All clients under one login
If you look after several hotels running zimrly, you get a client list after signing in and switch between properties. With a single client you land straight in their file.
For tax advisors & accounting firms
Your hotel clients finally hand over clean books
zimrly is hotel software with a role built for you: a real tax advisor login. You pull posting batches and documents yourself — monthly, structured, without the PDF bulk email and without chasing the hotelier.
EXTF 700
DATEV posting batch in the official format, data category 21, SKR03 or SKR04
XRechnung 3.0
E-invoices to EN 16931, or ZUGFeRD and Factur-X in the same profile
8 years
Retention in an object-locked archive, counted from the end of the year of issue
Mandatory e-invoicing is reaching your clients
Hotels are a special case: many documents, small amounts, mixed VAT rates, plus visitor's tax as a pass-through item and OTA commissions as incoming expense. That is exactly where the e-invoicing mandate meets the weakest document discipline.
- Since 1 January 2025, every domestic company in Germany must be able to receive B2B e-invoices — including the small country hotel.
- Issuing them is phased in: from 1 January 2027 for companies with more than 800,000 euros in prior-year turnover, from 1 January 2028 for everyone else.
- A PDF by email is not an e-invoice. What is required is a structured format to EN 16931 — in Germany that means XRechnung or ZUGFeRD from version 2.1.
Move your hotel clients now and 2027 will not be a fire drill. zimrly issues outgoing invoices in the required format and stores them immutably — you get the matching postings.
This page is product information, not legal or tax advice. zimrly does not provide services within the meaning of § 3 StBerG. The deadlines quoted reflect the state of the legislation; the statute and the tax authorities' guidance govern each individual case.
What the tax advisor login actually does
It is not a shared hotelier login and not a guest account, but a role of its own with its own portal — separate from the hotel dashboard.
Read-only by default
The role is set up as read-only: no invoice sending, no cancellations, no settings. So you cannot break anything you would later have to object to.
Write access on request
If the hotel wants you to maintain the chart of accounts, the VAT split rules or the tax rates yourself, it can grant you write access deliberately. It is off by default and can be withdrawn at any time.
Every change on record
Write actions are written to the organisation's audit log, with timestamp and acting account. Withdrawing the access is kept as an event too.
The five tabs of a client file
Overview, VAT split rules, DATEV accounts, visitor's tax and VAT rates, and OTA commissions. In other words, precisely the points hotels tend to argue about.
Monthly report by email
On request, zimrly emails you a monthly summary: invoice totals, the VAT breakdown, open items and OTA commission expense. It is switched on per client.
The hotel sets the access up: an owner or administrator invites you by email and can withdraw the access at any time. So you never hold more rights than your client knowingly grants.
What you download
Everything is available per month, preset to the previous month. The hotel can also switch on automatic delivery — then the file is in the inbox on the fifth of the following month without you doing anything.
- Posting batch (CSV)
- DATEV EXTF format, version 700, data category 21. One posting per VAT rate, so lodging and breakfast stay cleanly apart. Accounts from SKR03 or SKR04, overridable per property.
- Document package (ZIP)
- DATEV document transfer: document.xml in version 06.0, one accountsReceivableLedger per invoice plus the matching document image as PDF. Multiple VAT rates appear as a consolidated record, credit notes with a negative amount.
- OTA commissions (XLSX or CSV)
- Booking portal commission expense as a separate report, cut off by arrival or departure date as you prefer.
- Time tracking (Excel, CSV or DATEV LODAS)
- For properties running time tracking through zimrly, the payroll export sits in the same portal — as a LODAS file if you want it.
zimrly deliberately does not lock the batch: the header carries the 'not locked' flag. Locking happens in your practice, not in hotel software.
E-invoicing and archive
Your clients' outgoing invoices are the part you normally repair after the fact. In zimrly they are created in the required format from the start.
Structured formats instead of PDFs
Outgoing invoices are issued as XRechnung version 3.0 or as ZUGFeRD and Factur-X in the EN 16931 profile. Technically that is UN/CEFACT CII syntax, embedded in a PDF/A-3 for ZUGFeRD.
Validated before a number is assigned
Every invoice is validated against the standard before issue. If it fails, it is not issued and does not consume a sequential invoice number — so no gap you have to explain later.
Immutable storage
The authoritative original is stored with a SHA-256 checksum under an object lock in compliance mode: undeletable until the retention date, even with administrator rights. Servers are in Germany.
Retention under § 147 AO
The lock is set to eight years, counted from the end of the calendar year of issue. That matches the shortened retention period for accounting documents in force since 2025.
Package for a tax audit
For an audit period you can pull an export package: the original documents plus a verification log and a manifest, aimed at handover on a data carrier under § 147 (6) AO.
Process documentation
The invoicing process comes with prepared process documentation, rendered with the property's own master data — the annex that tends to be missing in an audit.
Partner programme for accounting firms
If you recommend zimrly to your hotel clients, you should get something out of it — and not just fewer queries at month-end.
- You get your own login for every client you refer and follow the migration from day one.
- We set the invoicing process up with you directly: chart of accounts, account mapping and VAT split rules done properly once, instead of corrected twelve times.
- If you like, we walk through the first monthly package together so your import runs first time.
We are currently settling the compensation for referred clients and will agree it bindingly in the intro call. We deliberately quote no figure here that we would have to qualify later.
Ask about the partner programmeQuestions we get from accounting firms
Do I have to install anything?
No. The tax advisor login runs in the browser. The hotel invites you by email, you set a password and you are in.
Can I change anything in my client's data?
Not by default — the role is read-only, with no invoice sending, no cancellations and no settings rights. The hotel can grant you write access specifically for the tax settings; that right is off by default, can be withdrawn at any time, and every change made with it is logged.
Is there a direct DATEV connection?
No, and we do not claim one. zimrly produces the files in the DATEV formats — the posting batch as EXTF and the document package for document transfer — which you then import into your own system. There is no programming interface to DATEV and no sign-in via DATEV.
How do document images reach the postings?
Through the document package: it contains a ledger record and the matching PDF for each invoice, so posting and image arrive together.
What happens with mixed VAT rates?
Accommodation and food on one side, drinks and extras on the other are posted separately: one posting per VAT rate. The split rules have a tab of their own in the portal.
Can zimrly process incoming e-invoices?
No. What is built is your clients' outgoing invoicing. zimrly has no inbox for incoming e-invoices.
What is the login tied to?
The hotel needs an active invoicing module — that is where the data you see comes from. Without it, no tax advisor access can be set up.
Where is the data held?
On servers in Germany. The immutable invoice archive sits with a German object storage provider.
What zimrly is not
- No programming interface and no sign-in via DATEV — zimrly delivers files, you run the import.
- No inbox for incoming e-invoices; what is covered is your clients' outgoing invoicing.
- No practice management with its own staff roles: a login belongs to a person, assigned per client.
- Not tax advice. What is correct for tax purposes is your call — zimrly supplies the data for it.
Talk to us once before you recommend it
Fifteen minutes on the phone are enough to work out whether this fits your hotel clients. Not a sales call: if your client base does not fit, we will say so.