Bookkeeping preparation
No more hunting for receipts on a Sunday.
Your office does the preparation in the background.
Send receipts by Telegram, collect your invoices and give your tax advisor a finished package.
A fuel receipt in the glovebox, a supplier invoice somewhere in your inbox, and at month end your tax advisor is waiting: for trade and service businesses, bookkeeping preparation eats into free time. With METLAGO you simply take a photo of each receipt while you are out. The system sorts and checks them and shows you in one click what is still missing.
Where trade businesses lose hours every month
Faded receipts and lost slips
On site or on the road, a receipt is easily lost, and with it the input VAT you could have reclaimed.
Invoices everywhere
Invoices arrive by post, as PDF attachments or as photos in WhatsApp. There is no single place for them.
Questions from your tax advisor
Weeks after the purchase you have to work out which job or customer a receipt belonged to.
A receipt in four steps
Pick a step and follow a receipt from crumpled slip to finished bookkeeping package.
Illustrative example
Step 1: A photo in Telegram
You are chatting with an AI system. Send a photo of the receipt, a PDF invoice or a voice message.
[Photo: DIY store receipt]
Receipt #2026-0841 received. Amount: 142.80 EUR incl. 19% VAT. Date: 24 September 2026, 14:15. Assigned to: Schmidt landscaping project.
Capture it on the spot. You pay at the till, take the receipt and send it straight away by Telegram. No slips in your pocket, no faded thermal paper.
Tip: a voice message such as "Bought material for Schmidt" is attached to the receipt as a note.
Step 2: Reading and checking
- Issuer: DIY store
- Net: 120.00 EUR, VAT: 22.80 EUR (19%)
- Small-amount invoice (Kleinbetragsrechnung): details required by § 33 UStDV checked
Checked on arrival. The system reads the invoice number, the net and gross amounts and the input VAT, and checks whether the details you need to reclaim the VAT are there.
Tip: if a receipt is faulty or unreadable, you get a short follow-up question right away.
Step 3: Missing-receipt check
- Bank entry without a receipt: statement of 18 September, 45.90 EUR (fuel station)
- No receipt in this month's folder yet
- Reminder to the driver ready to send
Spot missing receipts early. METLAGO keeps matching receipts against your bank transactions, so you see which payment has no receipt before the month is over.
Tip: missing slips get sorted out in the week of the purchase, not on the last day of the month.
Step 4: Export for your tax advisor
- Package 09/2026: 48 of 48 receipts complete
- Receipt images as a ZIP file, PDFs in date order
- List of journal entries in your tax advisor's format, for example DATEV Unternehmen online or CSV
- You release it to your tax advisor in one click
Handover to your tax advisor. All documents are sorted by date and linked to the journal entries, so your tax advisor can take the batch as it is.
How METLAGO works in three steps
- Capture on the go with Telegram. Take a photo of the receipt at the fuel station, forward the PDF invoice from your email or record a short voice note. No logins, no scanning after work.
- Automatic pre-checks and the missing-receipt check. METLAGO reads the amount, date, VAT rate and issuer. Your office overview shows in real time what has come in and which receipts are missing according to the bank statement.
- A clean handover to your tax advisor. On the cut-off date you export everything as an ordered package that can be checked: receipt images with suggested journal entries in your tax advisor's format (for example DATEV Unternehmen online or CSV). Your tax advisor has fewer questions, and you save on fees.
Month-end close: the usual way and with METLAGO
Swipe sideways to see the whole table.
| Task | Without METLAGO | With METLAGO |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting receipts | Shoebox, glovebox, emails all over the place | Straight away, by Telegram photo or by forwarding the email |
| Missing invoices | Your tax advisor asks weeks later | The missing-receipt check shows at any time which payment still has no receipt |
| Month end | Searching for receipts on a Sunday | Check the finished package and approve it |
| Tax advisor fees | Extra fees for sorting things out by hand | Tidy preparation means less work and lower costs |
Receiving e-invoices and filing receipts under GoBD
E-invoices
Since 1 January 2025, every business in Germany must be able to receive and read e-invoices (XRechnung, ZUGFeRD). METLAGO reads both formats, shows the invoice in readable form and archives the original unchanged.
GoBD
Receipts are stored so they cannot be changed, every edit is logged, and we provide the procedural documentation. Your tax advisor checks whether this filing is enough in your particular case.
A clear line: preparation, not tax advice
- We do not replace your tax advisor: METLAGO collects, sorts and pre-checks your receipts. Tax assessment, the bookkeeping itself and year-end accounts stay with your tax advisor (Steuerberater).
- Nothing happens unchecked: payments and official letters only go out with your approval.
- Data protection under German rules: your financial records are stored encrypted on a server of your own, in your name, in Germany, the EU or Switzerland, or on your premises, under the GDPR and with a data processing agreement (DPA, AVV in German).
Get your receipt routine checked
In the 30-minute Routine Audit we look at how receipts and invoices move through your business today. Free, no obligation.