DATEV Buchungsstapel: EXTF format explained

Where this information comes from

DATEV's own developer pages are built in the browser with JavaScript and could not be read for this page. The information below therefore comes from a public example file and two descriptions of the format, listed under Sources. It describes what could be seen there — not a complete specification.

Line 1: the header record

The first line describes the file, not a booking. For reading it in, these fields matter most:

Field	Content
1	`"EXTF"`, in older files `"DTVF"`
4	the kind of data, here `"Buchungsstapel"`
13	WJ-Beginn: start of the business year, YYYYMMDD
15	Datum vom: first day of the period, YYYYMMDD
16	Datum bis: last day of the period, YYYYMMDD

Line 2 and the bookings

Line 2 names the columns by their DATEV names; in the public example file a booking line has over a hundred of them, most of them empty. Some of them:

Umsatz (ohne Soll/Haben-Kz) — the amount, always positive, with a comma as the decimal mark.
Soll/Haben-Kennzeichen — S or H (debit or credit); the direction of the booking is here, not in the sign of the amount.
Konto and Gegenkonto (ohne BU-Schlüssel) — account and contra account.
Belegdatum — the document date, day and month only, as DDMM.
Belegfeld 1 — document field 1.
Buchungstext — the booking text.

Fields are separated by semicolons, text is in quotes, and a quote inside text is doubled. The character set is ANSI, that is Windows-1252; in the public example file lines end with CRLF.

An example

Shortened and with invented values: the two header lines and one booking. „…“ stands for omitted fields; a real file has further fields and semicolons in those places.

"EXTF";…;"Buchungsstapel";…;20260101;…;20260101;20260630;…
Umsatz (ohne Soll/Haben-Kz);Soll/Haben-Kennzeichen;…;Konto;Gegenkonto (ohne BU-Schlüssel);…;Belegdatum;Belegfeld 1;…;Buchungstext;…
450,00;"S";…;1111;2222;…;1503;"RE-7";…;"Beispielbuchung";…

Invented example values: period 1 January to 30 June 2026, amount 450.00 written as 450,00, account 1111 and contra account 2222 as placeholders, document date 1503 for 15 March; the period in the header supplies the year 2026.

What Künstlerfinanzen does with it

Künstlerfinanzen's CSV import recognises a booking batch by EXTF or DTVF in the first field and prepares it like this:

Columns: it takes Umsatz, Soll/Haben-Kennzeichen, Konto, Gegenkonto, Belegdatum, Belegfeld 1 and Buchungstext. Umsatz becomes the amount, Buchungstext the description. If the Umsatz or Belegdatum column is missing, the file is not read.
Date: the year of each document date comes from „Datum vom“ and „Datum bis“ in the header; if those are missing, the period is the business year from WJ-Beginn, i.e. the twelve months from that day. Each document date gets the year that puts it inside that period. A document date that does not fall unambiguously within that period is not imported and is shown as an error for that row.
Income or expense: you choose that for the whole file when importing, as for any CSV file. Künstlerfinanzen decides it neither by account nor by the Soll/Haben mark. Account and Soll/Haben are shown in the preview for your own check.
Soll and Haben mixed: if the file contains both marks, the preview shows the count and total per mark, and you choose which rows to take. Which mark means income in your file is yours to say.
Character set: the file is read as UTF-8 first and, if that is not valid, as Windows-1252 — so umlauts survive.

Künstlerfinanzen does not write DATEV files. For your tax adviser there is the printable page “For your adviser” (print or save as PDF) and a year's income and expenses as CSV with semicolons and a decimal comma.

What this page does not do

This page describes a file format. It does not say which account or chart of accounts to book anything to, and it is not tax advice. Booking itself remains a matter for your bookkeeping or your tax adviser. For the KSK, income from work is profit — see Profit is reported, not turnover.

Frequently asked questions

How is a DATEV Buchungsstapel file structured?

Line 1 is a header record starting with "EXTF" (in older files "DTVF"). Line 2 holds the column names. After that each line is one booking, fields separated by semicolons, text in quotes.

Why is there no year in the DATEV document date?

The document date (Belegdatum) is written as DDMM, day and month only. The year is only in the header: field 13 is the start of the business year (WJ-Beginn), fields 15 and 16 are „Datum vom“ and „Datum bis“ (date from, date to), each as YYYYMMDD.

Which character encoding does a DATEV file use?

ANSI, that is Windows-1252, not UTF-8. Reading the file as UTF-8 turns umlauts into replacement characters.

Can Künstlerfinanzen import a DATEV export?

Yes. The import recognises a Buchungsstapel by "EXTF" or "DTVF" in the first field and reads the amount, document date and booking text. Whether the rows are income or expenses is what you choose when importing. Künstlerfinanzen does not write DATEV files.

Sources

By the Künstlerfinanzen editorial team. Page last checked: 2026-09-28. The information comes from:

Public example file EXTF_Buchungsstapel.csv (github.com/ledermann/datev)
smartkontoauszug.de: DATEV EXTF-Format erklärt: Aufbau, Felder und Import (German)
hilfe.shopsoftware.com: Anleitung – DATEV Format (German)
Künstlersozialkasse: Jahresmeldung für Versicherte (annual report for insured members) — on income from work as business income minus business expenses

DATEV's developer pages could not be read; the information rests on the sources named. This text is not legal advice and not tax advice. What applies in your case is answered by your tax adviser or an adviser of your choice.

The DATEV booking batch (Buchungsstapel, EXTF format) explained