Shopware DATEV export and e‑invoicing, automated

How the Shopware integration works

Connecting the shop takes a few minutes. In the Shopware admin you create an integration (Settings → System → Integrations) and enter the shop URL, access key ID and secret in Rechnungskit. You need no extension or plugin in the shop. Rechnungskit first loads the orders of the last 7 days and then reconciles automatically every 15 minutes: new orders, payment status (prepayment included), shipping status and cancellations. The setup step by step is in the Shopware 6 help.

The order supplies line items, tax rates, discounts and the shipping date. The payment comes from your payment provider (Stripe, Mollie or PayPal) and brings fees and payouts with it. From that, Rechnungskit automatically creates a validated e-invoice as a ZUGFeRD hybrid, with the correct date of supply (the shipping day for physical goods), a sequential invoice number and an audit-proof archive. Customers with a Leitweg-ID (the routing ID German public bodies use), such as authorities or universities, get the same invoice as XRechnung 3.0.

The DATEV export for your Shopware shop

Shopware has no DATEV export in its core. The usual route is a plugin in the shop that exports documents and bookings from the Shopware database. Rechnungskit starts one step later: besides the order, it also knows the payment at the payment provider, and it books both.

Each month two EXTF booking batches are created, one for revenue and one for payments, in SKR03 or SKR04 as you choose. The payment batch books the fees from Stripe, Mollie and PayPal separately from revenue, along with the payouts to your bank account. EU sales go into the export with destination country and tax rate, and into the OSS return. Every invoice booking carries a DATEV document link, and the documents come along as a document transfer package for DATEV Unternehmen online. The DATEV interface page shows exactly what is in the files; DATEV export for online shops explains why it saves your tax advisor work.

If you like, your tax advisor collects the exports directly: you invite them as external access, and they maintain the chart of accounts and account mappings and lock exports once checked.

Why not just keep the Shopware invoice?

You can, but three gaps remain. First, Shopware only creates the e-invoice in ZUGFeRD format from version 6.6.10. Older installations deliver just a PDF, and a PDF without a structured data set is not an e-invoice (§ 14 Abs. 1 Satz 3 UStG, German VAT Act). For domestic B2B sales, that does not meet the e-invoicing mandate from 2027 or 2028 (§ 27 Abs. 38 UStG). Second, Shopware does not know your payment fees and payouts, so reconciling them for bookkeeping stays manual work. Third, there is no DATEV export with bookings already matched. The article creating Shopware invoices covers what the Shopware document feature can do and which routes exist.

Rechnungskit replaces this manual work with an automatic flow: the payment comes in, a compliant invoice goes out and the bookings are ready. For EU sales, Rechnungskit also watches the 10,000 euro threshold for the OSS scheme (§ 3c Abs. 4 UStG).

Prepayment without a payment provider

Prepayment (Vorkasse) is a core Shopware payment method: the customer transfers money to your account and you set the payment status to "Paid". Rechnungskit picks up this status change at the next pull as an incoming payment, and the invoice is created on shipment. The flow with both status changes is on Shopware prepayment: invoice automatically after payment.

Matching direct PayPal payments

If you run PayPal directly (not through Mollie or Unzer), one detail matters: the Shopware PayPal plugin passes the order number as the PayPal invoice number (invoice_id). That is where Rechnungskit reads the link to the order. Leave this default setting on and every direct PayPal payment is matched automatically, including fees from the PayPal integration.

Who this is for

Shopware merchants whose tax advisor works with DATEV and who no longer want to bring invoice, payment reconciliation and booking together by hand. If your shop is run as a GmbH or another company that keeps double-entry books, the date of supply, accruals and a clean audit trail matter twice as much. Rechnungskit is a German product, hosted at Hetzner in Germany. If you are weighing other invoicing tools for shops, the comparisons with Billbee and easybill help.