# The SKR ledger for freelancers and sole traders
Source: https://norman.finance/de/en/help-center/sole-trader-ledger
Updated: 2026-11-11

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If you start in Norman as a Freiberufler or with a Gewerbe, Norman keeps your books in DATEV accounts: on the SKR03 or SKR04 chart, with a Ledger (Hauptbuch) and your cash-basis profit statement (EÜR). Your tax advisor can take the books over as they are. This also applies if you are a Kleinunternehmer.

For a GmbH or UG, read [Company accounting: start here](/de/en/help-center/company-accounting-start).

## Choose your chart when you sign up

1. During sign-up, choose **Freiberufler** or **Gewerbe**.
2. Norman then asks: **Which chart of accounts should your books use?** Choose **SKR03** or **SKR04**. If you have a tax advisor, ask which chart they use.
3. If you are not sure, choose **I don't know**. Norman then uses SKR03.

Your Ledger starts on 1 January of the current year, and you work out your profit with the EÜR. You cannot switch between SKR03 and SKR04 later.

## How your accounts are made

Each Norman category becomes a DATEV account of your chart. The category you give a transaction is therefore an account in your Ledger. On top of these come the accounts the Ledger books on by itself: bank, open items, VAT, private withdrawals and private contributions, and assets.

## Create your own account

1. Open [Accounting → Ledger → Chart of accounts](https://app.norman.finance/ledger?view=chartOfAccounts).
2. Search by code or name first. The account may already exist.
3. Choose **Add** and enter the code and name.
4. For an income or expense account, choose the **EÜR line**. Your EÜR shows the account on the line of the category you choose here.
5. Save the account.

Your own income or expense account always needs an EÜR line, because your EÜR finds its line through it. To choose the account type, see [Choose your SKR and create an account](/de/en/help-center/chart-of-accounts). The change of chart that article describes is only for a GmbH or UG.

## Revenue accounts by VAT

Norman books your invoices by itself on the revenue account that matches their VAT:

| Revenue | SKR03 | SKR04 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| With 19 % VAT | 8400 | 4400 |
| With 7 % VAT | 8300 | 4300 |
| Tax-free sales in Germany (§ 4 Nr. 8 ff. UStG) | 8100 | 4100 |
| Services to the EU with reverse charge | 8336 | 4336 |
| Intra-EU deliveries of goods | 8125 | 4125 |
| Exports to countries outside the EU | 8120 | 4120 |
| Services taxable in a country outside the EU | 8338 | 4338 |
| As a Kleinunternehmer | 8192 | 4184 |

Which VAT applies to sales abroad is explained in [Reverse charge](/de/en/help-center/reverse-charge) and [How to declare revenue from sales abroad](/de/en/help-center/sales-abroad).

## What your Ledger shows

In the [Ledger](https://app.norman.finance/ledger) you find these views:

- **Journal**: every posting in date order, with the debit and credit account.
- **Cash book**: your cash movements and the running cash balance.
- **Accounts (SuSa)**: debit, credit and balance of each account.
- **Chart of accounts**: your accounts. You create your own accounts here.
- **Cost centres**: see [Cost centres: KOST1 and KOST2](/de/en/help-center/cost-centres).

With an EÜR there are no manual postings in the Journal. The EÜR counts your transactions, so you record everything as a transaction. See [Bank accounts, imports, and manual transactions](/de/en/help-center/bankkonten-und-manuelle-transaktionen) for how. With an EÜR the Ledger does not show open items, profit and loss or a balance sheet.

## Postings follow the money

The EÜR counts money when it comes in and goes out (§ 11 EStG). A Ledger line is therefore dated on the day the money moved. An open invoice posts nothing in the Ledger until it is paid. To mark an open booking as paid, see [Mark open bookings as paid](/de/en/help-center/mark-open-bookings-paid).

## Private money and cash

- For a cash payment, choose the **Payment type** **Cash** in the transaction. Norman posts it on the **Kasse** account, and the cash book shows it.
- If you paid for something with private money, choose **Privateinlage** (private contribution, SKR03 1890, SKR04 2180) as the transaction's **Ledger payment account**.
- If income reached you privately, for example on your private account, choose **Privatentnahme** (private withdrawal, SKR03 1800, SKR04 2100) as the **Ledger payment account**.
- If you choose no payment type, Norman books the transaction as paid from the bank, as for a GmbH or UG.

To find the Ledger payment account, see [Map bank accounts to the Ledger](/de/en/help-center/bank-ledger-accounts).

## Flat rates

Norman books the home office flat rate, the meal allowance and drives with your private car against private contribution automatically, because you paid the costs privately. The home office flat rate is 6 € a day and at most 1,260 € a year. To add a flat rate, see [Record flat rates: home office, meal allowance and private car](/de/en/help-center/flat-rates-home-office-meals-car).

## Bank, assets and DATEV

- Your bank account starts on the first day of the Ledger, 1 January, with an opening balance (Saldenvortrag). Norman takes the balance your bank reports.
- Norman posts the depreciation (AfA) from your [asset register](/de/en/help-center/assets-depreciation) on 31 December of each EÜR year.
- The DATEV export and the DATEV transfer use the accounts of your Ledger.
- You can import a DATEV booking stack (EXTF) with **Import statement** as transactions on your own accounts.

## Already booking with categories?

Freelancers and sole traders who already keep their books in Norman on categories stay that way. If you want to move to the Ledger, write to support in the chat in the app. Support moves you over from 1 January of the current year. Earlier years stay on the categories. Norman only makes the move if every figure of your EÜR and your UStVA for the year stays the same.

## Related articles

- [Record flat rates: home office, meal allowance and private car](/de/en/help-center/flat-rates-home-office-meals-car)
- [Mark open bookings as paid](/de/en/help-center/mark-open-bookings-paid)
- [Bank accounts, imports, and manual transactions](/de/en/help-center/bankkonten-und-manuelle-transaktionen)
- [Cost centres: KOST1 and KOST2](/de/en/help-center/cost-centres)