n8n-nodes-buchhaltungsbutler

This is an n8n community node that provides integration with BuchhaltungsButler, a German accounting software for small businesses and freelancers.

n8n is a workflow automation platform that allows you to automate tasks across different services.

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Brought to you by:
Mundschenk Nachrichtengesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG
Verlag der Böhme-Zeitung aus Soltau

Wir lieben IT und geben der Community gerne etwas zurück. 💙

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✨ Features

• 🧾 Create Invoices - Create invoices, e-invoices (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung), and invoice drafts
• 🔄 Dynamic Invoice Items - NEW in v0.6.0: Create invoices with dynamic line items from input data
• 👥 Manage Contacts - Add, update, and retrieve debtors and creditors
• 💰 Handle Transactions - Retrieve and manage transactions
• 📄 Process Receipts - Work with receipts and documents
• 🎨 Improved UX - Structured input with automatic validation
• 🇩🇪 German UI - Fully localized interface

Installation

Follow the installation guide in the n8n documentation.

Community Nodes (recommended)

For users on n8n Cloud or self-hosted n8n:

1. Go to Settings > Community Nodes
2. Select Install
3. Enter @martin_sol_95/n8n-nodes-buchhaltungsbutler in Enter npm package name
4. Agree to the risks and click Install

After installing, you'll need to restart n8n to see the node.

Manual installation

To get started, install the package in your n8n root directory:

npm install @martin_sol_95/n8n-nodes-buchhaltungsbutler

For Docker-based deployments, add the following line before the font installation command in your n8n Dockerfile:

RUN cd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n && npm install @martin_sol_95/n8n-nodes-buchhaltungsbutler

Credentials

This node requires BuchhaltungsButler API credentials. You can obtain API credentials from your BuchhaltungsButler account settings.

Credential setup

1. Open n8n
2. Go to Credentials > New
3. Search for BuchhaltungsButler API
4. Enter your credentials:
   • API Client: Your API client ID
   • API Secret: Your API secret key
   • API Key: Your API key for customer selection
5. Click Save

Operations

The node currently supports the following resources and operations:

🧾 Invoices (Rechnungen)

Standard Operations (Manual Line Items)

• Create Invoice: Create invoices, credits, or offers with structured line items
• Create E-Invoice: Create e-invoices with ZUGFeRD/XRechnung format
• Create Invoice Draft: Create invoice drafts for preparation

Key Features:

• ✅ Structured line item input (no more comma-separated strings!)
• ✅ First item is mandatory and always visible
• ✅ Add unlimited additional items dynamically
• ✅ Automatic type validation for numbers and decimals
• ✅ Optional descriptions per line item
• ✅ Intelligent UI (e.g., tax rate only shown for standard VAT)
• ✅ Support for all API parameters

Dynamic Operations (Items from Input Data) - NEW in v0.6.0

• Create Invoice (Dynamic Items): Process unlimited invoice items from previous nodes
• Create E-Invoice (Dynamic Items): E-invoices with dynamic line items
• Create Draft (Dynamic Items): Invoice drafts with dynamic line items

Key Features:

• 🔄 Dynamic Item Processing: Each input item becomes an invoice line item
• 📊 Perfect for CSV/Excel Import: Import product lists and create invoices
• 🎯 Field Mapping: Map your data fields to invoice fields
• ♾️ Unlimited Items: Process as many items as your input provides
• 🔗 Workflow Integration: Combine with filters, aggregations, transformations

Use Cases:

• Import invoice items from CSV/Excel files
• Create invoices from webhook data
• Aggregate multiple data sources into one invoice
• Batch invoice creation from databases

Settings (Einstellungen)

• Get Debtors: Retrieve all debtors (customers)
• Add Debtor: Create a new debtor (customer)
• Update Debtor: Update an existing debtor (customer)
• Get Creditors: Retrieve all creditors (suppliers)
• Add Creditor: Create a new creditor (supplier)
• Update Creditor: Update an existing creditor (supplier)
• Get Accounts: Retrieve chart of accounts
• Get Cost Centers: Retrieve all cost centers
• Get Tax Keys: Retrieve all tax keys
• Get Currencies: Retrieve all currencies

Transactions (Transaktionen)

• Get Transactions: Retrieve transactions
• Additional transaction operations

Receipts (Belege)

• Get Receipts: Retrieve receipts (invoices)
• Get Receipt By ID: Retrieve a single receipt by ID with optional file download
  • 📎 Binary File Support: Files are automatically provided as binary data
  • Supported formats: PDF, ZUGFeRD, XRechnung XML
  • Files appear in the "Binary" tab in n8n
  • Ready for further processing (save, email, etc.)
• Additional receipt operations

Usage

Example: Create an invoice with multiple line items

1. Add a Manual Trigger node
2. Add a BuchhaltungsButler node
3. Select Rechnungen as the resource
4. Select Rechnung Erstellen as the operation
5. Fill in the basic information:
   • Typ: invoice (or credit/offer)
   • Preisanzeige: net (or gross)
   • Firmenname: Company name
   • Datum: 2025-01-15
6. Add line items in Rechnungspositionen:
   • First item (mandatory, always visible):
     • Name: Consulting
     • Quantity: 8
     • Unit: Hrs.
     • VAT %: 19
     • Unit Price: 100.00
     • Description: (optional)
   • Click "Position hinzufügen" to add more items
7. Optionally add more fields via Zusätzliche Felder
8. Execute the workflow

Example: Create an e-invoice (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung)

1. Add a BuchhaltungsButler node
2. Select Rechnungen as the resource
3. Select E-Rechnung Erstellen as the operation
4. Fill in required fields including:
   • Basic information (type, company, date)
   • Complete address (mandatory for e-invoices)
   • E-Invoice ID (Leitweg-ID)
5. Add line items with Tax Type:
   • S - Standard VAT (requires tax rate %)
   • Z - 0% VAT
   • AE - Reverse Charge (§13b)
   • K - Intra-community supply
   • G - Third country supply
   • E - VAT exempt
6. Execute the workflow

Example: Get all customers

1. Add a Manual Trigger node
2. Add a BuchhaltungsButler node
3. Select Einstellungen as the resource
4. Select Debitoren Abrufen as the operation
5. Configure additional options if needed:
   • Nur Aktive: Filter for active customers only
   • Limit: Limit the number of results
   • Offset: Skip a number of results (for pagination)
6. Execute the workflow

Example: Create a new customer

1. Add a Manual Trigger node
2. Add a BuchhaltungsButler node
3. Select Einstellungen as the resource
4. Select Debitor Hinzufügen as the operation
5. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name: Customer name (required)
6. Optionally add more fields via Zusätzliche Felder:
   • Debitorennummer: Customer number (auto-generated if not provided)
   • Email: Customer email
   • Address: Street, ZIP, City, Country
   • And other optional fields
7. Execute the workflow

Example: Get receipt with file as binary data (NEW in v0.5.3)

1. Add a Manual Trigger node
2. Add a BuchhaltungsButler node
3. Select Belege as the resource
4. Select Beleg per ID Abrufen as the operation
5. Enter the Beleg-ID (e.g., 26521)
6. Under Zusätzliche Optionen, enable Datei Abrufen
7. Execute the workflow
8. The file will appear in the Binary tab
9. You can now:
   • Save it using Write Binary File node
   • Send it via email using Send Email node
   • Process it with other nodes that accept binary data

Compatibility

• Minimum n8n version: 1.0.0
• Tested with n8n version: 1.123.4+
• Node.js version: 20.x or higher

Documentation

• CHANGELOG.md - Complete version history
• RELEASE_NOTES_0.5.0.md - Detailed release notes for v0.5.0
• INVOICES_V2_IMPLEMENTATION.md - Invoice features documentation

Resources

• n8n documentation
• BuchhaltungsButler API documentation
• BuchhaltungsButler website
• npm package

Version history

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed version history.

[0.5.4] - 2025-12-16

Code Quality

Fixed

• ESLint warnings resolved - clean build process

[0.5.3] - 2025-12-16

Bug Fixes & Improvements

Fixed

• Get Receipt By ID Operation: Binary file support
  • Files are now correctly provided as binary data in n8n
  • Automatic conversion from Base64 to binary format
  • MIME type detection (PDF, XML)
  • Files appear in the "Binary" tab
  • file_content removed from JSON to avoid duplication

[0.5.2] - 2025-12-15

Improvements

Changed

• Add Debtor Operation: Debitorennummer ist jetzt optional
  • Wird automatisch von BuchhaltungsButler generiert, wenn nicht angegeben
  • Kann bei Bedarf manuell gesetzt werden

[0.5.0] - 2025-12-10

🎉 Major Release: Invoice Operations

Added

• Invoice Operations: Complete implementation of invoice endpoints
  • Create Invoice (/invoices/create)
  • Create E-Invoice (/invoices/create/e-invoice) with ZUGFeRD/XRechnung support
  • Create Invoice Draft (/invoices/create/draft)
• Improved UX: Structured item input using fixedCollection
  • Individual line items can be added dynamically
  • First item is mandatory and always visible
  • Each item has its own validated fields (name, quantity, unit, VAT, price, description)
  • Automatic type validation for numeric fields
• E-Invoice Support:
  • Tax types as dropdown (S, Z, AE, K, G, E)
  • Tax rate field only shown when tax type is "S" (intelligent UI)
  • Leitweg-ID support for public contracting authorities

Changed

• Invoice items are now structured objects instead of comma-separated strings
• Item descriptions moved from additional fields to individual items
• Improved error handling for invoice creation

Technical

• Added fixedCollection type for better UX
• Automatic transformation from item objects to API arrays
• Build size: ~211 KB
• No linter warnings

[0.1.0] - 2025-12-09

Initial Release

• Settings operations (Debtors, Creditors, Accounts, Tax Keys, etc.)
• Transaction operations
• Receipt operations
• Support for additional options (filters, pagination)
• HTTP Basic Auth + API Key authentication
• Comprehensive error handling
• German UI translations

License

MIT

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions:

• Create an issue on the npm package page
• Visit the n8n Community Forum
• Check the documentation files in this repository

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This is a community-maintained node.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines.

Roadmap

Planned features for future versions:

• Get invoices (read operation)
• Update invoices
• Delete invoices
• Download invoice as PDF
• Send invoice via email
• List invoices with filters
• Invoice templates
• Bulk operations

Disclaimer

This is an unofficial community node and is not affiliated with or endorsed by BuchhaltungsButler. Use at your own risk.

Author & Organization

Developed by:
Mundschenk Nachrichtengesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG
Verlag der Böhme-Zeitung
Soltau, Deutschland

Maintainer: Martin (@martin_sol_95)

Acknowledgments

Built with ❤️ for the n8n community.

Wir lieben IT und geben der Community gerne etwas zurück!

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About Mundschenk Nachrichtengesellschaft:
Als Verlag der Böhme-Zeitung aus Soltau sind wir tief in der regionalen Medienlandschaft verwurzelt. Neben unserem journalistischen Auftrag setzen wir auf moderne IT-Lösungen und Automatisierung. Mit diesem n8n Community Node möchten wir unsere Erfahrungen teilen und anderen Unternehmen helfen, ihre Buchhaltungsprozesse zu automatisieren.