The DSFinV-K export an auditor actually wants
When a cash audit is due, you pick the period and download the archive: index.xml, its DTD and the CSV files of the DSFinV-K in version 2.4 — every receipt, every line, every payment method and every movement of the cash drawer. The auditor gets a file to read into their analysis software instead of a week of rework for you.
The cash close is the unit, not the date range
The DSFinV-K assigns every transaction to a cash close, so the archive contains exactly the days you actually closed. Before the download starts, the export tells you how many closes and how many transactions it found, and names the days in the period that have no Z-report. Those days belong to no close and would otherwise be quietly missing. From the same message you can go and close them.
The drawer is in the archive too
Pay-ins and pay-outs are recorded as cash transit, a cash count as a difference between expected and actual — the way the German federal tax office's own examples set it out. A count that balances creates no transaction, because there is nothing to book. And a difference is booked exactly once, at the count that first found it: otherwise every later count would report the same missing note again.
VAT comes from the receipt, not from a recalculation
What counts is the tax split stored on the receipt — what the guest actually paid. The lines are then reconciled to it: first the articles, then the delivery fee and any order discount spread proportionally across the rates, and whatever remains is stated as an explicit VAT reconciliation line. That is the honest route — for a combo of food and drink the tax split cannot be reconstructed from the article line alone.
The download is a short-lived link
The export is built when you fetch it and streamed straight to you rather than being stored anywhere. The link is valid for fifteen minutes and names the restaurant and the period. Your complete till archive therefore sits in no publicly reachable storage, and there is no question of how long it is kept there. A period may span up to 366 days, so a financial year fits into a single download.
What the export saves you
Current version
Produced to DSFinV-K 2.4 — the version the German federal tax office publishes.
CSV files
Together with index.xml and the DTD as a ZIP, in the structure audit software expects.
Link validity
Built on request and not stored afterwards — no till archive sitting on someone else's server.
How you build the archive
Pick the period
A month or a financial year — for a cash audit usually the current or the closed period the auditor names.
Read the pre-flight message
Before the download you see how many closes and transactions are included and whether the period contains days without a daily close. Missing closes can be created straight from that message.
Download and hand it over
You get a ZIP with index.xml, the DTD and the CSV files. You pass that file to the auditor or load it into the analysis software — no further preparation is needed.
Goes with this
Cash register
The register at the counter — cash, card, cash book and daily close.
Read more →DATEV posting batch
The other export: one set of postings per cash close for your accountant.
Read more →TSE & KassenSichV
The German cash register regulation, receipt issuance and what follows from it.
Read more →Dashboard & reporting
Z-report, daily close and the reports you look at during the week.
Read more →Frequently asked questions about the DSFinV-K export
What is the DSFinV-K?
It is the German tax administration's digital interface for cash register systems. It defines the structure in which till data is provided for an audit — which files, which columns, which values — so an auditor can read data from any register with the same software instead of learning every vendor's format. GastroSystem produces the archive to version 2.4.
Which days are included?
Every day in the chosen period that has a cash close. The DSFinV-K assigns each transaction to a close, so a day without a Z-report belongs to none and cannot be part of the archive. The export tells you which days are affected before the download, and you can create the missing close from that message.
Does the archive change if a payment arrives later?
No. Whether a receipt counts as paid is judged as at the cash close and never re-evaluated. If it was still open then, it stays in the archive as a receivable even if the money arrives two days later. Otherwise the same period would export differently every time, which is not acceptable for a closed audit period.
Is this the same as the DATEV export?
No, they have different audiences. The DSFinV-K is the complete till dataset for the tax administration — every receipt and every line. The DATEV posting batch is a summary per cash close for your accountant's bookkeeping. A cash audit needs the DSFinV-K; the year-end accounts need the posting batch.