Which Accounting Software Do Businesses Use in Germany, the UK, and the Nordics?
The tools commonly used in each market, the national rules that explain why, and what a business operating across several of these countries actually needs from its accounting system.
Businesses in Germany, the UK and the Nordic countries use different accounting software because the rules around the software differ. In Germany most bookkeeping ends up with a tax adviser who works in DATEV, so the software has to export to DATEV. In the UK the tax authority accepts VAT returns only from recognised software, so the shortlist is the recognised list. In the Nordics the public sector has demanded electronic invoices for years, so e-invoicing is a baseline feature rather than an add-on. This article goes through each market, names the tools that are commonly used, and explains the rule behind each pattern.
Vendor names below are given as "commonly used". We do not quote market shares, because the published figures come from vendors and surveys with different methods, and the ranking changes faster than any article can.
Germany
What shapes the choice
The tax adviser model. A large share of German small and medium companies hand their bookkeeping, payroll or year-end work to a Steuerberater. The tax advisers' cooperative, DATEV eG, supplies the software most of those practices run. The practical consequence for any business is that its accounting system must produce a DATEV-format posting batch (the Buchungsstapel export) that the adviser can import, or the adviser re-keys the work.
GoBD. The Federal Ministry of Finance's principles for keeping books and records in electronic form require that postings cannot be changed without a trace, that the procedure is documented, and that the data stays readable and exportable to the tax audit for the retention period, which runs to ten years for books and eight years for accounting vouchers under the 2025 relief act. Software sold in Germany advertises GoBD conformity because tax auditors ask for it.
ELSTER. VAT advance returns, the annual VAT return, payroll tax returns, corporate and trade tax returns and the E-Bilanz all go to the tax office through ELSTER. Sending needs either an ELSTER certificate in the company's own account or software licensed to use the ERiC transmission library.
E-invoicing. Since 1 January 2025 every German business must be able to receive an electronic invoice that conforms to EN 16931, typically as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD. Issuing becomes mandatory in 2027 for companies above €800,000 turnover and in 2028 for all, as published at the time of writing.
Commonly used
| Tool | Typical user | Note |
|---|---|---|
| DATEV (Kanzlei-Rechnungswesen, Unternehmen online) | Tax advisers and their clients | The adviser's system; clients upload documents and bank data into it |
| Lexware / lexoffice | Small businesses and freelancers | DATEV export, ELSTER filing, GoBD conformity |
| sevdesk | Freelancers and small companies | Cloud, DATEV export |
| SAP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central | Mid-size and large companies | ERP suites with German localisation through partners |
| Sage | Small and mid-size companies | Long-standing German product lines |
A business choosing accounting software in Germany is, in practice, choosing how it will hand data to its tax adviser and how it will reach ELSTER.
The United Kingdom
What shapes the choice
Making Tax Digital. Since April 2019 VAT-registered businesses above the VAT threshold have had to keep digital records and submit VAT returns through software that talks to HMRC's API; since April 2022 that covers every VAT-registered business. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax starts in April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with income above £50,000, as announced. HMRC publishes a list of compatible software, and that list is the practical shortlist.
Companies House and iXBRL. Company accounts are filed with Companies House, and the corporation tax return goes to HMRC with the accounts tagged in inline XBRL. Companies House has announced that accounts must be filed through software from April 2027, which removes the web-form route most small companies used.
The accountant's practice software. As in Germany, many small UK companies outsource to an accountant, and the accountant's practice suite influences the choice. Practices commonly run Xero, Sage, QuickBooks or IRIS alongside dedicated tax and iXBRL tagging tools.
Commonly used
| Tool | Typical user | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Xero | Small businesses and their accountants | Large app marketplace; MTD VAT filing |
| Sage (Sage Accounting, Sage 50) | Small and mid-size companies | Long UK history; MTD filing |
| QuickBooks Online | Small businesses | MTD filing; strong accountant channel |
| FreeAgent | Freelancers and micro companies | Often bundled with business bank accounts |
| IRIS, CCH, TaxCalc | Accounting practices | Practice management, tax and iXBRL tagging |
The UK is not in the EU, and its VAT and company law have diverged since 2021. A business that operates in both the UK and the EU should expect to need an EU-side system for EU VAT returns, EU sales lists, Intrastat and e-invoicing mandates, because UK-centred tools cover those unevenly.
The Nordics
What shapes the choice
Public-sector e-invoicing came first. Denmark has required electronic invoices to public bodies since 2005, Sweden since 2019, Norway and Finland for well over a decade. Each country has a national format (OIOUBL in Denmark, EHF in Norway, Finvoice and TEAPPSXML in Finland, Svefaktura and now Peppol BIS in Sweden) and all four connect to the Peppol network. As a result every mainstream Nordic accounting tool sends and receives e-invoices, and business-to-business e-invoicing is normal practice without a legal mandate.
Structured data to the tax authority. Norway's SAF-T Financial file has been mandatory on request since 2020. Sweden's SIE format has been the standard way to move bookkeeping data between systems since the 1990s, and Skatteverket, Bolagsverket and auditors all work with it. Denmark's annual report is filed as inline XBRL with Erhvervsstyrelsen. Finland reports every salary payment to the Incomes Register within five days.
Digital bookkeeping by law. Denmark's Bookkeeping Act of 2022 requires companies to keep their books in a digital bookkeeping system that is either registered with Erhvervsstyrelsen or meets the same requirements, including the ability to send and receive e-invoices and to store records securely. The duty has been phased in from 2024, with the remaining groups following, as published at the time of writing.
Commonly used
| Country | Tools commonly used | National specifics |
|---|---|---|
| Sweden | Fortnox, Visma (eEkonomi, Administration), Björn Lundén | SIE import and export; iXBRL annual report to Bolagsverket; Skatteverket file transfer |
| Denmark | Visma e-conomic, Dinero, Billy, Uniconta | Registered digital bookkeeping systems; OIOUBL and Peppol through NemHandel; iXBRL to Erhvervsstyrelsen |
| Norway | Tripletex, Fiken, Visma, PowerOffice, Xledger | SAF-T Financial on request; EHF e-invoices; a-melding and VAT return through Altinn |
| Finland | Procountor, Netvisor, Fennoa, Visma | Finvoice and Peppol; Incomes Register reporting; VAT and tax returns through Ilmoitin.fi |
Most of these are national products. A Swedish tool rarely files a Danish VAT return, and a Danish tool rarely produces a Norwegian SAF-T file. A group with companies in three Nordic countries commonly ends up with three systems and a consolidation spreadsheet.
What a cross-border business actually needs
The patterns above explain why a business operating in several of these countries runs into trouble with a single national tool. What it needs is not a longer feature list but a different shape:
- One ledger, many filings. The books of every company live in one system with one chart structure, and the country-specific outputs are generated from it: the DATEV batch for the German adviser, the SIE file for the Swedish auditor, the VAT return in each country's own format.
- The company files under its own account. German ELSTER certificates, Danish MitID, Norwegian Altinn access and Swedish Skatteverket credentials belong to the company. The software should send under those credentials, not register itself as an intermediary.
- E-invoicing as a rendering step. The same invoice should go out as Peppol BIS 3.0 to a Danish customer and as a PDF to a British one without being re-entered.
- An API. When invoices, payouts or subscriptions are created by the company's own product, the accounting has to be reachable from code. The plain-English guide to accounting APIs explains what that means in practice.
Where Nordlet fits
Nordlet is an API-first accounting platform covering the 27 EU member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. For the markets in this article:
- Germany. Nordlet sends the VAT advance return under the company's ELSTER certificate, the EU sales list to the BZSt portal, the Intrastat declaration to Destatis and the annual accounts to the Bundesanzeiger. It produces the annual VAT return, the corporate and trade tax returns and the E-Bilanz as ELSTER files for the company to send through its own ELSTER-capable program, because the ERiC transmission is licensed to software vendors only. The ledger exports to the DATEV posting-batch format. The full list is in the German filing guide.
- Sweden. The VAT return, the employer declaration and the EU sales list are sent to Skatteverket's file transfer; the annual report is built as inline XBRL for upload to Bolagsverket; the ledger exports as a SIE file.
- Denmark. The annual report is sent to Erhvervsstyrelsen as inline XBRL, the VAT return and EU sales list to TastSelv, payroll to eIndkomst, and Intrastat to Danmarks Statistik.
- Norway and Finland. The Norwegian VAT return and a-melding go through Altinn; the Finnish VAT return, corporate tax return and Incomes Register reports go through Ilmoitin.fi and the Incomes Register web service. The filing support page shows every deadline and how it goes out.
- Peppol. Issued invoices and credit notes render as EN 16931 UBL and go through the company's own Peppol access point, or the platform's built-in one when the company has none.
- The United Kingdom. Nordlet does not file UK returns. It covers EU and EEA countries only, so a UK company needs a UK-recognised tool for Making Tax Digital and Companies House, and a group with both UK and EU companies would use Nordlet for the EU side. The UK tax profile is reference material, not a filing feature.
Nordlet is a young product in early access in 2026, onboarding design partners. The established national tools above have years of local practice behind them, and a single-country business with a local accountant may be well served by one of them. Nordlet's case is the business whose transactions are created by its own software, or whose companies sit in several of these countries at once.
FAQ
Why is DATEV so important in Germany?
Because the tax adviser, not the business, usually completes the books, the payroll or the year-end, and the adviser works in DATEV. Software that exports a DATEV posting batch fits that workflow; software that does not forces re-keying.
Can I use one accounting tool for the UK and Germany?
Only partly. UK tools are built around Making Tax Digital and Companies House filing; German tools around DATEV, GoBD and ELSTER. Some international products do both, but the national filing depth varies, and a business should test the actual returns it owes in each country before committing.
Is e-invoicing mandatory for business-to-business trade in the Nordics?
Not by a general law in Sweden, Denmark, Norway or Finland at the time of writing. It is mandatory towards the public sector, and the Danish Bookkeeping Act requires digital bookkeeping systems that can send and receive e-invoices. In practice most Nordic businesses exchange e-invoices anyway because every mainstream tool supports them.
What is SIE?
SIE is the Swedish standard file format for exchanging bookkeeping data, including the chart of accounts, opening balances and journal entries, between accounting systems, auditors and tax software. Most Swedish accounting tools import and export it, and Nordlet exports it from the ledger.
Does Nordlet replace a German tax adviser?
No. It produces the books, the DATEV export and the filings that Nordlet can send under the company's own credentials. The adviser's judgment on tax treatment, the year-end closing decisions and the submissions that need licensed ELSTER software remain with the adviser.