DATEV LODAS and Lohn und Gehalt: getting time-tracking data to the payroll office without retyping it

DATEV runs two payroll programs that expect different import formats: LODAS reads text files with fixed record types for master data and movement data, Lohn und Gehalt reads its own import files with personnel number, wage type (Lohnart), date and value. For an organizer with 800 crew, that means: the export from time tracking has to produce exactly the format of the program the firm (Kanzlei) uses for that client, and it has to deliver the master data for new people alongside the hours. Otherwise the payroll office retypes 800 people, and the bill for that arrives in October.

Which time tracking works with DATEV?

Every time-tracking tool claims a DATEV interface. Whether it has one shows in seven points:

Check	How to recognise it
Right program	Export for either LODAS or Lohn und Gehalt, configurable per client
The firm's wage types	Wage-type numbers freely configurable, not hardcoded
Same personnel number	The personnel number from the payroll program is adopted, not a separate one
Master data	New and changed people are delivered too, with person group
Premiums to the hour	Night, Sunday and public holiday as separate hours per time window
Delivery route	Import file or directly via the DATEV data service, with the file as fallback
Evidence	An export history with date, people and totals

A time-tracking tool that only delivers an Excel or CSV list with hours per person is not DATEV-compatible, even if DATEV can open the CSV. The payroll office then has to map every line to a wage type, and that is the retyping you wanted to get rid of.

Mobile time tracking with a DATEV connection

With event staff, time tracking is almost always mobile: crew check in by QR code at their post, on their own phone or the team lead's device, often without a stable network. For DATEV that makes no difference. The app is the input, the import file is the output, and in between sit approval, break deduction and time rules. What matters is that mobile recording keeps working offline and that the times then land with person, day and post in the same system the export comes from. How that looks in EVENTRA is shown on the time tracking page.

Two programs, two formats

	DATEV LODAS	DATEV Lohn und Gehalt
Import	Text files (ASCII) with a fixed record layout, Windows-1252 character set	Import files per DATEV specification, movement data and master data kept separate
Master data	Record type for personnel master, tax, social insurance, bank, start and end dates	Master-data import with a defined field catalog
Movement data	Hours or amounts per wage type and pay period	Hours or amounts per wage type, date, personnel number
Typical user	Tax-advisor firms (Steuerberaterkanzleien)	Firms and companies with their own payroll department

Both formats identify the person by the client's personnel number. It has to be the same in time tracking as in the payroll program, or duplicates appear.

How the files have to be structured is defined by DATEV in the respective interface description (Schnittstellenbeschreibung). In practice: a LODAS file for the ASCII import carries its own record description in the header, together with the advisor and client numbers, without which DATEV rejects the file. For Lohn und Gehalt, the format is read in once as a vendor format in the ASCII import wizard; after that, the firm only imports the data file each month.

What time tracking becomes: wage types in LODAS

Check-in and check-out produce time pairs. Rules turn these into hours per wage type:

1. Base hours: duration minus breaks.
2. Night premium: the share between 8 pm and 6 am, tax-free under § 3b EStG up to 25 percent of base pay, and up to 40 percent for the portion between midnight and 4 am when work starts before midnight.
3. Sunday premium: the share worked on Sunday, tax-free up to 50 percent.
4. Public-holiday premium: tax-free up to 125 percent, up to 150 percent on Christmas Day and May 1.
5. Other: standby, travel costs, meal allowance, depending on the contract.

Every line in the movement-data record is: personnel number, wage type, pay period, hours or amount. The wage-type numbers come from the firm's own catalog. An export that invents its own numbers gets rejected on import, or mapped to the wrong thing.

Master data for new people

With event staff, most people are new every month. Without master data, the payroll program can't produce a payslip at all:

• Personnel number, name, date of birth, address, nationality
• Tax ID, tax bracket or flat-rate taxation, church-tax flag
• Social insurance number, health insurer, person group (Personengruppe: 109 Minijob, 110 short-term/kurzfristig, 101 subject to social insurance), contribution groups. Which group applies depends on the Minijob limit and the 70-day rule.
• Bank details
• Start of employment, end date for fixed-term contracts, exit date after the event

This data has to come from the person, not from the organizer. An application process that makes tax ID, health insurer and IBAN required fields, and validates the social insurance number, delivers the master-data record complete. Anything else is chasing people by email in October. In hospitality, security and trade-fair construction, the payroll office needs the same data before the first shift, for the Sofortmeldung.

The month-end close

The sequence that works without rework:

1. Release the hours. Every time entry is confirmed, breaks are deducted, conflicts are resolved.
2. Apply the rules. Premiums come from the time rules, not from manual work.
3. Check master data. Anyone new has all required fields. Anyone switching, say from short-term to Minijob, has a change date.
4. Export. Master data and movement data for LODAS or Lohn und Gehalt, per client, per month. The export is archived with date and content.
5. Transmit. As a file to the firm, or via the DATEV data service. The firm imports it, runs payroll, and reports back what's missing.
6. Exits. After the event, short-term employees are deregistered. Anyone returning next year gets a fresh entry.

Processing times in LODAS: the Datenfahrplan

LODAS doesn't run payroll on the firm's computer but in the DATEV data center. When submitted data is processed there and results come back is set out in the DATEV Datenfahrplan (document no. 0908200 in the DATEV help center): on working days there are several processing runs with fixed send deadlines, and weekend data goes into the first run on Monday. DATEV changes the exact times occasionally; the current version is what counts.

For the organizer, a simple rule follows: the export is done when the firm has imported it, not when it has been downloaded. Anyone who approves their times on the evening of the last working day of the month misses the firm's own payroll deadline at many firms. Approval and export belong in the first days after month-end, with a buffer for queries.

At the turn of the year there is one more date: DATEV delivers the year-end versions of LODAS and Lohn und Gehalt for 2026/27 with the update at the end of December 2026, not with a separate main release. The first 2027 payroll runs with the new values, such as the Minijob limit of €633 from 2027, depend on that update. Ask your firm from when it accepts January data.

What an export has to deliver

• The right format for the right program, with the Windows-1252 character set for LODAS so umlauts survive.
• The firm's own wage-type numbers, configurable, not hardcoded.
• Person groups and contribution groups derived from the person's employment type.
• Master data only for people who are new or changed, so the payroll office doesn't re-check 800 unchanged records.
• A history: which export was generated when, with which people and totals. In an audit, that's the proof that the hours and the payroll line up.

How these points work together day to day, from check-in to file, is covered in automating payroll for event staff. All export formats are listed under export, and the context for organizers is in the handbook entry on DATEV integration in event management.