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sevDesk

EU-Made Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: 1 of 4 dimensions proven

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by sevDesk GmbH · sevdesk.de

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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has seen "GoBD-konform" printed on pages that offer no documentation to back it, and wants the feature that makes it true. Also reads for the booking limit, the tier where DATEV export appears, and what an extra bank account costs.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Bookkeeping core

How this is scored

Double-entry, the chart of accounts (SKR03/SKR04), postings, journals, opening balances and period closing — the ledger underneath the pretty screens.

0 — Income-and-expense lists only; no double-entry, no chart of accounts, no journal.

3 — Simplified bookkeeping suitable for EÜR with a fixed account list; no free posting, no period close.

5 — Double-entry with SKR03/SKR04, manual postings, journals, opening balances and a month-end close.

8 — Full ledger with cost centres, recurring and reversing entries, accruals, multi-year comparatives, and a documented close checklist with locking.

10 — An accountant's ledger: configurable charts including customised accounts, period locking with audit, foreign currency with documented valuation, group or multi-entity handling, and reporting that reconciles to the trial balance.

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The Skeptic

"Für einfache und doppelte Buchführung" with cashbook, trial balance, depreciation and EÜR/GuV is more than an EÜR list, but nowhere on the captured pages do SKR03/SKR04, a journal, manual postings, opening balances or a period close appear — the double-entry claim is a marketing line, and the ledger machinery behind it is unevidenced. 1 2

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GoBD, immutability & audit

How this is scored

Whether the record survives a tax audit: unalterable postings, complete change history, retention across the statutory period, and a Verfahrensdokumentation the vendor actually supplies.

0 — Postings can be edited or deleted without trace; no retention statement, no GoBD claim, no documentation.

3 — GoBD asserted on the marketing page with nothing behind it — no described audit trail, no documentation offered, no statement on retention.

5 — Postings become unalterable after close with corrections booked as reversals, a change log exists, and the statutory retention period is stated.

8 — Documented GoBD conformity with a supplied Verfahrensdokumentation template, complete and exportable audit trail, receipts linked to postings, and a GoBD-compliant data export (GDPdU/Z3) for the auditor.

10 — Audit-ready as a product feature: an independent GoBD certification or attestation published, Verfahrensdokumentation maintained per release, tamper-evident journals, retention executed across the full statutory period, and an export the Betriebsprüfer accepts without argument.

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The Skeptic

Total silence: no GoBD claim, no retention period, no Verfahrensdokumentation, no audit-trail description on the homepage, pricing page or privacy policy as captured — at least the empty "GoBD-konform" badge would have been a claim to interrogate; here there is nothing to test, which the anchors score at the bottom. 4 1 2

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Tax handling & filings

How this is scored

VAT logic and the filings that follow: UStVA, ELSTER submission, EÜR or Bilanz, OSS for cross-border sales, and reverse-charge handling.

0 — No VAT logic beyond a rate field; no filings, no ELSTER.

3 — VAT rates and a UStVA figure to copy out by hand; no electronic submission, no special cases.

5 — UStVA prepared and submitted electronically via ELSTER, EÜR or a simple balance sheet produced, and reverse-charge and intra-community supply handled.

8 — The above plus OSS handling for cross-border B2C, Zusammenfassende Meldung, small-business (§19) and Ist/Soll taxation, permanent extension (Dauerfristverlängerung), and E-Bilanz where relevant.

10 — The filing year is handled end to end: every routine German filing generated and submitted electronically with validation before sending, cross-border VAT determined from the transaction rather than by hand, and correction filings supported.

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The Skeptic

UStVA submitted to ELSTER without an extra certificate, EÜR and GuV produced, EN 16931-validated e-invoices — two-thirds of rubric level 5 — but reverse-charge and intra-community handling, OSS, ZM and §19 are all unmentioned; "international invoices" is an invoicing feature, not VAT logic. 1 2

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Receipts, banking & matching

How this is scored

How evidence and money get into the ledger: bank feeds, receipt capture, OCR, matching rules, and whether the digital receipt is legally sufficient on its own.

0 — Manual entry only; no bank connection, no receipt storage.

3 — Bank statement import by file and receipt upload as plain attachments; matching is entirely manual.

5 — Automatic bank feeds for the major German banks, receipt upload with OCR, suggested matches, and receipts linked to their postings.

8 — PSD2 feeds across many institutions, rule-based automatic matching with learning, e-invoice handling (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung) both directions, and replacement scanning (ersetzendes Scannen) documented so paper can be destroyed.

10 — The evidence chain is closed: every posting reaches its receipt in one click, e-invoicing inbound and outbound as standard, documented compliant archiving of the digital original, and matching accurate enough that exceptions rather than transactions are the work.

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The Skeptic

Feeds for 4,000+ banks, app-based receipt scanning with AI category recommendation, and ZUGFeRD/XRechnung created, sent and received both directions — solidly past rubric level 5 — but no rule-based matching with learning, no documented ersetzendes Scannen, and no claim that every posting reaches its receipt in one click. 1 2

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Tax adviser handoff

How this is scored

How the books reach the Steuerberater — DATEV above all — and whether the adviser can work in the system rather than around it.

0 — No adviser access and no accounting export; the year-end is a pile of PDFs.

3 — Generic CSV or Excel export described as "suitable for your tax adviser", with no named format.

5 — A documented DATEV export (postings and, ideally, receipts) plus a read-only login for the adviser.

8 — DATEV export including receipt images with correct linking, or a maintained DATEV interface; the adviser gets their own scoped access with an audit of what they changed.

10 — The adviser is a first-class user: bidirectional DATEV exchange including corrections coming back, or a certified interface; period handover with locking, and a workflow where adviser queries are resolved inside the system.

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The Skeptic

A DATEV/ADDISON interface included in the paid Rechnung plan plus inviting the Steuerberater "zur Mitarbeit" into the account is exactly rubric level 5 — but nothing on receipt images in the export, on scoped or audited adviser access, or on corrections flowing back; the tier where DATEV begins is at least answerable from the evidence. 1 2

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Where the books live and who could be compelled to produce them — plus, uniquely here, whether statutory retention survives leaving the vendor. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated or non-EU, subprocessors unnamed — with a ten-year retention obligation attached to data held abroad.

3 — EU hosting offered while the contracting entity is non-EU, or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard and an EU contracting entity, but parts of the chain — OCR, AI categorisation, support tooling — are non-EU without an explained safeguard.

8 — EU or German hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, full subprocessor list published, and a stated export that satisfies retention if the contract ends.

10 — Sovereign and durable: German or EU hosting throughout, every subprocessor European, certification published, and a documented archive export that keeps the customer compliant for the full retention period after they leave.

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The Skeptic

The imprint settles what the pipeline flagged unknown: sevDesk GmbH at Amtsgericht Freiburg, and the privacy policy names Serverstandort Deutschland with AVV, TOM and a DPO contact — an EU entity on German hosting. But the "Subunternehmer" heading reveals no captured list, the AI chain (KI-Belegerfassung, the Sevi agent) runs somewhere unstated, and there is not one word on whether statutory retention survives leaving the vendor. 3 4

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Pricing transparency

How this is scored

Whether a business can compute the real annual invoice — including the bookings, users, bank accounts and adviser access they actually need — from public pages alone.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A headline monthly price exists, but booking or document limits, extra users or the tier where DATEV export begins are unstated.

5 — Tier prices public with billing period stated and the main limits given, but at least one commonly needed piece (DATEV export, extra bank accounts, adviser seat) sits in an unpriced tier.

8 — Every tier and add-on priced publicly with limits, overage, minimum term and VAT treatment stated; adviser access priced or explicitly free.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given transaction volume, user count and feature set, including overage and the year-end extras.

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The Skeptic

Billing periods (1/12/24 months), the 3-invoice free limit, unlimited invoices in paid plans, one user per plan and the DATEV tier are all public — better than most — but every euro amount hides behind "ab*" valid only for 24-month terms, and extra users, extra bank accounts, adviser seats and VAT treatment carry no price anywhere on the captured pages. 1 2

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European sovereignty — proven facts

1 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency EU only ⚠ unverified 3/3 pts 4 Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Sources (15)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 +2 earlier captures: 15 Sep 2026, 11 Sep 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Pricing sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 +3 earlier captures: 15 Sep 2026, 11 Sep 2026, 31 Aug 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Imprint sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Privacy policy sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Security / trust page — found from the homepage sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 +1 earlier capture: 30 Sep 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Bookkeeping core — found from sitemap sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Bookkeeping core — found from sitemap sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 GoBD, immutability & audit — found from sitemap hilfe.sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 GoBD, immutability & audit — found from sitemap hilfe.sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Tax handling & filings — found from sitemap hilfe.sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Tax handling & filings — found from sitemap hilfe.sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Receipts, banking & matching — found from sitemap hilfe.sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Receipts, banking & matching — found from sitemap sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Tax adviser handoff — found from sitemap sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Tax adviser handoff — found from sitemap hilfe.sevdesk.de Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →