Amazon Accounting With DATEV: 4 Ways Compared

In short: Amazon does not provide a ready-made DATEV export, only reports. From there, four typical routes lead into DATEV:

1. preparing the Seller Central reports yourself
2. an invoicing or accounting program with an Amazon connection
3. the DATEV payment data service, which only transfers payments and fees, no sales
4. e-commerce accounting software that reconciles settlements, VAT data and inventory movements and creates DATEV entries

What matters is whether every Amazon payout and every VAT line is explained at the end of the month, not just one of the two.

KudTax belongs to the fourth group and delivers Amazon data as a DATEV file or through a direct DATEV interface.

This guide is for Amazon sellers registered for VAT in Germany, including sellers based abroad, and for German tax advisors with Amazon clients. You will learn which Amazon data DATEV needs, what each of the four routes covers and how to test a route on a real month. The guide covers sales through Amazon Seller Central. If you supply Amazon through Vendor Central, different processes apply; see our article on Vendor Central accounting.

What DATEV Needs From Amazon

One report is not enough for Amazon. An Amazon month sits in at least two reports that are structured differently and do not cover the same period:

Layer	What belongs to it	Where it is in Seller Central
Sales	Sales and refunds with VAT rate, departure and destination country, B2B purchases with a VAT ID	Amazon VAT Transactions Report, plus the invoice data if you use VCS
Cash flow	Payouts, reserves, deferred amounts, reimbursements	Settlement report, roughly every 14 days
Costs	Referral fees, FBA fees, storage fees, advertising	Settlement report and Amazon's monthly fee invoices
Inventory movements	Pan-EU and CEE transfers between countries	Amazon VAT Transactions Report

The settlement report explains the bank payout but does not reliably show the destination country. Countries and VAT rates are in the VAT Transactions Report instead, which in turn says nothing about the payout. It is issued monthly and, according to Amazon's developer documentation, only from the third day of the following month. Together, both reports form the basis for reconciliation. Your bookkeeping also needs the related invoices, bank statements and, depending on the case, further records.

Two points need a rule of their own. Amazon fees are booked according to each invoice, not across the board. According to an Amazon announcement, since 1 August 2024 the Amazon EU branch in the country where your business is established issues the invoices for selling and fulfilment services, and VAT applies to the fees. For sellers established in Germany, that is the German branch. Booking all Amazon fees as reverse charge under Section 13b of the German VAT Act is therefore wrong; what counts is the specific service, the issuer of the invoice and the VAT shown. In addition, inventory transfers never appear in a payout: no money moves, yet for VAT purposes it is a transaction that can trigger a registration in the destination country. Our article on FBA and multi-marketplace accounting explains how these movements arise.

Route 1: Prepare the Seller Central Reports Yourself

Amazon provides all the data you need free of charge. You download the settlement report from the payment reports as a Flat File V2, and the VAT Transactions Report from the tax reports. From these, your bookkeeper builds a DATEV batch file in a spreadsheet, or your tax advisor does it.

There are no licence costs, but there is work every month. Three spots are especially error-prone:

• Settlement periods run across month end. A settlement from the 24th to the 7th belongs to two months.
• Reserves and deferred amounts move money into later settlements and keep the clearing account from reaching zero.
• Both reports have to match. A refund appears in the settlement report with the date of the credit and in the VAT report with its own date.

Our guide to the Amazon settlement report shows how to break a settlement down line by line.

Fits: sellers with few orders, one marketplace and no FBA stock abroad.

Route 2: Invoicing or Accounting Program With an Amazon Connection

Many programs pull Amazon data through an interface. Two kinds are common:

• Invoicing tools for Amazon create an invoice for every order, upload it to Amazon and often export sales as a DATEV file. Fees, reserves and payouts are frequently left out.
• General accounting programs with a marketplace connection treat the Amazon account like an additional bank account. Payouts and fees are easy to book this way. How well destination countries, OSS cases and inventory transfers are handled varies a lot from program to program.

Both kinds solve part of the job well. Check in advance which of the four layers in the table above a program really covers, and ask which report it uses as its source.

Fits: sellers who mainly need invoices for their Amazon orders, and smaller sellers who already keep their books in a general accounting program.

Route 3: DATEV Payment Data Service for Amazon

DATEV itself offers the "DATEV Zahlungsdatenservice für Amazon". Important up front: the service books Amazon payment data much like bank transactions. According to DATEV's description, it does not deliver sales by VAT rate and destination country from your orders.

According to the DATEV Marketplace, it recognises Amazon fees separately and matches payments to open items via the order ID. Data arrives once Amazon has paid out, according to DATEV usually every 14 days. It requires DATEV Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen or DATEV Mittelstand Faktura mit Rechnungswesen. DATEV lists the price from €1.36 per month (as of 23 October 2026).

Two notices come from DATEV itself. In certain setups, DATEV expects balance differences, outdated or missing data. DATEV also discontinues the product on 15 August 2027, according to its discontinuation notice, because Amazon only provides the underlying interface until August 2027. Should Amazon keep offering it, DATEV intends to continue the service. As alternatives, DATEV names the ISWL Zahlungsdaten-Konverter and partner solutions in the DATEV Marketplace. If you use the service or are setting it up, plan the announced end date and an alternative together with your tax advisor.

For your tax advisor this also means: sales have to reach DATEV by a second route, for example from the VAT Transactions Report. Only then are there open items the service can match payments to.

Fits: tax advisors who already book Amazon sales another way and only want to automate the payment side until the announced end date.

Route 4: E-Commerce Accounting Software With Settlement Reconciliation

The fourth group includes tools that pull the settlement report, VAT data and inventory movements from Amazon, reconcile them with each other and with the bank payout, and create DATEV entries from them. DATEV remains your tax advisor's accounting system; the software supplies it with finished entries. At first glance the offers look similar. The differences show in four places:

• Data sources: only the settlement report, or also the VAT Transactions Report, VCS invoice data and FBA inventory movements?
• Reach of the reconciliation: is every settlement resolved down to the bank receipt, including reserves and deferred amounts?
• Multiple countries: are sales by destination country, OSS cases, B2B sales and transfers booked separately?
• Route into DATEV: as a file, via API or through a direct DATEV interface.

KudTax connects through the Amazon Selling Partner API and takes over settlements, invoice and VCS data and FBA inventory movements, across several European marketplaces too. It matches the lines of a settlement to the payout with AI assistance; anything that does not add up stays visible as an open difference. Entries follow SKR03 or SKR04 and reach your tax advisor as a DATEV file or through a direct DATEV interface. Shopify, eBay, PayPal and other channels run in the same account.

This simplified example with made-up figures shows what a resolved settlement looks like:

Line in the settlement	Matched to	Amount
Sales	214 orders	€12,480.00
Refunds	9 returns	−€640.20
Referral fees	214 orders	−€1,810.45
FBA fulfilment fees	198 FBA shipments	−€2,115.30
Storage fees	monthly fee	−€96.40
Reimbursement	1 lost item	€38.90
Reserve from the previous settlement	released	€420.00
Newly withheld reserve	balance held by Amazon	−€455.00
Payout	bank receipt on 14 October	€7,821.55
Open difference		€0.00

If an amount remained open, for example a refund without a matching order, it would show in the last line and would need to be resolved before the entries go to your tax advisor.

Such tools are usually priced by order volume. Calculate with your own volume across all marketplaces, not just Amazon.

Fits: FBA sellers using Pan-EU or several marketplaces, sellers with other sales channels besides Amazon, and tax advisors who want reconciled data instead of raw reports.

The Four Routes Compared

	Route 1: Own reports	Route 2: Invoicing or accounting program	Route 3: DATEV payment data service	Route 4: E-commerce accounting software
Sales by destination country and VAT rate	manual	depends on program	no, payments only	depends on data scope and setup
Fees booked separately	manual	depends on program	yes	yes
Payout down to the bank receipt	manual	partly	in DATEV	depends on provider, check in the test
FBA inventory transfers	manual	rarely	no	depends on provider
Route into DATEV	file	mostly file	directly in DATEV	file, direct interface with some providers
Ongoing effort	high	medium	medium, mostly at the tax advisor	depends on setup and exceptions

The table describes typical cases, and the lines are blurred. Some invoicing tools now also book payouts, some accounting programs read the VAT report. The test two sections below tells you more than any feature list.

File or Direct Interface?

The classic route into DATEV is the batch file: a CSV file in DATEV format (EXTF) that your tax advisor imports into DATEV Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen. It works with almost every tool. However, someone has to create, transfer and import the file every month. Common errors and their fixes are collected in the checklist for DATEV import errors.

A direct DATEV interface transfers the entries without sending files. That reduces manual transfer steps. Before deciding, ask your tax advisor which route they prefer and whether they want Amazon entries one by one or summarised. Our article on DATEV export for online retailers explains what a good DATEV file contains.

How to Test a Route Before You Commit

Take a closed month, ideally one with returns and at least one inventory transfer, and work through these steps:

1. Resolve one settlement to the cent. Include every movement in the settlement: sales, fees, refunds, reimbursements, adjustments, amounts withheld and the carry-over from the previous settlement. Does the payout match the bank receipt, and can any remaining balances be explained?
2. Test the month end. A settlement across month end contains transactions from two months. Which month sales and fees are assigned to depends on the method of determining profit agreed with your tax advisor: under cash-basis accounting (EÜR), the cash principle of Section 11 of the German Income Tax Act generally applies, and VAT follows its own rules. Separately, the clearing account must show an explainable balance at the cut-off date.
3. Hold sales against the VAT report. Do the booked sales per country and VAT rate match the month's VAT Transactions Report?
4. Run through special cases. A partial refund, a reimbursement for lost FBA stock, a B2B sale with a VAT ID, an inventory transfer abroad. How are they booked?
5. Test the handover to DATEV. Have your tax advisor take the test month into DATEV, by file or through the direct interface. For the file route, you can run a first format check beforehand with our free DATEV export validator.
6. Look at the clearing account. At month end, only what can be explained should remain: a running settlement or a withheld reserve. Reserves are a balance held by Amazon, not a cost.

If the process passes these checks, you have a reliable basis for the regular data handover. Professional review, VAT returns and the month-end close stay with your bookkeeping or tax advisor. If a route already fails at step 3, your tax advisor will keep reworking sales by hand. General selection criteria are in our guide Choosing e-commerce accounting software.

Connect Amazon and DATEV With KudTax

With KudTax you connect your Amazon seller account through the official interface, without a developer. Which data comes along is described under Route 4 above and in detail on the Amazon accounting page. The close, VAT returns and tax returns stay with you or your tax advisor.

Up to 25 orders a month you use KudTax for free, and larger plans come with a free first month: Create an account. If you would rather see KudTax with sample data first, request demo access.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Amazon Have a DATEV Export?

No. Seller Central provides settlement reports, VAT reports and fee invoices, but no batch file in DATEV format. For sales and payments together you need a program with an Amazon connection or e-commerce accounting software that covers both sides, or your tax advisor prepares the reports themselves. The DATEV payment data service only supports the payment side; sales have to reach DATEV another way as well.

Which Amazon Reports Does My Tax Advisor Need?

At least the settlement report for every payout and the monthly VAT Transactions Report. Add Amazon's fee invoices and, if you use VCS, the invoices Amazon created for you. Keep the files unchanged, because they are also your records.

Is the DATEV Payment Data Service for Amazon Enough?

Not for sales. The service books payouts and fees; sales by destination country and VAT rate have to reach DATEV another way. The payment side has limits too: DATEV points to possible balance differences and outdated or missing data, and discontinues the service on 15 August 2027 unless Amazon keeps providing the interface.

How Are Amazon Fees Booked in DATEV?

According to each fee invoice. Since 1 August 2024, Amazon invoices selling and fulfilment services through the Amazon EU branch in the country where your business is established, with VAT; for sellers established in Germany that is the German branch. An invoice without German VAT does not automatically mean Section 13b applies, and input tax deduction has its own requirements. The issuer, the service and the VAT shown determine the tax code; clarify the treatment with your tax advisor.

Do I Have to Book FBA Inventory Transfers Abroad?

Yes, if Amazon moves your goods to a warehouse in another EU country, for example with Pan-EU or CEE. For VAT purposes this is an intra-community transfer and can trigger a registration in the destination country. The movements are in the VAT Transactions Report, not in the payout. Clarify the tax assessment of your case with your tax advisor.