Light vs sevDesk

Why finance teams choose Light over sevDesk

sevDesk is good at the job it was built for: the books of a freelancer, a founder or a small German company, kept by the owner and closed by the Steuerberater. It writes XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoices, files the UStVA through ELSTER without a separate certificate, matches transactions from more than 4,000 banks, reads receipts with AI, and hands booking data to your advisor through a DATEV or ADDISON interface with a free advisor login (sevdesk.de/funktionen and sevdesk.de/preise, 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. sevDesk's own help centre says it is not mandantenfähig and that every company to be billed needs its own account, with a 10% discount on accounts two to five and 20% on six to ten (hilfe.sevdesk.de, article dated 11 November 2024, 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 account per company

A group on sevDesk is a set of separate accounts, one per tax number, each with its own login, its own bank connections and its own advisor handover. Cost centres let you split one company's books; they do not join two companies. 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 is not produced in sevDesk either: the product prepares the EÜR and GuV and, in its own words, helps you prepare the Bilanz, which your Steuerberater then produces from the DATEV export (sevdesk.de/jahresabschluss-software, 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.

Built for the Freiberufler, and honest about it

Credit where it is due. sevDesk describes itself as perfect for Selbstständige such as Freiberufler and Kleinunternehmer, and it is (sevdesk.de/buchhaltungssoftware, accessed 2026-09-17). Its GoBD page is candid that responsibility for compliance stays with you as the business owner, and the product supports it with unchangeable document storage and a full audit trail. Invoices can go out in more than 50 currencies with the exchange rate applied and the books kept in euros. Transfers can be sent from sevDesk through your connected bank, and your bank's cards connect as payment accounts by bank feed or CSV import (hilfe.sevdesk.de, article dated 27 January 2025, accessed 2026-09-17). The AI reads receipts and proposes matches, and sevDesk says plainly that you keep the last word.

Each of those is a single-company feature, and each stops at the account boundary. The payment run is one company's bank; the card is your bank's card, imported; 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 sevDesk fits

A freelancer, a founder or a single German company, trading mainly in euros, with the owner doing the day-to-day and a Steuerberater closing the year, is exactly who sevDesk is for. It is cheaper and simpler than anything an agentic platform can offer that company, and staying put is the right call.

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.

Frequently asked questions

Is Light an alternative to sevDesk?

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 are a freelancer or a single German company with straightforward books and a Steuerberater who closes the year, sevDesk is likely still the better-value choice.

Can sevDesk handle several companies?

Not in one account. sevDesk's help centre says it is not mandantenfähig and that every company with its own tax number needs its own account, with a discount from the second account (hilfe.sevdesk.de, article dated 11 November 2024, accessed 2026-09-17). Cost centres split one company's books; they do not join two. Light consolidates every entity continuously in one ledger, with no merge step.

We work with a Steuerberater over 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.

Is Light overkill for a small company on sevDesk?

Size is not the test; structure is. A twenty-person company running a holding, an operating company and a foreign subsidiary has outgrown one-account-per-company bookkeeping, and a hundred-person single entity may not have. If consolidation happens in a spreadsheet, or the second login has arrived, the fit begins there.