Tax and bookkeeping

Set up in five rows#

Under Settings > Tax & accounting the top says whether your taxes are set up, with five rows below: Country, VAT rates, Menu, Delivery fee and DATEV. If something is missing, the row carries exactly one button that fixes it or opens the row. Explanations sit behind the “?” next to the name of an opened row.

A dish does not carry its VAT rate but its tax group: food, drink or alcohol. Which rate comes out of it is set once, on the restaurant, per group for eating in and for takeaway.

The suggestion for the rates comes from your country; the 27 EU states plus Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom, Norway and Iceland are on file. We read the country from your address, and you can change it in the Country row. For Germany the suggestion since 1 January 2026 is: 7 % on food, eaten in or taken away, and 19 % on drinks and alcohol (table as of 17 August 2026).

An own rate on a dish or a category is the exception and beats the group. The lookup is: own rate on the dish, own rate on the category, group of the dish, group of the category, otherwise food.

• ⚠️ An empty field means “take the group”, for drinks and alcohol “like food”, and never “exempt”. If no rate is set anywhere, the line stays without a rate, not at 0 %.
• Changing the country changes no rate. If your rates then differ from the usual ones, the VAT rates row turns yellow, with the button to take them over.
• Alcohol is a group of its own because many countries tax it differently from the lemonade next to it, such as France, Hungary or Luxembourg.
• ⚠️ The country table is a suggestion, not tax advice. For six countries only the standard rate is on file (Denmark, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta), and the Country row says so.

Assigning the menu#

While reading the menu, Flavoso sorts every dish right away: food, drink or alcohol. A category gets the group when every dish in it is sorted the same way; individual dishes carry it themselves, like the wine in a “Drinks” category.

Anything neither you nor the AI has sorted counts as “without a tax group” in the Menu row: it calculates as food because nothing else is set. Opened, the row shows exactly these dishes first. You set the group per category or dish, take an AI suggestion with one click, or confirm with “Confirm all as food” that the rest are food. That changes no rate.

“Go through with AI” opens the same suggestion as after an import, for the whole menu. A menu typed by hand is sorted afterwards, and every row says where its suggestion came from.

• ⚠️ Suggested, not set. A guessed VAT rate does not stand out, it then sits in the bookkeeping; that is why the suggestion is a button next to the picker and not already in it.
• Dishes named after a drink stay food, such as a wine soup. The other way round, an alcohol-free beer stays a drink.
• The group of a dish is also in the menu, on the dish itself. Whoever may edit the menu can change it.

Gross stays gross#

⚠️ Your prices stay gross prices, as the German price indication rules require. The tax is taken out of the price and never added on top.

⚠️ The rate is frozen onto the line when the order is placed. Change it later and the change applies from then on, not retroactively: an order from last month keeps the rate of back then.

It is calculated per day, payment and rate from the gross, exactly as DATEV does on its revenue accounts. That is why the overview under Accounting, the “VAT per day” sheet and the DATEV batch show the same tax to the cent.

• ⚠️ Flavoso does not give tax advice. The suggestion per country is a head start; which rate applies to your food and drinks is your tax advisor's call.
• The AI import does not guess a rate, only the group. New dishes get the restaurant's default.
• The data export shows, per line, the rate and the tax of the line total before discounts. VAT including discounts, delivery fee and tips is in the “VAT per day” sheet. Both are in every plan.

The Accounting page#

Under Accounting in the sidebar you pick the period at the top: month, quarter, year or custom. You page through with the arrows or the arrow keys; it opens on last month.

Below are gross sales, VAT and net sales, then net, VAT and gross per rate: the figures of a VAT return. Order type, payment, discounts and fees and the method of calculation sit in tabs below.

Days follow your local time. An order at half past midnight on 1 October belongs to October, even if the server still writes September at that moment.

• Anything that stands out is one line with a figure: amounts without a VAT rate, with the way to the VAT rates, plus cancelled and never paid online orders, which are not included.
• Tips stand on their own. They are not the restaurant's sales and carry no VAT as long as they are voluntary.
• For the figures and the files with sales you need the Orders or Kitchen display area in addition to Numbers and visitors, for the process documentation the Settings area. If one is missing, a note stands there instead of an overview full of zeros.
• ⚠️ A help for your records and not tax advice. If in doubt, ask your tax advisor.

Discounts, delivery fee and tips#

A discount reduces the sales it relates to, and the tax with them. A free item from the stamp card belongs to exactly one dish and reduces that dish's rate: a free cola lowers drink sales, not the döner next to it. A percentage or amount discount applies to the whole order and is spread across the rates proportionally.

The delivery fee is an ancillary service and follows what is delivered. When food and drinks are in one order, it is usually split proportionally, like shipping costs for a mixed parcel. That is “Proportionally, like the order” (recommended) in the Delivery fee row; if you agreed on something else with your tax advisor, choose “Fixed rate”.

⚠️ The rule for the delivery fee is frozen when the order is placed, too. If you change it later, the change applies from then on. Only orders from before 3 October 2026 do not know their rule and use today's setting.

• Tips are not sales and go to an account of their own in the DATEV batch.
• ⚠️ These are the usual rules and not advice for your particular case. If in doubt, ask your tax advisor.

Which file for whom#

Below the overview are the files for your tax advisor, each for the same period and from the same calculation. The recommended one is marked: the DATEV batch when it is set up and your restaurant is in Germany or Austria, otherwise VAT per day.

• VAT per day, as Excel or CSV: daily takings per VAT rate and payment, tips separate. Fits any bookkeeping and is in every plan.
• DATEV posting batch, from Premium: the same figures, fully coded. For advisors who work with DATEV, which in Germany is almost all of them.
• Process documentation (GoBD), as PDF: the paper for a German cash inspection, in every plan.
• Take all your data: orders, items, guests, reservations, menu and tables, for your own analysis or a GDPR request.

The DATEV posting batch#

From Premium you download the period you picked under Accounting as a finished EXTF file that your tax advisor imports straight into DATEV. A batch belongs to exactly one fiscal year; if the period reaches beyond it, the page says so instead of building a wrong file.

What gets posted is the daily takings: one posting per day, payment route and VAT rate, in your local time. ⚠️ Until 3 October 2026 the batch counted UTC days and also posted online orders that were never paid; if you rebuild an old month, it can therefore differ from the one delivered back then.

⚠️ Without consultant and client number there is no file, and the account numbers hang off your tax advisor's chart of accounts. Whatever you do not know, you ask there: the DATEV row and the setup have a ready text for that, to copy or as an e-mail.

1. 1

   Start the setup

   Click “Set up” in the DATEV row. There are five questions: numbers, chart of accounts, revenue accounts, contra accounts, fiscal year. “Later” keeps your draft while the page stays open; saving happens at the end.

   Dashboard, Settings, Tax & accounting

2. 2

   Numbers and chart of accounts

   Consultant and client number are on every letter from the practice. SKR03, SKR04 or SKR70 (hotels and restaurants) fill the accounts in with the usual ones; which chart your advisor keeps, only they know.

   same setup

3. 3

   Check the accounts

   One revenue account per VAT rate, plus the contra accounts for paid on site and paid online, the tips account and the clearing account. If a rate has no account, the DATEV row and the Accounting page say so.

   same setup

4. 4

   Download the period

   Pick the period, download the batch, hand the file to your tax advisor. Show them the first batch before letting them post it.

   Dashboard, Accounting

Anything without a rate does not vanish#

Amounts without a VAT rate and amounts at a rate without a revenue account go to their own clearing account and say so in the posting text. They are not left out, and the Accounting page names both with their amount.

The reason is the total: what is in the file matches to the cent what the guests paid. Cancelled and never paid online orders, by contrast, are not included at all, they are not revenue; they remain in the order export.

The process documentation (GoBD)#

At a German cash inspection the auditor asks for it: a description of the systems you use to produce tax-relevant data. The GoBD require it, and whoever cannot produce anything has a problem.

Flavoso builds it for you as a PDF, under Accounting, with one click. It is rebuilt on every download and describes your restaurant as it is set up today: your order channels, your payment routes, your VAT rates, the number of people with access.

⚠️ It covers the ordering system, not your whole business. What your till does, what happens to the cash, how the receipt under § 146a AO is issued and where the paper receipts sit, you have to add yourself. The document has a section that tells you exactly what that is.

It is included in EVERY plan and it is in German, because the GoBD are German law.

• Rebuild it when something about your processes changes. Do not throw the old version away, file it: the changes have to stay traceable.
• Sign it. The document has a line for that at the end, because it describes your processes and not our claim about them.
• ⚠️ It is not tax advice. Whether it is enough for your business is your tax advisor's call.