In the Finance menu you handle everything that comes after the sale: issuing invoices, recording payments, sending payment reminders, collecting receipts — and downloading a ready-made package for your tax advisor every month. In detail for Austria, Germany and Switzerland, plus all EU countries and other countries with your own tax rates.
⏱ Setup approx. 15 min · Permissions: Manage finance (admin) or View finance (supervisor) · Applies to Free & Paid · As of version 1.1.26
A tool, not tax advice. The-Y CRM creates records and overviews. This is not tax advice and does not replace a tax advisor. You are responsible for the accuracy of your records and returns. The-Y does not submit anything to the tax office. Details: Terms of Use, section 4a “Accounting features”.
The “Finance” menu
In the sidebar you'll find Finance with these sections: Overview · Invoices · Open items · Payments · Bank · Receipts · Journal · VAT overview · Export · Settings. The overview shows outstanding and overdue amounts and reminds you if the settings haven't been checked yet.
Want to try it first? In the demo, Finance is filled with Austrian sample data — invoices, a partial payment from the bank statement, a payment reminder and booked receipts. None of it is sent anywhere.
1. Settings & issuer details
Country and tax rules.Finance → Settings: your business's country, default tax rate, small business yes/no and payment terms. In the “VAT basis and return period” card you choose accrual or cash basis and your VAT return period — see VAT basis. These settings drive suggestions and checks — whether they fit you is best clarified with your tax advisor.
Number ranges. Prefix, “with year” and digits per type (invoice, quote, credit note). The number is only assigned when issuing — sequential and without gaps.
Payment reminders. Levels with “Days after due date”, reminder fee and optionally your own subject and text (three levels are prepared). Switch “Send reminders automatically” — see Payment reminders.
Receipts mailbox (optional). Choose an email mailbox with IMAP; attachments of emails to this address become draft receipts. Use a dedicated address such as receipts@yourcompany.com — emails to this mailbox no longer appear in the inbox.
Export / accounts. Chart of accounts (e.g. SKR03/SKR04, or EKR for Austria); for DATEV also the consultant and client number and the account length. The account mapping shows suggestions in grey — your tax advisor enters their accounts there.
Issuer details.Finance → Invoices → “🏢 Issuer details (sender)”: address, VAT ID, tax number, bank details, company register — per brand. When issuing, these details are frozen into the invoice; later changes do not affect old invoices.
2. Issue an invoice
Create a draft.Finance → Invoices → new invoice, choose the customer via the search. A draft can be changed freely and has no number yet.
Line items and tax. For each line item: quantity, unit, price and tax rate (in Austria e.g. 20, 13, 10 or 4.9 %). Plus the date of supply or “Period instead of date”, the recipient's country and VAT ID (for AT, DE and CH the format and check digit are checked, no online lookup) and the tax case: standard, small business, reverse charge, intra-Community supply or export — the matching note is added to the invoice automatically.
Issue. “Issue” checks the mandatory details for your country. If something is missing, you see notes — you can read them and confirm with “Read – issue anyway”.
Done. The-Y assigns the next number, freezes the sender details and the PDF, and stores the PDF with a checksum. From now on the invoice is locked: you can no longer change its content or delete it — but you can still record payments, send reminders, or create a credit note or reversal.
Quotes and credit notes use the same editor with their own number ranges. For German public authorities you download the invoice as XRechnung (XML) (with the Leitweg-ID in the “Your reference” field); in Switzerland the QR-bill goes straight into the PDF.
3. Payments & open items
Record a payment: on the invoice or under Finance → Payments — amount, date and payment method. Partial payments are possible; the status changes automatically to “partially paid” or “paid”. The payment date counts for cash-basis accounting (income and expenses).
Open items: all issued invoices that are not (fully) paid yet, with due date, “X days overdue” and reminder level.
Credit note: if you issue a credit note for an open invoice, it is automatically offset against the invoice.
You record “Cash/card on site” only with the number of your cash register receipt — The-Y CRM is not a cash register.
4. Payment reminders
Manually: in Finance → Open items, click “Remind” on an overdue invoice — or “Remind all due” to send the next due level for all overdue invoices.
Automatically: if “Send reminders automatically” is on, The-Y sends each level once — at the earliest after the set number of days and at least 7 days after the last reminder.
Sending: via your own email mailbox, with the invoice as a PDF, with the text in the language of the invoice. Without your own mailbox the reminder is only logged — then you send the text yourself.
The reminder fee appears in the reminder text but is not booked as a separate receivable.
5. Upload a bank statement
Export a file from your online banking: camt.053 (XML) or CSV.
Finance → Bank → “Import bank statement”. camt.053 is read automatically; for CSV you map the columns once — the CRM remembers this. Identical transactions are never created twice.
Confirm suggestions: The-Y suggests the matching invoice based on amount, invoice number and name. “Confirm” — the payment is recorded.
There is no direct bank connection; you upload the file yourself.
6. Receipts & receipts mailbox
Upload:Finance → Receipts → “Upload receipt” (PDF, photo or XML) or “Enter without file”. Amounts per tax rate, category (with form code), payment status — then “Book”.
E-invoices in ZUGFeRD, Factur-X or XRechnung format are read automatically by The-Y; the fields are then already filled in.
Reading photos and PDFs works with your own AI key (Set up AI) — you check and confirm.
Receipts mailbox: forward invoices to your receipts address; the attachments appear as draft receipts.
Reverse charge on purchases and a note for fixed assets are built in.
Arrived late: if the document date lies in a month that is already closed, enter “Received on” — then the receipt can be booked (see Invoices that arrived late).
7. Income & expenses, VAT overview
Journal: payments on invoices and paid receipts by payment date, mapped to the form codes of the tax forms — in Austria Beilage E 1a (for orientation), in Germany Anlage EÜR. The “VAT period” column shows for every entry in which month its tax counts.
VAT overview: output VAT, input VAT and amount payable per month, quarter or year — following your VAT basis and your country's rules, with form code hints and supplements (see below).
The VAT overview is a preview for checking — not tax advice, nothing is submitted to the tax office. You (or your tax advisor) file the VAT return yourself.
8. VAT basis (accrual/cash) and VAT return period
Under Finance → Settings → card “VAT basis and return period” you decide in which month a tax counts in the VAT overview. Choose what applies with your tax office.
VAT accounting basis:accrual basis (agreed consideration — the supply or invoice counts) or cash basis (consideration received — the payment counts). Every option is explained in plain language, with the rules for Austria, Germany and Switzerland: who may choose what and which thresholds apply. The usual default for your country is marked.
VAT return period: monthly, quarterly or yearly. Austria has no yearly VAT return, so it cannot be selected there.
Case
The tax counts in …
Austria, accrual
the month of the supply — if you invoice only later, one month later.
Germany, accrual
the period of the supply — no matter when you write the invoice.
Switzerland, agreed consideration
the month of invoicing.
Cash basis
the month the payment arrives, pro rata for part payments.
Advance payment before the supply
the month of payment.
Credit note
the month it is issued, never before the original invoice (on cash basis with the refund).
Input VAT
from the invoice (document date or “Received on”). On cash basis in Austria and Switzerland only once the invoice is paid.
“Supplement to MM/YYYY” instead of silent changes
If a tax belongs to a month you have already closed — say an invoice you write only afterwards — that month stays unchanged. The tax appears in the current period as “Supplement to MM/YYYY”, with a clear note on which return it concerns and the entries it is based on. If the closed month lies in the same return period (e.g. the same quarter), the supplement is included in the amount payable; otherwise it is not. You already see this note when issuing the invoice.
Whether and how to correct a return is something to clarify with your tax advisor or the tax office.
Invoices that arrived late: “Received on”
If a supplier invoice only arrives after the month-end close and its document date lies in the closed month, the CRM asks you to fill in “Received on” when booking. With the date of receipt the receipt can be booked, and input VAT counts in the month of receipt. On cash basis in Austria and Switzerland it only counts once the invoice is paid. If the invoice was there before, the input VAT belongs to the closed month for tax purposes — clarify that with your tax advisor.
Figures at month-end close
When you close a month, the CRM saves the figures of the VAT overview. If the preview of a closed month changes later — for example after switching the VAT basis — the overview shows both values side by side. What counts is what you reported to the tax office. Months closed before version 1.1.25 have no saved figures.
Not tax advice — these settings only control the preview. Special cases are not calculated separately, e.g. partial supplies, input VAT restrictions (entertainment, cars), import VAT, foreign currency, the Swiss net tax rate method and the timing of EC sales lists.
9. Export for your tax advisor & month-end close
Download the monthly package:Finance → Export → choose a period → “Monthly package (ZIP)”. It contains: journal (CSV), VAT overview, all invoice PDFs unchanged, receipts, bank statements, DATEV booking batch or BMD import, and checksums.
DATEV: needs the consultant and client number and a period within one calendar year — otherwise the DATEV file is missing from the package.
Close the month: you close finished months under “Close month” — only after ticking a checkbox. After that, payments and booked receipts of that month can no longer be changed or deleted, and there are no new invoices dated in that month. The figures of the VAT overview are saved at that point (see Figures at month-end close).
A month-end close is final — like the posting lock in DATEV or Lexware. Even support cannot reopen it. Download the package first and check it.
Test the DATEV and BMD export once with your tax advisor before using it for the first time.
10. Corrections: credit note & reversal
Corrections are always made in the open month, with a reference to the original and an entry in the log:
What
How to correct it
Invoice
“Correct (credit note)” — the credit note counts in the VAT overview in the month it is issued. Invoices that belong to a closed month (invoice or service date, or their VAT month) can no longer be cancelled, only corrected via credit note.
Payment
“Correct (reversal)” — a counter-entry is created.
Receipt
“Correct (reversal)” — a reversal receipt; if you like, a correction receipt right away to fix it.
Open receipt from a closed month
“Mark as paid” with a payment date in the open month (also via the bank statement).
Reset or delete your account
Before resetting or deleting your account, download the retention package: all invoices (PDF, unchanged), receipts, bank statements, payments and the journal. You must keep invoices for 7 years in Austria and for up to 10 years in Germany.
Frequently asked questions
Does The-Y do my bookkeeping?
No. You keep your records yourself using the tool; The-Y does not book for you and does not answer tax questions. For individual cases (“how do I book this?”) your tax advisor is the right person to ask.
Does The-Y send the VAT return to the tax office?
No. The VAT overview is a preview for checking. There is no submission to FinanzOnline or ELSTER.
Accrual or cash basis — which should I choose?
Whatever applies with your tax office. For each option the CRM explains the rules for Austria, Germany and Switzerland and marks your country's usual default; it doesn't decide for you. The setting only controls the preview.
What does “Supplement to MM/YYYY” mean?
The tax belongs to a month you have already closed. So that this month doesn't change silently, the CRM shows it in the current period as a supplement — with a note on which return it concerns. Whether you correct that return is something to clarify with your tax advisor or the tax office (see Supplement).
Is there a bank connection?
No, only the file import (camt.053 or CSV) under Finance → Bank.
Can I issue e-invoices?
Yes, as XRechnung (XML) and, in Switzerland, as a QR-bill in the PDF. ZUGFeRD/Factur-X as an output format will follow. The-Y reads incoming e-invoices (ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, XRechnung).
I closed a month too early — can it be undone?
No. A closed month stays closed. You make corrections in the open month with a credit note or reversal (see Corrections).
Which countries are supported?
In detail (rates, mandatory details, form codes, export): Austria, Germany, Switzerland. EU standard (rates, VAT ID format, reverse charge): all EU countries. Other countries: enter tax rates yourself.
Who can see Finance?
There are the permissions “View finance” and “Manage finance”. Admins have both, supervisors may view. You give individual people these permissions under Settings → Team.
