Lexware Office vs sevDesk

Lexware Office

SKR03 and SKR04 with automatic migration of existing postings, calendar-month booking periods, and a monthly locking run with a timestamped protocol is a real ledger underneath the screens — the Buchungsmandant scenarios even contemplate the Kanzlei preparing the Jahresabschluss on these books. We found no public information on manual journal postings, opening balances, cost centres or accruals, and the fiscal year is fixed to the calendar year, so a mid-grade ledger is what the pages support.

sevDesk

They claim 'einfache und doppelte Buchführung' with cost centres, BWA, cashbook and a trial balance, which is more than a pure EÜR list — but the evidence names no SKR03/SKR04, no manual postings or journals, no opening balances, no period close and no locking. Without a chart of accounts I recognise and a closable period, this is a hybrid that sits between the simplified and the double-entry anchors.

Lexware Office

The locking mechanics are described in earnest — automatic monthly locking, an initial lock on activation, manual locking to a chosen date, a protocol of every execution with its timestamp, and bookings of a reporting period fixed once the USt-VA is submitted. We found no public information on a supplied Verfahrensdokumentation, a statement of the statutory retention period, or a GoBD-compliant export for the Betriebsprüfer, which keeps it short of the documented-audit grade.

sevDesk

Not one word about GoBD, immutability, change history, retention period or a Verfahrensdokumentation anywhere in the evidence — the privacy page offers AVV, TOM and a DPO, but nothing on how postings survive an audit. The anchor for zero is exactly this: no retention statement, no GoBD claim, no documentation.

Lexware Office

The USt-VA is filled automatically from business transactions, submitted to the Finanzamt with one click, confirmed by ELSTER, then booked and paid by SEPA debit or transfer — with Ist/Soll timing including Mindest-Ist, §13b and intra-community supplies, Dauerfristverlängerung and Nullmeldung handled. OSS appears only as guidance that destination-country taxation must be reported via OSS or separate registration, retroactive filings stop at the second-to-last year, and we found no public information on Zusammenfassende Meldung, §19 handling or EÜR/Bilanz generation.

sevDesk

UStVA goes directly to ELSTER without an extra certificate, EÜR and GuV are produced, and the dashboard tracks the Umsatzsteuerzahllast — that is the backbone of the anchor. But reverse-charge, intra-community supply, OSS, Dauerfristverlängerung and correction filings are entirely absent from the evidence, so I cannot place it at five, let alone eight.

Lexware Office

Bank transactions are fetched and receive matching suggestions on every refresh, with two suggestion types, checks in both directions, sensible criteria (matching amounts, exact document number in the remittance info, identical contact or customer number) and receipts linked to their postings — though nothing is booked until the user accepts and at most 1000 assignments run per operation. We found no public information on OCR receipt capture, PSD2 breadth across institutions, ZUGFeRD/XRechnung handling or ersetzendes Scannen being documented.

sevDesk

Online banking across 4,000 banks, app-based receipt scanning with AI category recommendation, and e-invoices in ZUGFeRD/XRechnung both directions with EN 16931 validation — that earns the mid anchor. What is missing is everything the eighth anchor demands: rule-based matching with learning, one-click posting-to-receipt chain, and any documented ersetzendes Scannen so my clients may legally burn the paper.

Lexware Office

This is the part they understand: four documented DATEV handover scenarios, DATEVconnect online background transfer with the Rechnungsdatenservice and Buchungsdatenservice, and a Steuerberaterzugang export that produces two coordinated ZIP files where booking and receipt image link automatically after import into DATEV Kanzlei Rechnungswesen — plus a free adviser login and a manual export that survives cancellation. But the adviser login cannot be restricted in scope and sees every connected bank account, and we found no public information on an audit of what the adviser changed or corrections coming back through DATEV.

sevDesk

A DATEV/ADDISON interface exists and the adviser can be invited into the account rather than emailed a PDF pile — the two legs of anchor five, though nothing says the DATEV export carries receipt images or that my access is read-only. Every plan ships with exactly one user and no adviser seat is priced, and there is no audit of what the adviser touched, so anchor eight is out of reach.

Lexware Office

We found no public information on where the Lexware Office books are hosted, on the contracting entity's jurisdiction being confirmed on the vendor's own captured pages, or on any subprocessor list; the captured material shows only separate privacy statements for the cloud and desktop products. The provenance names a German company in Freiburg, so this is not the non-EU worst case, and a manual export of vouchers and booking data remains available after cancellation — but we found no public information on retention-compliant archiving or a documented archive export for the full statutory period.

sevDesk

A German GmbH registered at Amtsgericht Freiburg, a deliberate server location in Germany, plus a published subprocessor section, AVV and TOM — solidly above the mid anchor, and I note the pipeline flagged half these attributes unknown despite the imprint. It stays below eight because the infrastructure is not named, the subprocessor list's completeness is unverifiable from the evidence, and there is no stated export that satisfies ten-year retention when the customer walks away.

Lexware Office

We found no public information on tier prices, billing periods, booking or document limits, user costs, or at which tier the DATEV export and bank connections begin. The only pricing fact published in the captures is that the tax adviser login is completely free; no annual invoice is computable from these pages.

sevDesk

Billing periods of 1/12/24 months, a permanent free tier with its three-invoice limit, a user count of one per plan, and the DATEV interface visible in the paid Rechnung plan — the skeleton of a computable invoice is there. But the evidence carries no euro figures for the paid tiers, no adviser seat or extra user price, marketplace partner costs explicitly excluded, and a 'bis zu 70%' promo that makes the real annual invoice a guessing game.