AI CFO

An AI CFO for your German company: what the agent does, what stays with you

An AI agent connected to jahresabschluss.io can take over the routine of a finance lead in a small German GmbH or UG — a weekly cash view from bank balances and open items, receivables follow-up, VAT deadlines and figures, monthly reporting from the trial balance and year-end preparation — while the managing director (Geschäftsführer) stays responsible for the books, the tax filings and the annual accounts. The agent reads the real ledger of one company through our MCP server or REST API, prepares and proposes; you or your tax adviser decide, release and sign.

Last reviewed: 2026-10-19

Five CFO jobs and the tools behind them

Cash view

list_bank_accounts with a fiscal year returns each account's statement balance and book balance at the statement date; list_open_items adds receivables and payables with due date and amount outstanding; list_tax_deadlines and get_vat_return add the next VAT payment. From that the agent builds a weekly cash outlook.

Receivables

list_open_items with kind=debitor and status=overdue lists what customers owe past due; list_payments shows how they paid before. The agent drafts reminders for you to send — our system does not dispatch reminder letters.

VAT

get_vat_return reads the figures of the VAT return (UStVA) for a month or quarter, get_vat_supplementary the questions of the official form. check_tax_filing runs the official check; prepare_tax_filing and request_tax_filing_approval lead to an approval link you open in the app.

Monthly reporting

get_saldenliste with as_of gives the trial balance up to any day of the fiscal year; list_journal_entries filtered by account explains the movements. That is enough for a BWA-style report (Betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung, the usual German monthly management report).

Year-end preparation

Bank balances reconciled, open items reviewed, depreciation booked with run_depreciation, provisions with create_provision, the year locked with finalize_bookkeeping_period and handed over with publish_trial_balance; get_annual_report_status shows where the annual accounts stand.

Example: the Monday cash briefing

A standing request to an agent with a read-only key. The figures are an example, not real data:

You: Monday briefing. Cash on all business accounts, what customers owe us
     in the next 14 days, what we owe suppliers, the next VAT payment,
     and everything overdue by more than 30 days.

Agent calls:
  list_fiscal_years                             → current fiscal year
  list_bank_accounts (fiscal_year_id)           → statement and book balances
  list_open_items (kind debitor, status open)   → receivables with due dates
  list_open_items (kind kreditor, status open)  → payables with due dates
  list_tax_deadlines (status offen)             → next VAT return due
  get_vat_return (period 2026-10)               → expected VAT payable

Agent (example figures):
  Bank 48,200 €   ·   receivables due within 14 days 31,500 €
  Payables due within 14 days 22,900 €   ·   VAT for October, due 10 Nov: 6,300 €
  Outlook in 14 days ≈ 50,500 € before new sales and costs
  Overdue > 30 days: 3 invoices, 7,850 € — reminder drafts below

The outlook is arithmetic on booked and open items, not a forecasting model: new sales, salaries or planned purchases enter only if you give them to the agent. Bank lines that have not been fetched yet are missing too — the bank connection itself runs in the app.

German deadlines a CFO agent has to know

VAT return (Umsatzsteuer-Voranmeldung): due on the tenth day after the end of the period (§ 18 Abs. 1 UStG); monthly if last year's VAT exceeded 9,000 euros, otherwise quarterly (§ 18 Abs. 2 UStG).
Permanent extension (Dauerfristverlängerung): one more month for every return (§ 46 UStDV); monthly filers pay a special advance payment for it. create_tax_draft prepares the application for the current year from the books.
EC sales list (Zusammenfassende Meldung, ZM) for supplies to businesses in other EU countries; create_tax_draft prepares it for a period from the books.
Annual accounts: to be prepared within three months after the fiscal year ends, small corporations may take up to six months (§ 264 Abs. 1 HGB).
list_tax_deadlines returns the dates of a year as the app's tax calendar shows them, each marked as done or overdue.

Monthly reporting from the trial balance

Revenue and gross margin per month: get_saldenliste with as_of at each month end, then the differences between months.
Personnel and other cost ratios from the expense accounts of SKR03 or SKR04 — get_entity_settings tells the agent which chart the company uses.
Days sales outstanding (DSO) from open receivables and revenue.
Burn and runway for a start-up: the change in bank balances over recent months against the current balance.
Plan versus actual: you provide the plan as a table, the agent sets the booked figures beside it and explains the gaps from the journal.
Ask the agent to name the tool behind each figure, so every number in the report can be checked.

What the managing director remains responsible for

Paying suppliers, the tax office and salaries — the API initiates no payments.
Releasing tax filings in the app, with your certificate PIN.
Approving the bookings the agent proposes, and locking periods.
Signing the annual accounts and choosing the accounting policies behind them.
Decisions on credit, investment and pricing — the agent supplies figures, not decisions.

The managing directors of a GmbH must ensure proper bookkeeping (§ 41 GmbHG), the legal representatives prepare the annual accounts (§ 264 Abs. 1 HGB), and the details in a tax return must be given truthfully to the best of one's knowledge and belief (§ 150 Abs. 2 AO). None of this moves to software: the agent prepares and proposes, a person decides.

Which rights to give the CFO agent

Briefings and reports: read only. The agent can read everything above and change nothing.
Preparing VAT returns: write, because the official check and the preparation are write calls — neither transmits anything.
Booking at month end: write, with a confirmation in your AI program for every booking.
Emailing invoices: send, which only reaches addresses stored for the customer.
Locking periods: finalize, best on a separate key used for nothing else.
One key per company: a holding with three companies needs three keys, because the company always follows from the key.

Limits

No payments, no bank transfers and no bank connection through the API.
No dispatch of reminders; the agent drafts them and you send them from your own mailbox.
No ELSTER submission by the agent; prepared filings are released in the app through the approval link.
No built-in forecasting: the agent computes from booked and open items plus your assumptions.
The annual accounts are prepared and issued in the app's annual-accounts module, with AI assistance there; the agent hands over the trial balance and reads issued statements.
Cash-basis businesses (EÜR) use get_euer, a preview of the Anlage EÜR, instead of the balance-sheet view.

Working with your tax adviser

An AI CFO does not replace your Steuerberater — it gives them cleaner books earlier. Your adviser can work in the same software with their own access, or receive the year as a Kanzlei Software-format export. A rhythm that works: the agent books and reports, the adviser reviews, then the period is locked.

Frequently asked questions

Can an AI agent replace the CFO of a small German company?

It can take over routine — briefings, receivables follow-up, VAT preparation, monthly reports, year-end checklists. Decisions, payments, releases and signatures stay with the managing director.

Can the agent pay supplier invoices?

No. The API initiates no payments. The agent tells you what is due, and once you have paid, it matches the bank line to the invoice.

Can it file the VAT return?

It runs the official check and prepares the return; you submit it in the app through the approval link, with your PIN.

Where do the numbers come from?

From the books of the company the key belongs to: bank balances, open items, journal and trial balance in jahresabschluss.io. Forecast assumptions come from you.

Does this work for a UG or a sole trader?

For a GmbH or UG with balance-sheet accounting as described. Cash-basis businesses use get_euer, a preview of the Anlage EÜR, instead of the trial-balance views.

Which AI programs can act as the CFO agent?

Any program that can send our key to the MCP server or call the REST API — for example Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or an agent built with an SDK.