New skr04 Module

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:receipt: gf-account-de-skr04

To whom it may concern,

There is a new third-party module available:

gf-account-de-skr04

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The gf-account-de-skr04 module is a redesigned and modernized version of the SKR04 chart of accounts for Tryton, originally inspired by the MDS SKR04 module.

It was created by @eulengesicht and @gruenfischer, with the goal of improving tax code logic for small businesses — especially for the German advance turnover tax return (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung).

MOTIVATION

This module refines the SKR04 tax setup to better reflect real-world VAT reporting requirements in Germany and the EU.

The focus was on providing clearer, more consistent tax codes and an improved structure that supports automation, transparency, and maintainability.

FEATURES

  • Improved and harmonized tax code definitions for German accounting
  • Separate taxes for goods and services to support distinct VAT reporting
  • Full coverage of EU and third-country trade scenarios
    (imports, exports, intra-EU acquisitions, reverse charge, §13b, etc.)
  • Extended import tax handling (e.g., customs service provider workflows)
  • Includes technical-only taxes used to trigger account rules
    (these may be moved to a separate helper package later)

INSTALLATION

pip install gf-account-de-skr04

The module is fully standalone.

NOTES

We’re not accountants — this module was developed from a technical and practical perspective, not as formal accounting advice.

It is provided “as is”, and we warmly welcome feedback, improvements, and contributions from the community.

There are ongoing discussions in the Tryton community about whether the current approach of separating goods and services in tax definitions is suitable for German requirements.
When using this module, you must define separate product categories for each tax rate and each type (product/service).

Problems

For proper tax reporting, a clear distinction between goods and services is required.
Due to technical reasons, this differentiation must be propagated down to the level of product categories, complemented by the respective tax treatment (standard rate, reduced rate, or tax exempt).

Identified Issues

1. Missing Validation

There is no technical constraint ensuring that users assign products to the correct category (goods or services).
As a result, products may be misclassified, leading to incorrect tax reporting.
Possible solution: Adjust the domain logic in the tryton-product module.

2. Duplicate Tax Lines

In some invoices, two separate tax lines with the same tax rate are displayed — one for goods and one for services.
This can be confusing for end users and may not be acceptable for businesses using Tryton as an ERP system.

Possible solution:
The issue occurs only at the reporting level.
A potential workaround would be to introduce an additional attribute in the tax aggregation process to allow merging of identical tax rates.

3. Data Model in CII

According to EN 16931, there is no distinction between goods and services at the tax level — the differentiation is made by the product type or (in typical German accounting) by using different accounts.
Using separate taxes for goods and services therefore results in some degree of data duplication.

Note

This module is published without yet addressing these technical limitations,
in order to gather feedback and ideas from the community on how these issues could be handled or improved in future iterations.

A tax patch module for mds-account-de-skr04 will soon be available for testing and comparison.
If you are interested in early evaluation, please get in touch with me.

Regards,
Jakob

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Hello Jakob

thanks for your activity.

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Hi Jakob,
Thank you very much for providing this.
I am new to the tryton universe and wanted to install and try out your default settings.
I have installed tryton 7.6.8 for my development environment—when I try to install the module as you specified, I get ‘ERROR: pip’s dependency …’.
It looks to me like tryton 7.4 is being overwritten?
Is there anything to consider or any restrictions during installation?
Many thanks for your help.

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Hi @jankstar,
I’ve build an “unstable” 7.6.0 version. It should work as well. Please try again. You always need the first two version-numbers matching your server installation for a Tryton module. Please be aware, I did not test the install with 7.6.x. Leave me a note, if you run into errors.

Btw. skr04 is a very German Datev thing. If you do not need German Accounting, there is no need for that module. :slight_smile:
Regards Jakob

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Hi Jacob,
Thank you very much—the import worked.

The SKR4 is a very good template; I also saw that the German tax codes were installed—that helped me a lot!

1 Like
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Hi @Gruenfischer ,
Thank you very much for the template — I was able to post invoices with taxes perfectly—but the settings for fixed assets (0200, 0420) seem incomplete to me — I can’t see the accounts here, it seems as if the “fixed asset” indicator is missing (German “langlebige Wirtschaftsgüter”)—property, plant, and equipment. However, the accounts are there! It is possible that I am missing other settings – I have not yet been able to post or depreciate any assets in my test system.

For assets and also dunning fees from accounting, I need products/product categories with posting information – this is directly linked to the chart of accounts.

Do you have any tips on how I can proceed, or do I always have to put it together myself?
In German, there is also the issue of ‘construction withholding tax’ (Bauabzugsteuer) when making payments—is there any support for this (in Tryton)? In this case, the client must pay the tax to the contractor’s tax office.
Sorry for the naive question – many thanks for your support!