GoCardless e‑invoicing for Germany: invoices from SEPA Direct Debit, automatically

SEPA Direct Debit works differently from card payments

With a card or wallet, you know within seconds whether the payment went through. A SEPA Direct Debit works differently. It is submitted, passes through interim states for several days and only then counts as collected. Even after that, the payer can take the money back: for a SEPA Direct Debit they can demand a refund for eight weeks without giving a reason (§ 675x Abs. 2 und 4 BGB), and for an unauthorized debit for up to 13 months (§ 676b Abs. 2 BGB).

That matters for invoicing. An invoice in the GoBD archive cannot be changed (§ 146 Abs. 4 AO). If you invoice on submission, you create invoices for money that has not arrived yet, and every failed collection needs a cancellation invoice to undo it. So Rechnungskit waits for the confirmed collection and only then creates the invoice, with the actual collection date as the payment date.

Setup in two steps

You connect with an access token and a webhook, no programming needed. Create a token with write access in the GoCardless dashboard and enter it in Rechnungskit under Connections → Connect. Rechnungskit then shows you the webhook URL; you create an endpoint with it in GoCardless and copy its secret back. Use your live account for this, even while you are only testing Rechnungskit. GoCardless reports payments only by webhook, and Rechnungskit verifies every message cryptographically against the secret. Rechnungskit never initiates payments.

Every click with screenshots, where the secret hides and what helps with error messages are in the guide Connect GoCardless.

From then on everything runs on its own: the confirmed collection is matched to the right order, a ZUGFeRD invoice with PDF and embedded XML is created, checked against the mandatory details under § 14 Abs. 4 UStG, archived in an audit-proof way and prepared for the DATEV export. Customers with a Leitweg-ID (the routing ID German public authorities use), such as government agencies or universities, get the same invoice as XRechnung 3.0.

Returned debits: an open item, not a cancellation

Returned debits are often handled wrong. A return is no reason for a cancellation invoice: the service was delivered, the invoice was correct, only the payment came back. For VAT purposes the consideration does not change automatically.

Rechnungskit reflects that: the original invoice stays, the receivable is reopened and you get a task for the case. Whether a correction is needed in the end (for example as a bad debt under § 17 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 UStG) is something you decide with your tax advisor (Steuerkanzlei). The software does not decide it on its own.

Fees and payouts in the DATEV export

GoCardless bundles collected payments into payouts and deducts its fees right away. Rechnungskit reads the payout with its individual items and separates what would otherwise be manual work for your tax advisor:

Every payment provider gets its own transit account. That is the only way to check per provider whether collected amounts, fees and payouts add up. All accounts can be changed in the DATEV settings to match your tax advisor's chart of accounts.

For subscriptions and recurring payments

Recurring direct debits are the main use case for GoCardless. Every confirmed collection gets its own invoice. When subscriptions need deferral across the balance sheet date is explained in the guide on deferred revenue (passive Rechnungsabgrenzung) under § 250 Abs. 2 HGB.