DolmiDesk™: The Operating System for DGS Interpreters

As a DGS interpreter, your time is valuable. Every job normally requires three steps:

1. Planning: Enter the appointment in the calendar.
2. Management: Transfer the data (address, times, client) into a job list.
3. Billing: Write the invoice, create the PDF, draft the email, find the attachments.

DolmiDesk™ automates steps 2 and 3 almost completely. Why fill everything in three times when it's all already in the calendar?

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The promise: You plan your appointment once in the calendar. DolmiDesk™ takes care of the rest — from the complex mileage calculation to PDF invoice creation to the fully sent email.

Your Google Calendar becomes the "single source of truth." Whatever is in there becomes the invoice. The system understands complex logic such as:

• "I drive directly from appointment A to appointment B – who pays which travel costs?" (chain logic)
• "The appointment was cancelled, but I was on site." (no-show fee + travel)
• "This client gets a special flat rate." (rate matrix)
• "I have several appointments on one day." (automatic splitting)
• "The appointment is online." (no travel costs)
• "The invoice should be sent with an attachment and individual text." (email dispatch from your templates)
• "This invoice is overdue." (three-stage reminder process)
• And much more.

Workflow Overview

Your everyday work is reduced to a few clear actions. The system works in the background for you.

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You'll find a detailed step-by-step demo of the complete workflow, with screenshots and explanations, in the article Workflow Example: From Call to Payment.

Overview of the DolmiDesk™ workflow

It's a highly specialized system that turns your Google Calendar into a powerful accounting hub.

Core Features

DolmiDesk™ is more than an import tool. It's an end-to-end workflow system.

Intelligent Import Logic

The system uses the title in the calendar to recognize what needs to be done:

• Normal appointment: Full calculation of fee and travel.
• [Ausfall] ...: You were on site, the client wasn't. (Travel costs + no-show fee).
• [Absage] ...: Appointment cancelled in advance. (Only the no-show fee, no travel).
• [Online] ...: Video conference. (No travel costs, possibly an online flat rate).

The square brackets are optional – Ausfall: Amtsgericht or Absage - Herr Meier work just as well. The system also recognizes spellings like abgesagt, storniert, ausgefallen, or remote — in German, English, and Russian. An appointment whose location contains a Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex, or Skype link is automatically treated as an online appointment — even without a prefix in the title.

In the appointment description, you can specifically override individual fields. DolmiDesk™ reads lines there in the form key: value:

Line in the description	Effect
Kunde: Firma XYZ	Assigns the job to this client
Kostenträger: LWV Hessen	Sets the Kostenträger (cost bearer) for the invoice
Einsatzadresse: …	Overrides the location from the calendar
Transportmittel: Bahn	Sets the mode of transport (car, public transport, none)

You don't have to get the names exactly right: DolmiDesk™ fuzzy-matches them against your master data and recognizes both the short form ("Frau Schulz") as well as the full name ("Anna Schulz"). If you don't name a Kostenträger, the default Kostenträger stored for the client is used. If no matching entry is found, nothing is lost — the name from the calendar is shown on the job so you can assign it yourself.

File attachments on the calendar appointment (assignment sheets, deployment confirmations) are carried over during import and are then available on the job.

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If you change an appointment afterwards – title, time, client –, you pull the new values into the import list with one click on Neu synchronisieren (re-sync); the calendar is then read in again completely.

The "Chain Calculation" (Chain Logic)

The system automatically detects when you have several appointments on one day.

• Isolated appointment: Start from home → destination → back home.
• Appointment chain: Start from home → appointment A → appointment B → back home.
• The magic: The system splits the travel costs fairly and logically across the jobs. And it does this fully automatically. No more manually figuring out routes!

Whether two appointments count as a chain is decided by the time gap between them: if they're close enough together, they split the travel 50/50 — otherwise each appointment is calculated on its own from your home address. You set both of these — the allowed gap and your home address — in the settings. Online and cancelled appointments never generate any travel.

Abrechnungsmodelle (Billing Models) Instead of Fixed Prices

An Abrechnungsmodell bundles everything that determines the price of a job. For each client or Kostenträger, you determine which model applies:

• Fee: Hourly rate, rounding rule (e.g., to the nearest half hour), and an optional rounding tolerance that generously lets started minutes lapse.
• Travel time: Compensation for travel time — as an hourly rate or as a distance-based flat rate.
• Distance: Travel costs per kilometer or as a tiered scale (e.g., "up to 50 km = €60").
• Flat rates: Online, preparation, and other flat rates.
• Surcharges: Percentage surcharge for night, weekend, and public holidays (e.g., JVEG § 9 Abs. 6).
• No-show tiers: No-show flat fees based on the planned duration (e.g., "up to 1 hr = €93") — including whether the flat fee replaces the travel costs or is added on top of them.
• Deadlines: Notice periods for no-shows and the deadline by which the claim must be asserted. These deadlines never change an amount — they only warn you in time.

Common rule sets (LWV, JVEG, HessBGGAV) are already set up and can be adjusted or extended at any time — no programming knowledge required.

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Every change to a model creates a new version. Invoices that have already been written stay tied to the version they were calculated with — so your old invoices never change retroactively.

From Invoice to Payment Received

In the Aufträge (jobs) area, you select the billable jobs and click Rechnungen erstellen (create invoices). From there, DolmiDesk™ takes over:

1. Generates the invoice as an e-invoice (ZUGFeRD PDF).
2. Stores it in an audit-proof manner in the Dokumenten-Tresor (document vault), together with the attachments from the calendar appointment.
3. Sends it by email with the text from your mail template and all attachments — directly from DolmiDesk™.
4. Keeps track of open items and, if needed, creates three-stage reminders.

If an invoice that has already been sent needs to be corrected, DolmiDesk™ generates a cancellation invoice and releases the associated jobs for editing again — this way the invoice numbering stays gap-free.

Who Is DolmiDesk™ For?

DolmiDesk™ is ideal for freelance DGS interpreters who regularly handle jobs for various Kostenträger and want to make their accounting more efficient. It's especially well-suited for those who:

• Use Google Calendar.
• Have many appointments per week and want to save time.
• Need complex travel-cost billing.
• Are looking for a simple yet powerful solution that integrates seamlessly into their existing Google Calendar workflow.

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Important: DolmiDesk™ is not a complete ERP system. It focuses on automating the accounting around your Google Calendar. Additional tools are required for more comprehensive functions (e.g., tax advisory) — for tax advisory purposes, DolmiDesk™ provides a GoBD export. This is also not a solution for businesses subject to statutory bookkeeping requirements, but only for freelancers in the field of DGS interpreting.

Getting Started

DolmiDesk™ is a web application — you log in through your browser, there's nothing to install.

The beta phase is currently running with a limited number of testers. Nothing is paid when you apply; you'll only get the payment link once you receive your invitation.

Ready to automate your accounting? Apply for the beta and then get started with the Getting Started guide.

For an overview of how the app is structured, see The Areas of the App; for the complete process for a real job, see the Workflow Example.