Between the tax lines in NetSuite and the forms in “Mein ELSTER” most companies keep a spreadsheet, a routine, and one person who knows which tax code maps to which official key figure. That works — until the deadline gets tight, a new tax code appears, or somebody asks where line 81 actually came from. This plug-in moves the whole path, from posting to tax office, into the system where the numbers are made — for the German advance VAT return and for the EC Sales List (Zusammenfassende Meldung) to the Federal Central Tax Office.
703925.
The cockpit lives in NetSuite under Reports → VAT/GST → Fourangle Elster Integration. The dashboard shows the next filing deadlines per subsidiary, the configured profiles with their filings, the route to ELSTER and the plug-in's latest updates. Questions go to Fourangle with one click — account ID and user are attached automatically. The tab for the EC Sales List appears as soon as a profile has it switched on; when you update from an older bundle version we enable it once for you.
NetSuite holds every tax line the return needs. What is missing is the last mile: mapping onto the official key figures, validating before filing, and keeping evidence of what was reported when. Almost everywhere that mile is walked by hand — every month, against a deadline.
Moving figures from a report into a portal form has no second pair of eyes, no validation and no trail. A transposed digit surfaces when the tax office asks, not before.
Which tax code belongs to which key figure is usually known by exactly one person. Add a new code, or lose that person for a week, and the filing waits for an answer.
§ 13b and intra-Community acquisitions hit several key figures at once — base and tax, output and input side. That is precisely where the differences appear that are painful to explain later.
A filed return offers no route back to the documents behind it. When the auditor asks about line 66, a reconstruction starts instead of an answer.
A correction in last month's data is not noticed by itself. Whether an amended return is due stays a matter of experience — until the tax office raises the question.
The 10th comes every month. If filing depends on one colleague being at their desk or on a portal login that still works, that is no longer a technical question but one with a late-payment penalty attached.
Key figures are built from the tax lines of the selected period. No intermediate spreadsheet that can drift away from the books.
Every tax code carries a stored key-figure rule. A setup wizard proposes a mapping for each active code and ships the common German standard mapping.
The return is checked by the ELSTER library ERiC — the same plausibility rules the tax administration applies. Errors appear in plain language in the cockpit, not in a rejection notice.
Every key figure opens up: which transactions it contains, with which tax code, amount and date.
Each filing has a run record with a key-figure snapshot, the transaction list, the submitted data set and — after transmission — the transfer ticket and the official protocol.
After submission the included transactions are stamped with the run. The same period cannot be filed twice as an original return by mistake.
VAT return and EC Sales List go through ERiC, the tax administration's own C library that also sits behind “Mein ELSTER” and the familiar German tax packages. Fourangle is a registered software producer with the tax administration, and for the VAT return the route is evidenced by an official transfer protocol. The EC Sales List uses the same route with its own data type — we run its first period with you against the test environment before anything goes live.
Producer ID 22797, issued by the Bavarian State Tax Office as the national coordinator of the ELSTER procedure. It travels in every data set we submit.
Validation and filing use ERiC in the release approved by the tax administration. The mandatory updates — around three a year — are our job, not yours.
The ERiC route runs on a dedicated machine in a German cloud. It validates and transmits — and keeps no copy of the return. The evidence stays in your NetSuite account.
Every setup starts against the ELSTER test environment: same route, same checks, no effect at the tax office. Only once that works does anything go live.
After transmission the transfer ticket and the official protocol come back and attach to the run — the proof that the return arrived, and when.
The same route carries further ELSTER data types: the advance VAT return and the EC Sales List run over it today; the E-Bilanz is the next step.
Its own page under Reports → VAT/GST → Fourangle Elster Integration: dashboard, VAT return, EC Sales List (once switched on in the profile) and set-up. Pick a period, compute the preview, validate, create the filing, submit — all in one place.
The dashboard shows the next filing deadline per subsidiary: the 10th for the VAT return, a month later where a permanent extension applies — and the 25th for the EC Sales List, which has no extension. A deadline on a weekend moves to the Monday; public holidays are deliberately not taken into account.
Creates the configuration per subsidiary, checks the 13-digit ELSTER tax number and proposes a key figure for every active tax code.
The common assignment of tax codes to key figures ships with the plug-in and can be applied in one click — as a starting point for your tax adviser's sign-off, not as a replacement for it.
Unmapped tax codes are a blocker, not a footnote. Odd ratios between taxable base and tax are flagged before the return leaves the house.
Intra-Community supplies and services summed per customer VAT ID, formally checked, validated with ERiC and sent to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) over the same route. Triangular transactions have no standard NetSuite code — a dedicated tax code carries that type of supply. Every run ships a backup CSV for manual filing.
The EC Sales List totals are set against lines 41 and 21 of the VAT return. No portal offers that check — and it is the first one every tax audit performs.
Key-figure CSV for manual entry, transaction snapshot, submission payload and the validated ELSTER data set — all on the run, all findable later.
One configuration per subsidiary, each with its own tax number and filing rhythm. The cockpit lets you choose which one is due.
Choose subsidiary, year and period — VAT return or EC Sales List. The cockpit shows every key figure in official order, the amount payable, and any warning that stands in the way of filing.
One click builds the ELSTER data set and hands it to ERiC. Green means formally valid. Red states, in plain language, what the tax office would object to.
Only after a passed validation is the run created — with snapshot and attachments. If the validation route is ever unreachable, the run is still created, with a clear warning: no deadline should fail because of infrastructure.
The validated data set goes encrypted to the receiving server — tax office or BZSt. Transfer ticket and protocol land on the run, and the included transactions are stamped.
Runs, snapshots and protocols live in your NetSuite account. What leaves the house is the data set for the tax office — nothing else.
The ERiC machine processes the return in memory and answers with result, ticket and protocol. It files no copy.
Who may compute, who may create a filing and who may submit is governed by NetSuite roles. Submission is the narrowest permission, not the broadest.
No. The plug-in reads the tax lines in your account and brings its own key-figure logic and ELSTER route. If the localization is installed, it does no harm.
Data extraction is complete today for NetSuite's classic tax logic (legacy tax); the interface for SuiteTax is prepared but not yet shipped. Talk to us and we will tell you plainly where your account stands.
No, and that is deliberate. The shipped mapping is a reviewed starting point; which key figure is right for your company is your adviser's call. The cockpit makes the assignment visible so that sign-off is possible at all.
We settle that explicitly during setup — technical transmission by Fourangle, or your own organisation certificate. Both are possible, but they carry different obligations under § 87d of the German Fiscal Code. We put it in writing before the first real data set moves.
The shipped scope is the return on an accrual basis; cash-basis accounting is on the roadmap. An existing permanent extension goes into the profile and the dashboard counts the deadline accordingly — the application itself (form USt 1 H) is not part of the plug-in. We would rather say so now than during the project.
Because every filing stamps its transactions and freezes the state as a snapshot, what has been added or changed since is visible. The amended-return workflow builds on exactly that and comes with the next step.
Yes, as its own tab in the cockpit. The EC Sales List under § 18a UStG is computed per customer VAT ID and type of supply, validated with ERiC and sent over the same route to the Federal Central Tax Office; the totals are reconciled against lines 41 and 21 of the VAT return. As with the VAT return, we run the first period against the test environment first. Correcting an already filed list comes with the next step.
A monthly subscription per NetSuite production account, cancellable monthly. How many sandboxes to include is chosen at checkout, along with your NetSuite account ID so the licence is tied to the right account from the start. The one-off setup — configuration, mapping sign-off, test run — is billed separately, and we tell you the scope up front.
As SuiteBundle 703925 in your NetSuite account (Customization → SuiteBundler → Search & Install Bundles), plus an access key for the transmission route. We do the setup together in a short session; updates come through the same channel.
That is the plan. The transmission route is built independently of the data type — the advance VAT return and the EC Sales List run over it today; the E-Bilanz is the next use case.
We set the cockpit up in your account, go through the mapping with you and your tax adviser, and run a real period against the ELSTER test environment — before anything reaches the tax office.
Suitable for use withELSTER®ELSTER is a registered trademark of the Free State of Bavaria. Fourangle is a registered software producer with the German tax administration (producer ID 22797) and uses the mark under § 12 of the ERiC licence agreement to indicate that this product is suitable for use with ELSTER. This implies no endorsement or certification by the tax authorities.