Datev outage caused upset tax firms

The Datev software is the basic framework of almost every tax office. Last week, a complete failure of the program caused the unintentional work stoppage of almost 40,000 tax firms. Accordingly, the provider now has to contend with disgruntled customers.

Failed restructuring

Fortunately, the cause of the problems was quickly found. In recent years, Datev has also increasingly relied on data management with the help of cloud solutions. Whereas previously the appropriate backups were stored in data centers, they are now located in the cloud. The big advantage of this is that tax firms that rely on Datev no longer need powerful PCs and complicated server solutions. Instead, they can rely on external storage of important client data.

What may sound like an understandable step at first glance has now turned out to be a fatal problem in practice. After all, a bug in the cloud app ensured that all users had to suffer equally from the ailing cloud application. The consequences were not only annoying, but certainly also expensive for many Datev customers. After all, along with the law firms, the associated employees were also condemned to inactivity. Naturally, the responsible server systems vowed a quick improvement of the problem. After diving into the detailed diagnostics of the problem, the same could fortunately also be quickly remedied.

Bad timing for many law firms

Certainly, there can always be an error in the system. However, you have to give Datev credit for terribly bad timing. After all, the system crash occurred just two days before the monthly deadline for the advance VAT return. Unfortunately, the tax office is unlikely to care much about the excuses given by the tax offices or their clients. That meant for the Kanzleimitarbeiter surely some at overtime. But even if Datev had not solved the problems in time, the consequences for the clients would probably not have been too serious. After all, Datev promised even before the problem was solved that it would provide support in the event of penalties to the tax office.

Poor customer communication

While the promise of support is very laudable, Datev’s communication, on the other hand, is not at all. Thus, the members of the service probably only knew about the cloud error when it was already too late. Conversely, many Datev customers blamed the errors on their own technology and did not even think about the service provider itself. Only when word of the problem had spread did the company openly communicate that an internal error had occurred.

Quick problem resolution

Fortunately, it only took a short day for Datev to get its computer systems back under control. Thus, the service provider announced on Tuesday, 09.11.21, that data access for the vast majority of customers was now possible again without any problems. Although Datev’s service provider still had to make minor adjustments, these probably only affected 25 data sets. Customers also confirmed that the problem had been solved. Timeouts or other minor crashes only occurred in the performance area.