexware Office

Fetched bank transactions automatically receive matching suggestions checked in both directions, with documented criteria and improvements such as the document number in the remittance info, and receipts link to their postings — but every suggestion waits for a manual "Alle Annehmen" before a booking exists. I found no public information on OCR capture, e-invoice handling or replacement scanning, and no statement on which banks are fed.

sevDesk

Over 4,000 banks connected, receipts scanned with AI category recommendation, and e-invoices both directions in ZUGFeRD/XRechnung with EN 16931 validation in every plan — that lifts it well above 5. But no rule-based matching engine with learning is described, and ersetzendes Scannen plus compliant archiving of the digital original are undocumented, so the evidence chain is not closed enough for 8.

Lexware Office

Four documented DATEV handover scenarios, DATEVconnect online with the Buchungsdatenservice, and a Steuerberaterzugang export whose two coordinated ZIPs auto-link booking to receipt image in DATEV Kanzlei Rechnungswesen — receipts and bookings both travel correctly. The adviser login is free and last login is visible, but the captured help states the Kanzlei's access cannot be restricted to individual areas and sees everything including bank accounts, and I found no public information on corrections coming back or an audit of what the adviser changed.

sevDesk

A DATEV/ADDISON interface to the Steuerberatung plus inviting him to work in the account is precisely the 5 anchor. Whether receipt images travel with the DATEV export with correct linking, and whether the adviser's access is scoped and audited, the evidence says nothing — so not a step further.

Lexware Office

The vendor is German (Haufe-Lexware, Freiburg) and a manual export of vouchers and booking data still works after cancellation, but that is all the captured pages hold. I found no public information on hosting location, ownership, or any subprocessor list — where the books live and who could be compelled to produce them is unevidenced, and retention across the full statutory period after leaving is not addressed.

sevDesk

The imprint shows a German GmbH under Amtsgericht Freiburg and the privacy policy names a German server location with a Subunternehmer section — the pipeline's 0 rests on 'unknowns' that its own captured pages disprove. Still no named infrastructure, no certification, and above all no exit export that keeps the ten-year retention alive after leaving the vendor, which caps it below 8.

Lexware Office

The only pricing fact captured is that the tax adviser access is "komplett kostenlos". No tier prices, booking or document limits, minimum term or VAT treatment appear anywhere on the captured pages, so a business cannot compute a real annual invoice from public information.

sevDesk

Billing periods (1/12/24 months), one user per plan, plan contents and the tier where DATEV begins are public — more than a headline price. But the captured figures stop at 'Preis pro Monat ab*' plus a 'bis zu 70%' promo: no euro amounts in evidence, no price for additional users or the adviser seat, and partner marketplace costs explicitly excluded — so the real annual invoice is not computable from this sheet.