Bookkeeping · Research allowance · AI in accounting
Ongoing bookkeeping for German tax firms and companies, the research allowance (Forschungszulage), GoBD audits and process documentation. What we roll out at your firm runs in our own daily practice — and we build the systems behind it ourselves.
We are not appointed tax advisers (Steuerberater). What we may do and what we may not is on this page, not in the fine print.
1 · Research allowance
This is the point most funding programmes lack, and it decides everything for a company in its build-up phase: the research allowance does not depend on profit. It is credited against your tax, and whatever remains is paid out.
Since 1 January 2026 the assessment base is €12 million per year, plus a 20 % flat rate for overhead and operating costs. Your own work as a sole proprietor counts at €100 per hour.
The certification body checks exactly three criteria. Answer three questions; the assessment is produced in your browser — nothing is transmitted and nothing is stored.
Benchmark: the audit guide of the certification body (Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage), version 10/2025 — three criteria, not the five popular ones. If one criterion clearly fails, the others are not queried. The assessment replaces no certificate; it tells you whether the next step is worth it.
The three criteria novelty, uncertainty and systematic plan and the delineation from routine (roll-out, configuration, porting, data migration) follow the certification body's audit guide; the admissibility of several projects in one application follows its FAQ. What you tick here is seen by you alone.
Checked against the audit guide: 23.09.2026; editorial: 25.09.2026. All sources
Slide in your numbers. The calculation runs in your browser — nothing is transmitted, nothing is stored.
Method (2026 model, one project): eligible expenses = staff costs + 70 % (60 % if commissioned before 28 Mar 2024) of the contract fee + eligible depreciation + own work (hours × weeks × hourly rate, at most 40 hours a week and €100 an hour). For projects started after 31 Dec 2025, a 20 % overhead allowance is added on that sum. Capped at the remaining assessment base, at most €12 m including the allowance; 25 % of that, or 35 % for SMEs on request. Sections 3(1)–(5) and 4(1) FZulG. The result is an order of magnitude for the conversation, not a commitment.
The anti-cumulation rule in § 7 (2) FZulG is expense-based, not project-based. A project funded through EXIST or ZIM therefore does not exclude the research allowance — but the same personnel expense must not be claimed twice.
That requires expense-accurate time recording from day one. Whoever notices in the application year that it is missing cannot reconstruct it. That is exactly where applications fail that would have held on substance.
Two stages. First the certificate from the Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage (BSFZ) via its web portal — it is a mandatory prerequisite and can be applied for before, during or after the project; the decision usually arrives within three months. Then the application to the tax office after the end of the financial year.
We write the technical project description for your BSFZ application and compile the eligible expenses. The application to the tax office is filed by your tax adviser on the basis of these documents. External advice is expressly permitted in the certification procedure; the adviser is named in the application. Responsibility for accuracy stays with you — which is why you receive documents you can check, not a black box.
The cap is not independently available per project. Linked companies must be considered together under section 3(6). A calculation does not establish project eligibility.
Section 3(3b): overhead on eligible costs under (1), (2), (3), (3a) and (4), only for projects begun after 31 Dec 2025. (5)-(6): cap includes overhead. Section 4(1): SME uplift on application; (3): additional aid limit.
Editorial review: 17.09.2026. A legal requirement is not evidence of implementation by GUV. All sources
§ 3 (5) FZulG (assessment base from 1 Jan 2026: €12 m) · § 4 (1) FZulG (25 %, SME increase on application) · § 7 (2) FZulG (anti-cumulation) · Amendments by the tax investment programme, BMF monthly report 08/2025 · Procedure as described by the Bescheinigungsstelle Forschungszulage
2 · Services
For tax firms
Financial accounting on behalf of and under the responsibility of your firm — entirely in DATEV, following your posting rules and your chart of accounts. You receive the books ready for reconciliation, with complete working papers on request; posting and preparation of the accounts happen at your firm.
For companies
Your ongoing bookkeeping, monthly, in DATEV or your own system — coordinated with the firm that prepares your annual accounts. You get usable figures during the year instead of only in the year after.
For founders
We stay with you into day-to-day operations: financial model and liquidity planning, setting up the bookkeeping, deadlines and filing duties of the first hundred days, choosing and configuring systems, preparing the conversations with bank, tax firm and investors.
Choice of legal form, articles of association and tax structuring belong to your tax adviser and lawyer. We make sure you walk in prepared and that the results get implemented.
For developers
For developers of accounting software we bring the domain side that most products fail on: posting logic, SKR chart-of-accounts systematics, DATEV interfaces, GoBD requirements on immutability and logging, process documentation as part of the product.
Not as an external consultant next to the team, but inside the development process: rule sets, test cases from real posting data, error classes.
3 · GoBD and process documentation
The German tax administration issues no positive attestations on the regularity of a set of books, neither in a tax audit nor by binding ruling. And third-party certificates do not bind it. The reason sits one paragraph earlier: what matters are updates, access rights and data entry — not the product, but how it is operated and documented at your company.
That is why we audit your accounting and document system against the GoBD and § 146 (4) AO and deliver what actually counts in a tax audit: an audit report with a finding per requirement, named deficiencies and concrete remediation steps — plus the complete process documentation.
Answer them for your system. Here, too, everything stays in your browser.
ImmutabilityWhen an entry is corrected, does the original content remain ascertainable — and is it evident whether a change was made originally or later?
Traceability of automationIs it documented which rule produced an automatically generated posting — and which version of that rule applied at the time?
Process documentationDoes it exist in full — general description, user documentation, technical system documentation and operating documentation?
Document linkageIs every posting linked to its source document and retrievable from within the system?
Receiving e-invoicesCan you receive, process and retain structured e-invoices in an audit-proof way — mandatory since 1 January 2025?
Change history of the rule setCan you reconstruct who changed which posting rule, and when?
Finding
The quick check is no substitute for an audit. It shows where an audit would start. Discuss the open items →
We build AI-driven accounting systems ourselves and know the places where they regularly break — because we have to close them while building. § 146 (4) AO requires that "the original content remains ascertainable" and that no change is made "whose nature leaves it uncertain whether it was made originally or only later". That is where automated systems fail — not on posting quality.
We do not audit our own systems. For those we name you an independent auditor. For systems we helped build we issue a manufacturer's declaration — labelled as what it is: a statement by the manufacturer, not an independent audit.
AO (1): orderly records; (4): alterations; (5): availability and readability. The BMF document is the second GoBD amendment, not a complete standalone GoBD text. The questions below are our operational interpretation, not verbatim statutory quotations.
Editorial review: 17.09.2026. A legal requirement is not evidence of implementation by GUV. All sources
GoBD paras. 179–181 (positive attestations, binding effect of certificates) · § 146 (4) AO verbatim · Paragraph numbers follow the 2014 version; current version of the BMF circular of 28 Nov 2019, last amended by the BMF letter of 14 July 2025
4 · Why now
In tax firms, ongoing bookkeeping piles up while annual accounts wait. In companies, the figures arrive when the financial year is long over. Both have the same cause: the part of the work that is not tax advice ties up the time of those who are supposed to advise.
And the deadlines keep running. The obligation to receive e-invoices has applied since the start of 2025 — the most common misconception in the market is that it only begins with the issuing deadlines in 2027 and 2028. The research allowance was expanded on 1 January 2026, but is granted only on application, and the SME uplift only if it is expressly requested.
BMF e-invoicing FAQ. The ability to receive e-invoices does not establish a blanket obligation to use a particular archiving product.
Editorial review: 17.09.2026. A legal requirement is not evidence of implementation by GUV. All sources
E-invoicing: receiving mandatory since 1 Jan 2025, issuing obligations staggered until 2028 · Research allowance: amendments by the tax investment programme effective 1 Jan 2026
5 · AI in accounting
We advise companies that develop and operate AI-driven posting software for DATEV tax firms, and we take part in the development. The rule sets running in production there stem in substantial parts from our work.
Services: building rule sets for automated account assignment · rollout and integration with DATEV · guiding the transition in day-to-day firm operations · review of data protection and professional secrecy under § 203 StGB and § 62a StBerG.
Disclosure: in every system assessment we state our involvement in the products under review before the engagement begins. Systems we helped build, we do not audit.
Rule sets that run with any AI. Our rule sets do not live in a chat history or in a vendor account, but as versioned text editions in a fixed place — with a directory every assistant reads first, and a loud failure when it cannot. We measured this on 24.09.2026: two different AI models, in a fresh conversation without any hint, found the correct rule edition and worked from it; without access to the storage location they said so instead of guessing. That is exactly how we set up rule editions for you — the vendor is replaceable, the rule set stays yours.
Assess necessary access, selection, contractual obligations, foreign services and other participants separately; section 62a(5)-(8) also matters. Data protection law applies alongside these rules. EU hosting alone does not prove lawful processing as a whole.
Editorial review: 17.09.2026. A legal requirement is not evidence of implementation by GUV. All sources
6 · Reporting
The ongoing bookkeeping produces the report that management, banks and investors actually read: result per entity and consolidated, actual against plan, liquidity with runway, intercompany reconciliation with the remaining difference stated.
A single HTML file. No login, no cloud service, no transfer to third parties. It opens in the browser, works offline and can be forwarded by email. German and English in the same file.
| Entity | Result H1 |
|---|---|
| GmbH Germany | |
| S.L. Spain | |
| Ltd United Kingdom | |
| Inc United States | |
| Group before allowance | |
| Research allowance, accrued |
The report is built from each entity's trial balance; every figure shown carries its derivation and the reference to account, month and posting batch. Consolidation and valuation remain the task of the firm or the auditor.
7 · Who we are
We say this openly because it answers the question you are asking anyway: how can one person deliver all of this? By having the routines — document processing, account assignment, reconciliation, documentation — run on systems we built ourselves and whose rule sets we know down to the last line.
What that means for you: every decision that concerns your engagement or your data is made by a human. The systems operate under § 203 StGB and § 62a StBerG — with confidentiality agreements, EU hosting and a documented rule set. What they do is traceable; what they may not do is defined.
AI builds AI. We build our systems with the same tools we roll out at your firm. That cycle is the proof that it works — and the reason we know where it breaks.
What we build ourselves
Developed with a partner company and in production in daily firm operations: rule sets for automatic account assignment, test cases from real posting data, error classes that are persisted and checked on every run. Where the system is not sure, it asks — instead of guessing.
What we build ourselves
Conceived, written, legally reviewed, built, tested and published with AI — in one day, including domain, mail infrastructure and data processing agreement. The calculator and the quick check run without a server, without trackers, without a single external resource. You are looking at the work product, not the brochure.
8 · Who does what
We are not appointed tax advisers (Steuerberater) and provide bookkeeping services within the limits of § 6 of the German Tax Advisory Act (StBerG) as in force since 1 September 2026. That is not a restriction we hide; it is the division of labour the whole chain rests on: for every stage it is defined what we do, what we hand over and who carries on with responsibility. Nothing falls between two stools — that is why tax firms can work with us.
Since 1 September 2026, § 6 StBerG expressly lists setting up charts of accounts, posting current business transactions and running payroll as permitted activities (Act of 29 June 2026, Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 197). The chart of accounts we used to build under the firm's responsibility we now set up on our own.
Whoever offers you, as a bookkeeping service, the annual accounts and the tax return as well is offering you something § 5 StBerG forbids them to do. That is why this list sits here and not in the fine print: it is the reason your tax firm keeps its tasks and you know where you stand.
We store no client documents locally and work exclusively through EU-hosted systems. For client communication we use our principals' addresses, not mailboxes of our own.
Data processing agreements under Art. 28 GDPR are in place for the service providers we use; processing takes place contractually only in the EU or EEA, and any transfer to a third country would require our prior consent. We provide our list of sub-processors and the underlying contracts on request — for your record under Art. 30 GDPR.
Since 1 Sep 2026, the exception also covers setting up charts of accounts. The responsible person needs a commercial vocational qualification or equivalent, followed by at least three years of practical bookkeeping at at least 16 hours per week. Citing the provision alone does not establish GUV's qualification.
Editorial review: 17.09.2026. A legal requirement is not evidence of implementation by GUV. All sources
§ 5 and § 6 StBerG (version in force since 1 Sep 2026, Federal Law Gazette 2026 I No. 197) · Delimitation according to the tax administration's guidance on bookkeeping assistance · On interpretation: German Federal Fiscal Court, judgment of 16 Apr 2024, VII R 22/21 · § 62a StBerG (service providers) · GoBD para. 181
9 · Prices
We do not scale by client size and charge no surcharges. Every fixed price on this page can be recalculated in hours — that is deliberate.
All amounts net. For services to businesses in Germany the reverse charge applies.
Monthly, by document volume, at a fixed price. The time our automation saves is not kept as margin — it goes into better rule sets, tighter reconciliation and the next improvement. The work gets better every month. Your price does not.
We do not offer bookkeeping without reconciliation. Books that are not reconciled are not books. Included in the price:
| Documents per month | Price per month |
|---|---|
| up to 50 | €400 |
| up to 150 | €1,000 |
| up to 400 | €2,200 |
| above that | individual |
Two fixed items come on top — we name them here so no figure follows later:
Closing preparation by time at €140. Above 400 documents a month we name no flat figure, because it would mislead — ask us.
The price is the estimated effort times €140. If it takes less, we bill less.
| Service | Effort | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Set up an engagement and chart of accounts | 6 to 8 h | from €890 |
| Clean up a grown account structure | from 10 h | from €1,400 |
| Start-up: the first hundred days | from 12 h | from €1,600 |
| Process documentation, one system | 12 to 16 h | from €1,680 |
| Process documentation with till and inventory system | 25 to 40 h | €3,500 to €5,600 |
| GoBD review report, one system | 16 to 24 h | from €2,240 |
| GoBD review report, several systems and sites | 30 to 45 h | €4,200 to €6,300 |
| Working papers per year-end — evidence layer, every figure leads to its record | from 20 h | from €2,800 |
| Set up a rule edition — a rule set that runs with any AI | from 14 h | from €1,960 |
| Maintain a rule edition — new editions and test runs | 2 h per month | €280 per month |
Our reference is the 2025 year-end of a small GmbH, measured on 23.09.2026: 125 general-ledger accounts, 9,670 postings, 42 reconciled balance-sheet accounts, four data gates, a document-request register, a provisions derivation, a VAT reconciliation and the size class. From that, the hours — the quantities are measured, the time per step is our assumption:
| Step | Basis | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Data layer from DATEV exports, four gates green | once per year-end | 2.5 |
| Per balance-sheet account: header, reconciliation, finding, burden of proof | 42 × 0.25 h | 10.5 |
| Document-request register | once | 1.5 |
| Estimated items with derivation (provisions) | once | 2 |
| Reconciliations, size class, minutes | once | 2 |
| Gate runs and delivery | once | 1.5 |
| Total | × €140 | 20 = €2,800 |
From the 51st balance-sheet account we add a quarter of an hour per further account and say so beforehand.
Source of the quantities: our own reference, evidence register of 23.09.2026. The sample with invented figures in the same construction: working-paper sample.
A rule edition consists of a directory that says which rule is responsible for what, of content editions per rule set, and of a pointer in the respective AI account that knows the way there and says loudly when it cannot find it. It is finished only when a fresh assistant loads the right edition without a hint — we measure that before we bill.
| Step | Basis | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Directory: rule sets, responsibility, storage location | once | 3 |
| Two content editions from your existing instructions | 2 × 3 h | 6 |
| Pointer in the account with loud failure | once | 2 |
| Three test runs in fresh conversations, protocol | 3 × 1 h | 3 |
| Total | × €140 | 14 = €1,960 |
Maintenance: every change becomes a new edition, never an overwrite; one test run per quarter. For that we allow two hours per month. Each further rule set costs three hours.
Source: our own measurement of 24.09.2026 with two AI models, protocol on request. The method is described under AI in accounting.
Producing a process documentation would in principle qualify as management consulting under the German BAFA scheme. We still do not offer it, and we will tell you plainly why.
The grant is 80 per cent in the eastern federal states excluding Berlin and the Leipzig region, capped at €2,800, otherwise 50 per cent, capped at €1,750. At most €3,500 of net consulting cost per project and at most five consulting days are eligible.
Against that stands this procedure: an application before any contract is signed, no retroactive funding, a review of your SME status and of the consultant's listing by a central office, for young companies an additional preliminary information meeting, and afterwards a consulting report in prescribed form, the invoice, the bank statement and a statement of use.
The maximum grant of €2,800 equals 20 hours of our work. In our assessment the administrative effort on both sides is of the same order, and the project start slips by weeks. We consider this a bureaucracy monster and would rather bill €140 an hour straight away.
If you still want to use the funding, you need a consultant listed with BAFA. We are not, and will not be. Tell us and we will stay out of it.
Editorial review: 22.09.2026. Details of the guideline without warranty; the version in force applies.
Two paths, fixed together before the engagement — no surprises afterwards.
Success model for projects from roughly €100,000 of expected allowance: 5 per cent of the assessed allowance, capped at €50,000. If nothing is assessed, you pay nothing. 20 per cent falls due after the positive certificate — the step where applications fail, and which by then you have passed. The rest only once the tax office assesses the allowance.
Hourly model for smaller projects: €140 an hour, effort disclosed before you engage us. An application taking ten hours costs €1,400 — even with an allowance of €10,000, and we put exactly that calculation in front of you first. If the effort is not worth the allowance, we say so in the first conversation — then there is no application, and being told costs nothing.
| Assessed allowance | Market rate 10% | With us | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| €100,000 | €10,000 | €5,000 | €5,000 |
| €250,000 | €25,000 | €12,500 | €12,500 |
| €500,000 | €50,000 | €25,000 | €25,000 |
| €1,000,000 | €100,000 | €50,000 | €50,000 |
| €4,200,000 | €420,000 | €50,000 | €370,000 |
Which path applies is written into the engagement — not decided afterwards. The application to the tax office remains the task of your tax adviser.
The 10 per cent in the comparison column is a success fee commonly seen in the market for research-allowance consulting; the range across providers and models is wider. Third-party prices without warranty.
Editorial review: 22.09.2026. All sources
All prices net, as of 22.09.2026. No minimum term for ongoing bookkeeping, cancellable at month end. Fixed prices cover the scope described; anything beyond it is billed at €140 and announced beforehand.
10 · Contact
Ulrich Waldmann
GUV IT Solutions Germany LLC
info@guvsolution.net +380 95 877 9114Reply within one working day — from a human.
Bring what is stuck right now — a client file that keeps waiting, a system you would not trust in a tax audit, a development project you are not sure is eligible for funding.
In the first conversation you get an assessment of what holds and what does not, and what it would cost. If we are the wrong people for it, we tell you in the same conversation.
11 · Sources
Look up legal sources without losing context. Scope notes appear next to each statement. External links open in a new tab; the source site is requested only when you follow the link.
Reviewed: 25 Sep 2026 for the entries added in this edition (certification body, HGB, AO, TDDDG); the remaining entries were reviewed on 17 Sep 2026 and not retrieved again in this edition. Official sources are linked. Where official full-text access failed technically, the text was checked against the reproduction explicitly labelled non-official. This is not an automatic update service.
12 · Privacy
Controller: GUV IT Solutions Germany LLC, Mykhailivska street 24A, 01001 Kyiv, Ukraine, represented by Ulrich Waldmann, email info@guvsolution.net.
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Contact. If you email us, we process your details to answer the enquiry and to prepare an engagement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). The mail servers run under our own domain.
Your rights. Access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability and objection under Art. 15 to 21 GDPR, and the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). Requests go to the address above.
Art. 12 and 13: information duties. Art. 6: legal bases. Art. 15 to 21 and 77: data subject rights.
As of 17.09.2026. All sources