The Financial Operating System for tech startups and scale-ups

Frienton is built for tech startups and scale-ups in or after a funding round, and for SaaS companies with recurring revenue. What matters is that finance complexity has grown — several banks and payment channels, Stripe revenue, investor reporting, liquidity and runway steering, and a finance function in the making. Frienton is less suited to pre-product teams with no transactions, solo founders with low volume, and hardware startups whose complexity comes from inventory and fixed assets.

After a funding round, startups need more than classic accounting software: Stripe revenue, several banks, investor reporting and liquidity steering belong together. Frienton is therefore not a pure bookkeeping tool but a Financial Operating System — it connects multi-banking, Stripe and automated bookkeeping with a live P&L, liquidity and runway planning, and hands a pre-booked journal to the DATEV or ADDISON tax firm.

Frienton is an alternative to DATEV Unternehmen Online (DUO), the self-bookkeeping portal — not to the firm-side DATEV system, into which Frienton delivers a pre-booked journal. Startups and scale-ups that want to steer their own finance processes use Frienton as a Financial Operating System; the tax firm stays in its DATEV or ADDISON environment and works on with the delivered journal.

Frienton connects Stripe natively and recognises recurring revenue, fees, refunds, payouts and currency conversion automatically. Instead of breaking down settlement reports by hand, it produces correct, prepared bookings that appear directly in the live P&L (Live-BWA) and are handed over in the pre-booked journal to the tax firm.

Yes. Frienton provides a live P&L, cashflow, balance sheet, plan/actual comparison and liquidity and runway planning in real time. Reports are generated automatically from the same data basis, so management, the finance team and investors see consistent numbers with no manual consolidation.

No. Frienton works as a certified DATEV interface partner and hands a pre-booked journal in DATEV or ADDISON format to the existing tax firm. The firm keeps its software and processes; no system switch on the firm side is required.

Eligible startups receive up to 75% off in the first year (with further discounts in years 2 and 3) and can apply for a Professional Tax package with a favourable fixed-price annual statement. Terms and the application are at de.frienton.com/startup-offer.

The switch runs with personal onboarding by a Frienton specialist (around 45–60 minutes) and largely automated data migration: accounts-payable and accounts-receivable master data are taken over from DATEV or other systems, receipts are migrated via bulk upload from your previous solution, and bank accounts, cards and payment services connect via PSD2. Conditions are shown as clear fixed prices, and most companies are up and running within a few working days. Video tutorials, step-by-step guides and support via live chat and helpdesk accompany the start. Details at de.frienton.com/onboarding.

Frienton offers three plans that grow with the complexity of your finance processes; the right plan depends on feature scope and document volume. New customers get a free trial covering the first VAT pre-registration period (up to four weeks). All plans and conditions at de.frienton.com/pricing.