Pennylane + Rechnungskit

Pennylane and Rechnungskit: e‑invoices from your store and payment provider

Q: Can Pennylane import a DATEV export?

Yes. According to the German Pennylane help article on the chart of accounts, Pennylane imports DATEV Gesamtdaten and DATEV booking batches (Buchungsstapel); the booking import creates missing accounts automatically. Rechnungskit creates one DATEV booking batch for revenue and one for payments every month, including payment provider fees and payouts. Whether Pennylane also attaches the document images on a DATEV import is not described there, so the PDFs are in the documents ZIP as well.

Q: Does Pennylane read the Rechnungskit e-invoices?

Rechnungskit creates every invoice as a ZUGFeRD PDF, a PDF with embedded XML under EN 16931. According to the Pennylane help center, Pennylane reads the embedded XML of Factur-X and ZUGFeRD files instead of running text recognition. You can upload the PDFs by drag and drop, by forwarding them by email or through a cloud folder.

Q: Which option should I use, PDFs or booking batch?

Best decided together with your tax advisor. The PDFs fit if Pennylane should keep every invoice as a document and match it with payments from the bank and Stripe. The booking batch fits if you want finished bookings, including fees, payouts and OSS sales. The one rule: use only one option for the same sales, or they get booked twice.

Q: Is there a direct connection between Rechnungskit and Pennylane?

Not yet. A transfer through the Pennylane API is planned. Today you export from Rechnungskit once a month and read the files into Pennylane. Either way, the originals stay archived in Rechnungskit to GoBD standards, with a checksum.

Q: Do I need Rechnungskit if Pennylane can write invoices itself?

Pennylane can create invoices that you set up yourself. Rechnungskit creates them automatically from every order and payment in your store and payment providers, with the right VAT rate per country, a verified VAT ID for business customers and a cancellation invoice for every refund. With many orders a month, that is the difference between retyping and doing nothing at all.

Q: Can my tax advisor work in Rechnungskit if they use Pennylane?

Yes. Under Settings, Access you give your tax advisor their own access. They see documents, reports and exports, download the monthly exports themselves and can maintain the account mappings. Every access is logged.

Yes. Rechnungskit turns your orders and payments into e-invoices automatically and hands them to Pennylane in one of two ways: as ZUGFeRD PDFs, which Pennylane reads through the embedded XML, or as a monthly DATEV booking batch, which Pennylane can import according to its own help center. There is no direct API connection yet; the exchange runs through the file export.

Try it now View live demo

One export per month · ZUGFeRD PDFs and booking batch · no retyping

The gap

Pennylane does the books. The invoice for each order comes first.

Pennylane is an accounting platform for businesses and tax firms. For online stores, according to its help center, Pennylane books store sales as one collective entry per day or month, without individual invoices. The invoice for each order, with the right VAT rate per country and a cancellation invoice for every refund, has to come from somewhere else. That is what Rechnungskit does.

Pennylane alone

Store sales as one collective entry per day or month
No invoice per order from the store connector
Cancellation invoices for refunds by hand
Payment provider fees and payouts worked out by hand

With Rechnungskit

E-invoice (ZUGFeRD) for every order, automatically
Cancellation invoice for every refund, no manual work
VAT rate per country, OSS return included
Monthly export for Pennylane: ZUGFeRD PDFs or DATEV booking batch

From the sale into your Pennylane books

Rechnungskit creates the invoice for every sale and delivers it in a format Pennylane can read. There are two ways. Pick the one that fits together with your tax advisor.

Store and payment provider

Order and payment

Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware, Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Klarna

automatic

Schritt 2:Rechnungskit

E-invoice and bookings

ZUGFeRD invoice per sale, archived to GoBD standards
Cancellation invoice on every refund
Monthly: DATEV booking batch plus documents ZIP

file export

Schritt 3:Pennylane

Accounting

Option A: upload the ZUGFeRD PDFs, Pennylane reads the XML
Option B: import the DATEV booking batch

Stays in Rechnungskit

Original invoices in the GoBD archive
OSS return and EC Sales List
Access for your tax advisor

How it works with Pennylane

Four steps from the order to Pennylane.

01

Connect

Connect your store and payment providers to Rechnungskit in the free test mode. Choose the SKR03 or SKR04 chart of accounts, the same as in Pennylane.
02

Create invoices

Every order gets a validated e-invoice under EN 16931, every refund its cancellation invoice. Everything stays archived to GoBD standards.
03

Export

Once a month: DATEV booking batches for revenue and payments, plus a ZIP with one ZUGFeRD PDF per invoice, named by invoice number.
04

Read into Pennylane

Option A: upload the PDFs, Pennylane reads the embedded XML. Option B: import the booking batch through the DATEV import. Use only one option for the same sales.

Step-by-step guide Pennylane und Rechnungskit (in German) Setup step by step, common snags and detailed questions.

What arrives

What Pennylane gets from Rechnungskit.

ZUGFeRD PDF per invoice PDF/A-3 with embedded XML under EN 16931, file name = invoice number, plus index.csv live

DATEV booking batch EXTF format 700, SKR03 or SKR04, revenue and payments separate, UTF-8 optional live

Cancellation invoices Created automatically on refunds in the store or payment provider, referencing the original invoice live

Direct transfer via the Pennylane API Planned, not available yet. Today the exchange runs through the file export. geplant

How Rechnungskit and Pennylane work together

Rechnungskit is the system that writes the invoices. Pennylane is the system where the books are kept. In between sits a file export: once a month Rechnungskit creates a DATEV export with two booking batches, one for revenue and one for payments. If you switch off the DATEV document transfer package under Settings, DATEV, the invoices come as a simple ZIP instead: one ZUGFeRD PDF per invoice, named by invoice number, plus an index.csv with number, date, amount and currency.

From there you pick one of two ways into Pennylane:

Option A, the invoices as documents. Upload the PDFs to Pennylane or forward them to its document address. Because every file is a ZUGFeRD e-invoice, Pennylane reads the embedded XML, according to its own help center (Pennylane help: Factur-X). Pennylane matches the payments through its bank and Stripe connections.
Option B, finished bookings. Import the booking batch through the DATEV import (Pennylane help: chart of accounts). It also contains your payment providers' fees and payouts and the OSS sales with their tax key. You keep the PDFs from the ZIP for your files.

Always use only one option for the same sales. Otherwise they appear in the books twice.

Why not just use the Pennylane store connector?

According to the Pennylane help center, the connector for Shopify, WooCommerce and PrestaShop books orders and refunds as one collective entry per day or month, and sales invoices do not reach Pennylane that way (Pennylane help: e-commerce connectors). For the books that can be enough. It does not give you an invoice per order with the details German VAT law requires (§ 14 UStG), an e-invoice for business customers or a cancellation invoice for every refund. That is what Rechnungskit is for. If you use Rechnungskit, leave the store connector in Pennylane switched off.

What Rechnungskit does not do

Rechnungskit does not transfer anything directly into your Pennylane account. A connection through the Pennylane API is planned; until then the exchange runs through the monthly export. And Rechnungskit does not replace Pennylane: bank reconciliation, supplier invoices and the day-to-day bookkeeping stay there.

Who this is for

For online sellers and digital businesses that keep their books in Pennylane, or whose tax advisor works with Pennylane, and who no longer want to write invoices by hand. Rechnungskit connects to Shopify, WooCommerce, Shopware, Stripe, PayPal, Mollie and Klarna. The information about Pennylane comes from the public Pennylane help center (as of October 2026) and may change.

FAQ

Pennylane and Rechnungskit: frequently asked questions

Does Pennylane work with Shopify, WooCommerce and Shopware?

Pennylane has its own connectors for Shopify, WooCommerce and PrestaShop. According to the Pennylane help center, they book orders and refunds as one collective entry per day or month; individual invoices do not reach Pennylane that way. With Rechnungskit, every order gets an e-invoice that you hand over to Pennylane. Do not also run the Pennylane store connector, or your sales end up in the books twice.

Can Pennylane import a DATEV export?

Does Pennylane read the Rechnungskit e-invoices?

Which option should I use, PDFs or booking batch?

Is there a direct connection between Rechnungskit and Pennylane?

Do I need Rechnungskit if Pennylane can write invoices itself?

Can my tax advisor work in Rechnungskit if they use Pennylane?

More integrations

The same validated pipeline for your whole stack.

Integration DATEV Integration Shopify Integration Stripe Integration WooCommerce

Rechnungskit is not a tax advisory or law firm. This article explains general principles and does not replace advice from a tax advisor (Steuerberater, § 5 StBerG) or a lawyer (§ 3 RDG). Rechnungskit is built for businesses based in Germany and prepares documents, tax rates and bookings automatically. How your specific case is treated remains your decision, ideally together with your tax advisor or a lawyer.

Invoices for Pennylane, created automatically.

Create an account, connect your payment provider, check everything in free test mode. Billing starts when you go live.

Try it now