Bookkeeping for the self-employed. In your hands.

Read photos, scans and PDFs locally – with native text recognition and a supplementary OCR fallback, without an external AI service. You crop a receipt photo directly on the image. Buchlio also suggests the date or period of supply and, with several tax rates, such as food at 7% and drinks at 19%, the split by rate. Single files, whole folders, ZIP archives and saved emails can be imported directly, and on the computer also by drag and drop from Finder, Explorer, Apple Mail or Outlook.

Import XRechnung invoices as UBL or CII XML as well as ZUGFeRD and Factur-X PDFs locally, including those with several tax rates.

Set up several of your own email accounts for receiving and sending. You connect Microsoft 365 and Outlook without an app password by signing in directly (OAuth), Gmail and Google Workspace via IMAP and SMTP with an app password, and other providers and your own domains via IMAP and SMTP. For each account, you choose the mail inbox, invoice folders or all folders. Invoices in the message text and in forwarded messages are recognised too; what another of your devices has already imported, Buchlio recognises as a duplicate. Buchlio doesn’t mark any message as read. Under “Sent & received” you see when each mailbox was last checked and which emails brought receipts.

Readable file names and folders by year, month and category. The original files stay unchanged. If you recorded a receipt without a document, such as a bank fee, you add the original later as a file or photo.

For the EUR amount actually paid, Buchlio suggests the ECB reference rate. You take German VAT (Umsatzsteuer) in EUR from the invoice or convert it with the BMF-Monatskurs (official monthly exchange rate for VAT, published by the Federal Ministry of Finance) – also with Reverse Charge (the customer owes the VAT instead of the supplier, § 13b UStG) and for your own invoices, e-invoices (E-Rechnung) included. The original invoice amount is kept.

Removed receipts go to the bin with their data and files. For 30 days by default – adjustable from 7 days to one year – you can restore them completely; after that, files no longer needed are deleted. Buchlio keeps filed, paid or exported receipts until the end of the statutory retention period.

Issue quotes as PDFs and send them, record their acceptance with a date and derive the order confirmation and the invoice from them with the quantities still open. Buchlio prevents you from invoicing more than was confirmed; removed or reduced items are shown traceably in the PDF. Quotes and order confirmations have their own number ranges and never count as income. At the top of Quotes are the sent quotes that are still awaiting a decision, with the end of their validity.

With your design, automatic totals, live preview, drafts and PDF export; Buchlio assigns the chronologically sortable invoice number when you issue the invoice. With your IBAN, EUR invoices carry a GiroCode that your customer scans with their banking app. Issued invoices stay unchanged: “Correct invoice” cancels them and opens a copy as a new draft, credit notes (Gutschrift) and cancellation invoices (Stornorechnung) refer to the original invoice, and final invoices (Schlussrechnung) deduct paid advance payment invoices (Anzahlungsrechnung).

With complete details, Buchlio issues your own invoices, credit notes and cancellation invoices directly as hybrid ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDFs, with a Leitweg-ID (routing ID that public-sector customers require on e-invoices) or order reference including an embedded XRechnung – also in a foreign currency, with the VAT additionally shown in EUR. Exactly this file remains the original for sending and export. Buchlio names missing details before you issue. During development, both formats are tested automatically with independent validators.

The monthly support fee or the next retainer: Buchlio prepares invoice drafts monthly, quarterly or yearly and reminds you to approve them. A series can also start later, for example with a customer’s next billing year; Due dates shows the next invoice under “Coming up”. Nothing is sent silently in the background.

Maintain master data once and select it for the next invoice instead of entering everything again. You compare duplicate entries side by side and merge them; existing invoices and receipts stay unchanged.

Check the sender account, recipient, subject and message before sending; the salutation addresses the company or the contact person, as you choose. Buchlio attaches the issued invoice PDF, with a Leitweg-ID also the XRechnung as XML, and after your approval hands the email over, encrypted, to your own email account that you selected. Sent directly, it arrives in the colours of your invoice profile, with your logo at the top and your signature at the bottom; “How the email arrives” shows it beforehand. Under “Sent & received”, everything sent is listed with its recipient and route, along with bounces and replies that Buchlio detects when it fetches the mailbox.

Search, filter and analyse by month, category or currency. The annual report shows income, expenses and cash surplus, and lists first what still needs clarifying.

Output VAT (Umsatzsteuer) on income, deductible input VAT (Vorsteuer) and the provisional amount payable at a glance. For German sole proprietorships, Buchlio also estimates a reserve for income tax and, optionally, Gewerbesteuer (municipal trade tax on business income) – expressly as an estimate; recorded prepayments reduce it. If you are a Kleinunternehmer (small business under the small-business VAT exemption, § 19 UStG: no VAT on invoices, no input VAT deduction), Buchlio alerts you when your turnover exceeds the limits of €25,000 or €100,000 under § 19 UStG, and calculates the Voranmeldung with standard VAT (Regelbesteuerung) from the sale with which your turnover exceeds €100,000; that sale itself is already taxable.

For each month or quarter, Buchlio compiles the Kennzahlen (numbered fields on a tax form in ELSTER) of the form up to the amount payable or the surplus to be refunded (Kz 83) – VAT under Ist-Versteuerung (VAT due when payment is received) or Soll-Versteuerung (VAT due when the supply is made), as set in the accounting profile, input VAT as soon as the invoice (Rechnung) and the supply are there, and Reverse Charge (the customer owes the VAT instead of the supplier) by period of supply or invoice respectively. Intra-Community supplies (Innergemeinschaftliche Lieferung) are in Kz 41. Buchlio lists the Zusammenfassende Meldung (EC sales list of supplies and services to businesses in other EU countries) per USt-IdNr. (VAT identification number for trade within the EU); the accounting package contains it as a CSV for import into Mein ELSTER. Unclear cases are shown alongside as a note; you transfer the values to Mein ELSTER yourself.

You record VAT prepayments, refunds, income tax and Gewerbesteuer as a tax payment. They count neither as income nor as an expense: VAT appears in the Anlage EÜR (form for the cash-basis profit statement, income minus expenses, filed with the tax return) in the year given by the ten-day rule (Kz 186 and 141), Gewerbesteuer as non-deductible, and income tax stays private.

You depreciate a laptop, office furniture or a car directly from the receipt: computers including peripherals and software over one year, other fixed assets up to €800 net as a GWG (low-value asset, deducted in full in the year of purchase), otherwise straight-line from the month of acquisition. Disposals count with their residual book value; the annual package contains the asset register.

For costs with mixed use, such as a mobile phone or internet, only the business share counts as an expense and input VAT. You enter flat rates without a receipt for the home office, meals when travelling and trips in the annual report, as well as the private use of the company car under the 1% rule or a logbook. For business gifts (Geschenke) to your contacts, Buchlio checks the €50 limit per recipient.

Buchlio checks mandatory details and creates a local accounting package per month, quarter or year: a DATEV posting batch under SKR03 or SKR04 (DATEV standard charts of accounts), the Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung and, in the annual package, the Anlage EÜR preparation for manual transfer to Mein ELSTER and the asset register, plus a check report and the original receipts with checksums. Notes warn you against importing into DATEV twice and name periods that have changed since the export. There is no direct DATEV or ELSTER submission and no professional sign-off by DATEV; CSV exports and complete local backups remain available.

Record payments, part payments and advance payments with their actual date and amount directly on the receipt. From these, Buchlio derives open, partly paid and paid. Several payment accounts, such as a business account and PayPal, stay separate in the accounting export.

Buchlio reads the CAMT or CSV export of your online banking only on your device. For each transaction, it suggests the matching open receipt and recognises payments already recorded; only what you confirm is saved as a payment. Buchlio needs no bank connection for this, and nothing from the statement itself is saved or transferred.

Check open incoming invoices and overdue outgoing invoices in one shared worklist. Confirmed part payments reduce the remaining amount shown. Under “Coming up” is what’s ahead in the next 14 days: invoices falling due, the next dunning stage and new invoices from your series. The “To do” Inbox also collects what is open on your receipts – payments, tax questions, sending and new receipts – most urgent first.

Hosting, software, phone: Buchlio recognises recurring costs from your receipts, even if the name or amount varies now and then, and shows when the next invoice is expected. If one is missing, you see it in Due dates and as a task in the Inbox, and add it as a file or photo or by drag and drop. That way, no deductible expense gets left behind. If no invoice comes for a month, for example because it is below a provider’s minimum billing amount, you mark the month as done with “No receipt needed”; you mark cancelled subscriptions as cancelled via “…”. Both apply on all your devices.

The dunning schedule in the invoice profile sets after how many days the payment reminder (Zahlungserinnerung) and the 1st and 2nd dunning letters become due and which fees apply. Due dates and notifications show the letter that is due and open it pre-filled. Buchlio includes late payment interest (Verzugszinsen) traceably: for business customers 9 percentage points above the base interest rate and a €40 lump sum instead of a dunning fee (Mahngebühr), for private customers 5 percentage points. You check and send every letter yourself.

You record a purchase in instalments through PayPal or a merchant loan once, according to the contract: lender, purchase date, number of instalments and monthly instalment or total repayment. Buchlio plans due dates and interest parts and shows, for example, “Financed through PayPal · 2 of 12 instalments paid”. Due instalments are listed under “To do”, and Buchlio reminds you of each one once with a notification; “Record instalment” opens the form pre-filled for confirmation, and you can also record several due instalments together. Repayment and interest expense stay separately traceable.