80+
Countries with local payment rails, native to the ledger
Comparison · Light vs Lexware Office
Light vs Lexware Office
Lexware Office is well-made bookkeeping for a single German company: GoBD-audited, ELSTER filing built in, DATEV handover to your Steuerberater included. It is also one company per account, with the balance sheet and the group picture produced outside it. Light is the agentic accounting platform for companies that have grown past that point: one ledger for every entity, continuous consolidation, AP, AR, cards and spend in the same system, and agents that do the work.
Book a demo$2B
Revenue Tillo runs on Light across 8 entities
76%
Cut in Tillo's month-end processing time
4
People on the finance team scaling Lovable to $500M revenue
Compare Light vs Lexware Office
| Light | Lexware Office | |
|---|---|---|
| Implementation | Weeks, with a dedicated implementation team and account manager included | Self-serve, minutes to start; each additional company is another account with its own login |
| Architecture | One AI-native ledger; consolidation posts as transactions happen | One company per account; a group is several accounts and a spreadsheet, with the balance sheet and the group view produced by your Steuerberater |
| Agents | Agents complete work end to end inside your controls; every action logged and attributable | Automation proposes: receipts are read, a booking category is suggested from SKR03/04, bank transactions get a matching proposal, and you accept, reject or change each one |
| Configuration | Astra learns from your data and suggests workflow and configuration changes to increase performance; applied in-product, no consultants | Self-serve within one company's scope; plans S to XL, monthly cancellation, API on XL |
| Subscription management | Contract-based invoicing and deferred revenue automated | Recurring invoices (Serienrechnungen) and instalment invoices (Abschlagsrechnungen) |
| Spend management | Corporate and virtual cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay, expense capture via Slack, Teams and email, native to the ledger | Visa Business debit card, one physical and one virtual per account holder, on the Lexware Geschäftskonto held at Solaris SE; one Geschäftskonto per Lexware account |
| Global bill pay | AP and vendor payments executed on local rails in 80+ countries, from the ledger itself | SEPA transfers prepared in Lexware Office and submitted to your bank, which executes them under your TAN procedure |
| Advanced reporting | Real-time multi-entity reporting with instant drill-down; no spreadsheet exports | EÜR, GuV, UStVA and ZM for one company; the balance sheet and any group view come from your Steuerberater |
| SaaS metrics | ARR, MRR, NRR, churn and cohort metrics computed from the ledger and contracts, in real time | Not a Lexware Office function; tracked outside the ledger |
| Global coverage | Local payment rails in 80+ countries; multi-entity, multi-currency by default | Built for German companies and German filings (ELSTER, EÜR, ZM), with English-language documents for foreign customers; the installed Lexware line runs on Windows |
Why finance teams choose Light over Lexware Office
Lexware Office, the cloud product introduced as lexoffice and renamed in 2024, is good at the job it was built for: the books of one German company, kept by the owner or a small team and closed by the Steuerberater. It is GoBD-audited, files the UStVA through ELSTER, writes XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoices, matches bank transactions across several accounts, and hands booking data and receipt images to your advisor in DATEV format (lexware.de/funktionen, accessed 2026-09-17). Many companies run on it happily and have no reason to move.
The reason teams do move is structural, not a matter of size. Lexware's own help centre puts it plainly: each Lexware Office account can be used for one company only, a second company means a second account under a different email address, and the data cannot be merged automatically afterwards (help.lexware.de, article dated 4 February 2026, accessed 2026-09-17). Light treats the group as the default: one ledger, several entities, consolidation posting as the transactions do, with AP, AR, cards, spend and reporting on the same record, and agents carrying out the routine work inside controls you set.
One company per account
A group on Lexware Office is a set of separate accounts, one per entity, each with its own login, its own bank connections and its own Steuerberater handover. Intercompany balances, currency translation and the consolidated position are assembled outside the product, usually in a spreadsheet or at the advisor's office, after each company has closed. The balance sheet itself is not produced in Lexware Office at all; the help centre says the product follows a different orientation and leaves opening and closing work to your Steuerberater (help.lexware.de, accessed 2026-09-17).
None of that is a defect. It is what bookkeeping looks like when the design unit is one company at a time. It becomes a cost the moment a group needs its numbers weekly rather than at year end. On Light there is nothing to assemble: every entity posts into the same ledger, intercompany eliminations and currency translation apply as transactions happen, and you drill from the group figure to the source document.
Filing-grade for Germany, assembled elsewhere for the group
Credit where it is due. Lexware Office has been audited against the GoBD by Ernst & Young since 2016 and re-audited since (office.lexware.de/steuerberater, accessed 2026-09-17). ELSTER filing, the EÜR, the GuV and the Zusammenfassende Meldung are built in. The DATEV interface is included on every plan, with DATEVconnect online for the advisor. The Lexware Geschäftskonto adds a Visa Business debit card, one physical and one virtual per account holder, with Apple Pay and Google Pay, on an account held at Solaris SE, one Geschäftskonto per Lexware account (lexware.de/funktionen/geschaeftskonto, accessed 2026-09-17). Transfers are prepared in Lexware Office and handed to your bank, which executes them under your TAN procedure (help.lexware.de, accessed 2026-09-17).
Each of those is a single-company feature, and each stops at the account boundary. The card belongs to one Geschäftskonto on one account; the payment run is one company's bank; the DATEV export is one Mandant. Light issues physical and virtual cards natively across the group, captures receipts in Slack, Teams and email, and executes vendor payments on local rails in more than 80 countries from the ledger itself, so there is no batch to import and no month-end tie-out between the money and the record. Your Steuerberater keeps the advisory role and gets live access to the ledger instead of a period-end export.
Where Lexware Office fits
A single German company, trading mainly in euros, with the owner or a bookkeeper doing the day-to-day and a Steuerberater closing the year, is exactly who Lexware Office is for. It is cheaper and simpler than anything an agentic platform can offer that company, and staying put is the right call. The same holds for the installed Lexware line (Lexware buchhaltung, financial office), which runs on Windows per Lexware's own system requirements (lexware.de/systemvoraussetzungen, accessed 2026-09-17) and serves the same single-company case with a desktop install.
The case for Light starts when the shape of the business changes: a holding and an operating company, a second or third entity, revenue in several currencies, a board that wants consolidated numbers before the month is cold, or a finance team that wants to run the platform itself rather than wait for the close.
Signs you’ve outgrown Lexware Office
Entity number two needs its own login
Lexware Office is one company per account, and Lexware's own help centre says data from separate accounts cannot be merged automatically afterwards. The moment a holding, a second GmbH or a foreign subsidiary appears, the group exists only in a spreadsheet. Light runs every entity in one ledger, with consolidation posting as the transactions do.
The balance sheet is made somewhere else
Lexware Office produces the EÜR, the GuV and the UStVA, then hands the books to your Steuerberater for the balance sheet. That is exactly right for a small company and slow for a board that wants group numbers this week. On Light the consolidated balance sheet is a report you open, with drill-down to the document.
Proposals, then a person books
Lexware Office reads receipts, proposes a booking category and matches bank transactions, and someone accepts each one. Light's agents code, match, chase and post themselves, inside thresholds you set, with every action logged and attributable.
“We evaluated several vendors. Light won because it covers our full finance stack, revenue, AR, AP, expenses, and consolidation, without stitching together a patchwork of point solutions.”
TanjaDirector of Finance, Omnea
Top 3 reasons leaders pick Light over Lexware Office
An all-inclusive platform
Leverage native products for AP, AR, Procurement and budgeting that seamlessly leverage AI and integrate to Slack and Teams.
Superior performance
Whether you are processing 100,000 or 50 million transactions, the Light Ledger is based on a hyper-performant database.
Beautiful reporting
Stop the reporting headache of spreadsheets, and get fast, intuitive reports with instant drill-down capabilities.
More reasons to love Light
Enjoy integrated products that both finance and the employees enjoy using.
Expense Management
Automate expense approvals, track spending in real-time, and gain insights with AI-powered analytics.
Vendor Management
Streamline vendor relationships with simplified onboarding, tracking supplier performance, and enforcing procurement policies.
Cards
Issue vendor and employee cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay globally. Upload receipts via Slack, Teams or email.
Frequently asked questions
Is Light an alternative to Lexware Office?
Yes, for groups. Light is the accounting system of record: general ledger, continuous multi-entity consolidation, AP, AR, cards, spend and reporting in one platform, with agents doing the work inside your controls. If you run a single German company with straightforward books and a Steuerberater who closes the year, Lexware Office is likely still the better-value choice.
Can Lexware Office handle several companies?
Not in one account. Lexware's help centre says each Lexware Office account is for one company, a further company needs a further account under a different email address, and the data cannot be merged automatically afterwards (help.lexware.de, article dated 4 February 2026, accessed 2026-09-17). A group therefore runs several accounts and consolidates outside the product. Light consolidates every entity continuously in one ledger, with no merge step.
We work with a Steuerberater on DATEV. Does Light fit that?
Yes. Your advisor keeps the advisory role and gets real-time access to the ledger and reports instead of a period-end export, so questions are answered against live data. Which German filing formats you need, and how the handover should work, is worth walking through concretely in a demo.
What about the installed Lexware products, such as Lexware buchhaltung or financial office?
They are Windows desktop products per Lexware's own system requirements, with server editions for multi-user sites. The question is the same one: whether you want a cloud ledger that holds the whole group, with agents working inside it and your advisor looking in live, or company-by-company books that are closed and assembled elsewhere.