Under Administration > Export for Accounting > Invoices you hand over invoices created via the Invoicing module to your accounting system. This menu item is only visible if the Invoicing module is active.
Setting filters
The export workflow starts with the filter form. ZEP includes all invoices that match the filter criteria.
Department
With the Locations and Departments module active, the department selector additionally appears. It controls two aspects:
Department of the customer or of the project: A radio choice determines whether invoices are filtered by the department of the customer or of the project. When filtering by the project department, only invoices created on the letterhead of that department are included – usually the department of the project of the first invoice item.
Including sub-departments: A checkbox controls whether invoices from sub-departments of the selected department are included.
The default is the department of the logged-in user. Department managers see only their own department and its sub-departments. Administrators can select all departments and can also set the default to Any via the employee settings.
Period
In the Period block you enter the From and To dates. ZEP offers quick links (e.g. Last month, Last quarter) for common reporting periods. The period refers to the invoice date by default.
Invoice or performance date
When Invoice export with performance date is activated in the basic settings, you additionally choose here whether the period filter applies to the invoice date or the performance date of the invoices.
Including previously exported invoices
With the including previously exported invoices checkbox you also include invoices that were exported in an earlier run. By default the checkbox is inactive and ZEP shows only invoices not yet exported.
Test mode
With the Test mode checkbox you simulate the export and receive the file without ZEP marking the invoices as exported. Test mode is particularly useful during initial setup to validate the configuration.
Upload to DATEV
With DATEV format active and a configured DATEV Online connection, the Upload to DATEV checkbox additionally appears. With it active, ZEP uploads the booking batch directly into the DATEV cloud instead of producing a file for download. A status label shows whether the DATEV connection is connected or disconnected.
Running the export
Once the filters are set, you trigger the export from the action bar. Depending on the configuration, you receive one of the following results:
Plain CSV file: The booking batch in the chosen format as a download. The file name follows the pattern ZEP_exportFakturaYYYY-MM-DD-YYYY-MM-DD.csv, where YYYY-MM-DD stands for the From and To dates of the export period.
ZIP archive with invoice files: With the ZIP option (basic settings) active, the archive additionally contains the invoice PDFs.
DATEV EXTF package: With DATEV and the Datev XML interface with receipts active, a complete batch according to the DATEV specification.
DATEV cloud upload: With Upload to DATEV active, the batch is uploaded directly into DATEV Unternehmen online; ZEP displays the result as an info message.
Outside of test mode, ZEP automatically marks exported invoices as exported. By default they no longer appear in the filter view afterwards.
Warning: Make sure you do not accidentally import the same file – or a file with an overlapping period – multiple times into your accounting system. Duplicate bookings then have to be removed manually.
Invoices not yet exported
Below the filter form, ZEP shows a card Invoices not yet exported. It lists all invoices that have not yet been exported, regardless of period – including invoice number, date and (if maintained) performance date. This way you immediately see whether older invoices have been forgotten.
First export after activating the module
When you activate the Export for Accounting module in an existing ZEP, please note:
Already planned and approved invoice items are first marked as incomplete – visible via the red pencil in the overview. The reason is the missing revenue account, which becomes a required field through the module.
Once you have maintained the correct country code on the customers and created the required revenue accounts in the master data, open the red invoice items, verify the (usually automatically pre-filled) revenue account and save again. Only then can the items be billed.
Invoices that were already billed before the module was introduced remain unchanged. They contain no revenue-account assignment and cannot be exported.
Exporting invoices is only possible for periods in which all invoices were billed with a revenue-account assignment. The master data preparation is described in detail in the article Master Data – Export for Accounting.
Repeated export and later changes
ZEP does not prevent the re-export of invoices that have already been handed over. Use the including previously exported invoices checkbox to deliberately include them again. If a period has already been exported and you have created new invoices or changed existing ones afterwards, re-exporting with the checkbox inactive contains only the new, not-yet-exported invoices.
The state of an invoice is frozen at the time of billing and does not change afterwards. The same applies to the later export:
The revenue-account numbers assigned at the time of billing apply permanently – even if you later change the country code, the VAT of the customer or the revenue account itself.
A revenue-account number used in an invoice stays in place even if you later delete the revenue account in the master data.
Note: When Exported invoices can no longer be deleted or changed is active in the basic settings, ZEP additionally locks exported invoices against deletion and later editing.
"Export for Accounting" report column
In the reports Projects > Invoices, Customers > Invoices and Billing > Invoices, the additional column Export for Accounting appears with the module active. Per invoice you see the date and time of the last export. This allows you to track which invoices have already arrived in accounting and which are still pending.
Split bookings for invoices
When the items of an invoice are distributed across different revenue accounts, cost centers or cost units, ZEP creates a split booking for the Lexware and General formats. A split booking consists of at least two lines:
Header line with receipt date, receipt number, booking text and total booking amount (gross).
Detail lines per account, cost center or cost unit combination. In these lines, columns 1–3 (receipt date, receipt number, booking text) are empty. The booking amount per line contains the sum of the aggregated amounts.
Optional line for rounding differences, if rounding errors occur during the split. They are posted to the Account for rounding differences stored in the basic settings.
If the invoice contains negative amounts (such as credit notes, discounts or private shares on receipts), they are transferred as negative values in the split booking.
Note: For the DATEV export, ZEP does not create split bookings. DATEV cannot import split bookings, so ZEP delivers a separate single booking for each split with all relevant fields filled in.