sevDesk – Gotchas

Only invoice, bill and credit-note are supported as a reference_type. Listing with any other value returns a vendor error rather than an empty list.

Only files a caller has uploaded through this endpoint are returned — sevDesk's own auto-generated invoice/credit note PDFs are not included, since they are linked internally in a way this endpoint does not surface.

Only png, jpeg, jpg, pdf, xls, xlsx, doc, docx and xml files are accepted — anything else (including plain text) is rejected. Only invoice, bill and credit-note are supported as a reference_type; uploading against any other value returns a vendor error rather than a clean rejection.

The id must belong to the record named by reference_type/reference_id. An id from a different record — or from a document not linked to any invoice, bill or credit note — returns 404 rather than another record's file, matching the same ownership scoping attachmentsDelete and attachmentsDownload enforce on this connector.

The id must belong to the record named by reference_type/reference_id. An id from a different record returns 404 rather than deleting it — attachments are scoped to the record they are attached to.

The id must belong to the record named by reference_type/reference_id. An id from a different record returns 404 rather than another record's file content — the same ownership scoping attachmentsOne and attachmentsDelete enforce on this connector.

Every bill line is booked to a generic "Miscellaneous" expense account — there is no field on this endpoint to choose a specific expense category. Re-categorize individual lines in the sevDesk UI if a specific account is needed for bookkeeping.

Line items have no quantity/unit-price breakdown — sevDesk records each bill line as a single lump-sum amount plus tax rate, so quantity is always 1 and unit_price equals total_amount.

New bills are always created as draft, regardless of the status you send — a non-draft bill needs additional fields this connector does not currently set. Transition it to a later status from within sevDesk after creation.

Bills are created under a fixed VAT rule ("Regelbesteuerung") — there is no field on this endpoint to change it. Unlike invoices and credit notes, this rule does not restrict line_items[].tax_rate.rate to a fixed set of values — any rate is accepted unchanged.

line_items cannot be changed on update — sevDesk's update endpoint only accepts header fields (description, currency, supplier, due date, paid date). A request that includes line item changes returns 200 but the line items are unaffected; delete and recreate the bill if the amounts need to change.

sevDesk requires every credit note to have an internal contact person (the sevDesk user acting as biller) assigned — there is no field on this endpoint to choose one. This connector automatically assigns the account's active administrator, falling back to any other active user, and — only if the account has no active user at all — the first user returned by sevDesk regardless of status. On a multi-user account, credit notes created through this API are always attributed to that auto-selected user rather than a specific person you choose.

Credit notes are created with a fixed internal booking category and VAT rule — there is no field on this endpoint to change either. Only 0%, 7% and 19% tax rates are accepted under this rule; a line_items[].tax_rate.rate outside that set is rounded to the nearest of the three rather than rejected. type is always accounts_receivable_credit; sevDesk has no accounts-payable credit note concept on this endpoint.

New credit notes are always created as draft, regardless of the status you send — sevDesk rejects creating a credit note in any other status. Transition it to a later status from within sevDesk after creation.

line_items[].unit_of_measure only recognizes a fixed set of German abbreviations (Stk, kg, m, Std, ...). Any other value — including a plain English word like hour — is silently mapped to Stk (piece) instead of being rejected.

billing_address.country_code defaults to Germany when omitted or when it doesn't match a recognized country. This affects the tax rule sevDesk applies (this endpoint uses a cross-border OSS VAT rule), so an omitted or unrecognized country code is treated as a domestic (Germany) transaction rather than being rejected.

balance and remaining_credit report the full gross amount for any credit note that is not yet fully paid, including one that is partially applied — sevDesk does not expose the applied/remaining amount on a credit note, only its total. A fully paid credit note correctly reports both fields as 0.

Only reference and currency can be changed after creation. note is accepted by this endpoint but not persisted — sending it has no effect and reading the credit note back afterward will not reflect it. status cannot be changed through this endpoint at all; transition a credit note's status from within sevDesk directly.

sevDesk requires every invoice to have an internal contact person (the sevDesk user acting as biller) assigned — there is no field on this endpoint to choose one. This connector automatically assigns the account's active administrator, falling back to any other active user, and — only if the account has no active user at all — the first user returned by sevDesk regardless of status. On a multi-user account, invoices created through this API are always attributed to that auto-selected user rather than a specific person you choose.

There is no header-level tax rate field — set line_items[].tax_rate.rate on each line; the invoice's overall tax/subtotal/total are computed from the line items.

Invoices are created under a fixed VAT rule ("Regelbesteuerung") — there is no field on this endpoint to change it. Only 0%, 7% and 19% tax rates are accepted under this rule; a line_items[].tax_rate.rate outside that set is rounded to the nearest of the three rather than rejected.

New invoices are always created as draft, regardless of the status you send — sevDesk rejects creating an invoice in any other status. Transition it to a later status from within sevDesk after creation.

Once created, an invoice's line items are fixed — update only changes header fields (customer memo, reference). There is no void action either: cancelling an invoice creates a separate reversal document rather than removing or editing the original.

type only maps to two distinct sevDesk document types, not the full unified enum: standard and credit/service/product/supplier (which have no sevDesk equivalent) all create sevDesk's normal invoice type; other creates a second, different sevDesk type. sevDesk also has down-payment, partial and final invoice variants, but the unified API has no value that selects them, and on read they are indistinguishable from a normal invoice — type always reports back standard or other, never a more specific variant.

line_items[].unit_of_measure only recognizes a fixed set of German abbreviations (Stk, kg, m, Std, ...). Any other value — including a plain English word like hour — is silently mapped to Stk (piece) instead of being rejected.