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Past innovations

April 2024 – Further development and bug fixes

• Registration: Our registration now includes an interface to Creditreform, which enables an immediate query of the company. This means that relevant data such as company name and address can be stored directly in your VR Smart Guide account.

• Payment reminder: The due date for payment reminders is now correctly updated in the display so that you always receive the correct information.

• Fax number We have corrected the representation of the fax number in our documents to ensure that the information is complete and correct.

• Outgoing Invoices: The „Quantity“ field in our outgoing invoices now correctly displays three decimal places to ensure the accuracy of your invoice data.

December 2023 – Bug fixes & optimizations

• Company settings: The legal form „Partnership with limited professional liability (PartGmbB)“ has been added to the company settings in the VR Smart Guide, so that entrepreneurs of this legal form can now also properly create invoices and other documents.

• Account connection and sales update: Recent updates have improved sales update in the VR Smart Guide to reduce potential errors and ensure smooth operation.

• Outgoing invoices: It is now possible to manually enter all bank details on invoices in the VR Smart Guide. In addition, the IBAN and BIC are automatically checked to ensure they are correct in order to avoid incorrect information.

February 2023 – Various bug fixes & adjustments

• Transfer: The field for the transfer amount in the transfer process no longer worked correctly. The problem has been resolved and transfers can now be made without any problems again.

• Dashboard: For better clarity, all neutral income and expenses such as cash transit, transit items, private withdrawals and deposits have been removed from the calculation of the financial status on the VR Smart Guide dashboard. This means that only the actual operational income and expenses are taken into account.

• E-mail sending: Changes to first name, last name and/or e-mail address in the VR Smart Guide are now automatically updated in the separate e-mail tool. This ensures that important e-mails such as new developments or helpful tips & tricks continue to be sent to the right person and e-mail address.

January 2023 – No changes

December 2022 – Minor bug fixes and optimizations in the document template

• Document template: All sub-items of the „Document template“ menu can now be selected as tabs directly in the document template, so that you can make all settings for your documents in one place.

• Due date: The due date that was set in the settings was not transferred when moving from one document (e.g. offer) to another document (e.g. order confirmation). This error has been fixed.

November 2022 – Bug fixes for premium booking and invoicing

• Sent suggestions: Suggestions could still be edited after they were sent. This has now been fixed, meaning that sent suggestions can no longer be edited.
• Date fields: All fields in the VR Smart Guide that require a date in the input have been revised so that all fields are treated equally with regard to the interpretation of the input and the error messages for invalid entries, such as 16.12.1234.
• Premium booking: You couldn’t book Premium if you had already specified your bank account in the dropdown field. This bug has been fixed so it should now work perfectly.

October 2022 – Expansion and optimization of the dashboard and liquidity development

VAT and input tax in liquidity development

You can see your expected VAT liability in the preview of the next three months of your liquidity development . Based on the entries you made for the deadline for submitting your VAT return under „Tax information“, the expected VAT liability is shown in the liquidity development for the next month or the next quarter. You can find more information in our Help Center article: What is included in my liquidity development? .

Dashboard: Add and delete widgets

You can edit, add or delete your widgets on the dashboard immediately after registration or at any time. To do this, click on the „Add widget“ button next to the widgets you would like to have displayed on your personal dashboard. If you no longer want a widget to be displayed, all you have to do is click on the „X“ of the respective widget.

• The „SmartBudget“ widget and the tables at the bottom of the dashboard have been removed with the new features, as this content is now included in the liquidity development or elsewhere in the application.
  Note:

• Document layout: We have reduced the space between individual offer, invoice and other items. Furthermore, the space between the description (of the item) and the (optional) detailed description has also been reduced. The goal of the optimization was to display more offer, invoice and other items on one page.

• Editing contracts: When editing contracts, an error always caused them to be set to „Completed“. This has been fixed so that contracts can now be edited correctly again.

September 2022 – Bug fixes and performance improvements

• Bank mergers: When Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken merged, it often happened that the new bank account (via the merged bank) could not be connected to the VR Smart Guide. This can now be manually remedied by deactivating the existing account at the „old“ bank. The VR Smart Guide support team takes care of this service.
• Downloading offers and invoices: In individual cases, it was not possible to download the PDF file of an offer or invoice in the VR Smart Guide. The underlying sources of error have been eliminated, so that this should now work perfectly.

August 2022 – Optimizations in invoice creation and sending

• Validation of the date: All fields in the VR Smart Guide that require/expect a date have been given a new, optimized logic. The entry of a date is now automatically validated by the VR Smart Guide and corrected if necessary, e.g. if you enter 1.1.22, it becomes 01.01.2022.
• Invoice by email: The email address when sending an invoice by email was always „service@vr-smart-guide.de“ by default. This has been changed to „Customer+FirstnameLastname@vr-smart-guide.de“. The information stored in the VR Smart Guide is used as the first name and last name, e.g. „Customer+MaxMustermann@vr-smart-guide.de“. This optimization makes it easier for the invoice recipient to identify the invoice creator using the email address.

• QR code on invoices: The QR code on outgoing invoices can now also be properly generated and used with umlauts (e.g. „ä“).
• Due date for invoices: The due date for incoming invoices was always overwritten directly with the invoice date. This has been successfully fixed.

July 2022 – Optimizations in document creation

• Account details on documents: It is now also possible to have accounts from (smaller) FinTechs and foreign credit institutions automatically listed on documents (e.g. invoices) in the VR Smart Guide. For example, you can now have your Holvi account or an account from an Austrian credit institution displayed on your invoices. For more information, just read the following article:

Article: How can I include my bank details on my documents?

• Invoice (items): All unit prices (gross or net) in a position within the offer, invoice, order confirmation or payment reminder that have no more than two decimal places will now only be displayed with two decimal places in the VR Smart Guide. However, three decimal places can still be used in the calculation. These will then also be displayed as such.
• (Invoice) items: Entering „0“ as a number within a position of a document (e.g. invoice) is no longer possible.
• Order confirmation: The preview of an order confirmation can now be downloaded again as a PDF file.
• Invoice assignment: Visual improvement of invoice assignment.

June 2022 – Expansion and improvement of account connection and sales updates

• Account connection & sales update: Controlling individual error messages, e.g. „Your TAN is blocked“ or „No accounts available“ gives you a better opportunity to solve the problem yourself in the account connection or sales update and to successfully connect your account or update your sales.

• Offers: Sent (saved) offers can no longer be deleted in the VR Smart Guide.
• Invoices: Sent (saved) invoices can no longer be deleted in the VR Smart Guide.
• Account connection & sales updates: Optimizations in error handling and improvements in code quality guarantee an increase in successful account connections and sales updates.
• DATEV Export: In isolated cases, incoming invoices were moved to a subfolder in the DATEV export. This has been fixed so that all incoming invoices can always be saved and retrieved in the same path.
• Mobile version: Some optimizations and bug fixes related to the mobile use of the VR Smart Guide.

May 2022 – Optimizations and bug fixes in the VR Smart Guide

• Small business owners: For small businesses according to §19 UStG, the possible gross/net switch within the items of a document (e.g. invoice) has been deactivated and „gross“ has been selected as the standard. As a small business owner, no sales tax may be shown, which means that the prices of a service or product are always shown gross (without sales tax).
• Payment reminder: Optimization of the process of creating and sending payment reminders. By implementing a uniform procedure, you can now always create your payment reminders using the same process steps.

• Cash book: Prevention and correction of negative (intermediate) balances in the cash book.
• Delivery note: Positions within the delivery note can now also be moved – similar to other documents (e.g. offers).
• Document texts: When duplicating a document, the customer-specific text from the duplicated invoice is now also adopted. Previously, the standard text (default) was always stored.
• KPIs Outgoing Invoices: The error that canceled invoices were included in the calculation of the average payment duration has been fixed.
• Incoming invoices: Extension of the validation of the due date field – from now on it is no longer possible for the invoice date to be before the due date.
• Settings: Expanded acceptance of umlauts and other characters in the „Website“ field within the settings.

May 2022 – Optimizations and bug fixes in the VR Smart Guide

• Small business owners: For small businesses according to §19 UStG, the possible gross/net switch within the items of a document (e.g. invoice) has been deactivated and „gross“ has been selected as the standard. As a small business owner, no sales tax may be shown, which means that the prices of a service or product are always shown gross (without sales tax).
• Payment reminder: Optimization of the process of creating and sending payment reminders. By implementing a uniform procedure, you can now always create your payment reminders using the same process steps.

• Cash book: Prevention and correction of negative (intermediate) balances in the cash book.
• Delivery note: Positions within the delivery note can now also be moved – similar to other documents (e.g. offers).
• Document texts: When duplicating a document, the customer-specific text from the duplicated invoice is now also adopted. Previously, the standard text (default) was always stored.
• KPIs Outgoing Invoices: The error that canceled invoices were included in the calculation of the average payment duration has been fixed.
• Incoming invoices: Extension of the validation of the due date field – from now on it is no longer possible for the invoice date to be before the due date.
• Settings: Expanded acceptance of umlauts and other characters in the „Website“ field within the settings.

April 2022 – New receivables management in outgoing invoices & introduction of a new virtual assistant

Expansion of the invoice overview with new key figures: Simple receivables management for your outgoing invoices.

Expansion of the invoice overview with new key figures: To help you keep an even better eye on outstanding invoices and open payments in the future, we have expanded the invoice overview with helpful key figures. For example, you can now more easily see the number of overdue invoices, the number of payment reminders sent or the average payment duration of your customers.

Info button debt collection: Additional information on debt collection and digital debt collection

Info button for receivables management: As soon as you have sent at least one payment reminder, a new info button on the topic of receivables management will appear in the area of ​​the new invoice overview.

Virtual Assistant: Step-by-step instructions to get to know the functions in the VR Smart Guide.

Virtual assistant: New software often means intensive, independent training – that eats up time. We save you this time! With the virtual assistant in the VR Smart Guide, you can learn how to use the application independently and professionally using step-by-step instructions – without any prior knowledge. From setting up your profile to creating your first invoice. The advantages of your virtual assistant:

• Quick start into the application.
• Interactive step-by-step instructions
• Up-to-date: Latest news about the VR Smart Guide

Optimization of payment reminders: definition of new payment deadline

Optimization of payment reminders: We have made adjustments to ensure that the payment reminders you send with the VR Smart Guide are clearer for debt collection cases:

• The name has been changed from „new due date“ to „new payment deadline“. By sending payment reminders, you define a „new payment deadline“ for your customers. The original due date remains the same and will continue to be shown on the payment reminders. All text templates have been automatically adjusted.
• If you have created individual document texts (Settings > Document template > Document texts / or master data > Customers > Actions > Document specifications) for payment reminders, we ask you to take this change into account (no automated change will be made here).

• Cash book: The loading speed and performance of the cash book with many entries has been significantly improved.
• DATEV export: The selection of the period for generating the DATEV export has been optimized so that an error message only appears if incorrect information has actually been entered in the date.
• Delivery note: A delivery note can now also be generated from a correction invoice (outgoing invoice).
• Bank connection / turnover update: The instructions for the TAN when connecting the account or updating the turnover have been moved outside the input field so that they can no longer be cut off and can therefore be read in full.
• Letterhead: The file size of a document, e.g. an invoice, when using letterhead has been significantly reduced without causing any major loss of quality. Furthermore, the case where the application no longer allowed the letterhead to be deleted when uploading letterhead that was not accepted by the VR Smart Guide has been successfully resolved.

March 2022 – Innovations regarding DATEV export

Simplified expense categorization: Simple and detailed expense categories for your incoming invoices.

Simplified expense categorization: We have added a large number of new categories so that you can categorize your expenses more easily and precisely. You can find the appropriate categories for your expenses by using the keyword search in the search field: enter the word that best matches the item you have recorded and the VR Smart Guide will suggest the appropriate categories. This simplifies the category search for you while avoiding incorrect assignments.

Expense categorization via keyword search works for incoming invoices, contracts (expenses) and cash register expenses.

In addition: To make it easier for you to choose the right tax rate, we have already stored the possible sales tax rates for each category. So all you have to do is select the tax rate that is right for you.

Integration of the SKR04 chart of accounts: New chart of accounts for your tax advisor.

By integrating the new account framework, you can now choose between the SKR 03 and SKR 04 account frameworks , depending on which one your tax advisor recommends.

Intra-Community acquisition: Correct accounting for goods or services from outside the EU.

If you purchase goods from outside the EU, these will be correctly allocated as an intra-community acquisition in the DATEV export for your tax advisor.

In addition: If you sell goods to other EU countries, you can select the category “Tax-free sales – Intra-Community delivery (Section 4 No. 1b UStG)” when creating the invoice, provided that the transaction meets the legal requirements for this revenue without showing VAT.

Revenue categorization: New categorization of your sales possible.

Possibility of categorizing income: In addition to assigning your expenses to categories, it is now also possible to categorize your income. By adding structured categories, special cases can be better represented, such as reverse charge according to Section 13b (UStG).

Customer and vendor numbers: Optimized assignment of personal account numbers for your accounting.

February 2022

• Tax advisor export: For users who have chosen “actual taxation”, the VR Smart Guide exports all invoices from a selected export period – regardless of the invoice status. This means that invoices that have not yet been paid are also included in the export.

January 2022

With our new feature, you can automatically add your business accounts in all your newly created documents without any manual effort.

You can now place up to two business accounts under “ Document template “ in the settings under „Details“ . By selecting your already stored bank accounts here, your bank details will automatically be displayed on every newly created document . You can test the new function directly in the application at  https://app.vr-smart-guide.de/profile/invoice-templates/template-edit .

The ‚Bank account details‘ function under „Settings“ has been fundamentally optimized. Previous errors have been fixed, new functions have been added and the function has been given a clearer design.

The general usability and clarity of the “ Bank details ” page within the settings has been optimized. The individual accounts, credit cards and other payment services are now displayed more clearly and can be edited more easily.

The design & layout of the bank details have been improved so that each account is now assigned to the respective bank.

Furthermore, the deletion and editing functions for individual accounts and bank accesses have been improved .

You can try out the optimization of the function directly in the application at  https://app.vr-smart-guide.de/profile/bank-accounts  .

• Assigning payment methods to an invoice: When assigning a payment method, an incorrect statement was incorrectly displayed. This has been fixed and the correct information text is displayed again.
• Deletion of a cash book entry: The reason for the deletion of a cash book entry was not displayed correctly in displays smaller than 1473px. The information text is now displayed correctly in all display sizes.
• Liquidity development: In the past, contract expenses were displayed incorrectly in the liquidity development. This error has now been corrected and contract expenses are now again correctly taken into account and displayed in the liquidity development.

Further innovations from the months and years before can be viewed here:

See more new features now