DolmiDesk: The Operating System for DGS Interpreters

The tutorial takes you through the whole app in eleven chapters: creating cost bearers and clients, billing and sending jobs, collective invoices, payment reminders, cancellation and correction invoices, reports, cost estimates, receipts with the EÜR (income statement) and, finally, the calendar import. The narration is German, with English subtitles. Press AD in the player for the version with audio description.

DolmiDesk tutorial in 11 minutes

DolmiDesk tutorial, narrated in German with English subtitles. The whole app in eleven chapters: create Kostenträger (cost bearers) and clients, bill and send jobs, collective invoices, payment reminders, cancellation and correction invoices, analytics, cost estimates, receipts with the EÜR (income statement) and connecting Google Calendar. Also available with audio description.

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Transcript of the tutorial

What is said in the video, translated from German – chapter by chapter.

1. 0:00Welcome to DolmiDesk. In this tutorial we'll go step by step through the whole app – from your first invoice to full automation.
2. 0:10Create a cost bearerBefore we write our first invoice, we need a Kostenträger (cost bearer). Kostenträger are the offices or people who receive and pay your invoices. Click “Neuer Kostenträger” (New cost bearer) and enter a short name, the full name, the address and the email address for invoices. Pick the Abrechnungsmodell (billing model). It holds the rates for this Kostenträger – here the JVEG model for courts. And the email template: the text your invoices are sent with. Further down you'll find the automation. With “Erstellen, nicht senden” (Create, don't send), DolmiDesk writes the invoice itself once a job is complete and gives it to you to review. “Erstellen und senden” (Create and send) also emails it to the Kostenträger. Both options are in the Pro package. For now, we'll leave them off. Automatic payment reminders send the next level on their own when an invoice stays unpaid. Available from the Standard package. The “Sozialträger” (social agency) switch marks Kostenträger like a welfare office, a youth welfare office or a health insurer. Why? That way you see how much of your revenue comes from social agencies – which matters for a possible VAT exemption. The switch itself doesn't change the tax on your invoices. You can set it in every package, the analytics show the share from the Standard package. Save – and the Kostenträger is created.
3. 1:50Create clientsNext, you create your clients, meaning the people you interpret for. A short name and a name are enough. The default Kostenträger is the one who usually pays for this person. DolmiDesk suggests it in every new job and also uses it for the calendar import. Save.
4. 2:12Create, bill and send a jobNow the first job. Under “Aufträge” (Jobs), click “Neuer Auftrag” (New job) and enter the date, interpreting time and occasion. Select the client. Kostenträger and billing model are filled in automatically. Enter the address of the assignment. One click on “Automatisch berechnen” (Calculate automatically), and DolmiDesk enters departure, arrival and kilometers. Under “Abrechnung” (Billing), you see what the job is worth – item by item. You can bill straight from here. “Rechnung vorschauen” (Preview invoice) shows it exactly as it will be created. Click “Jetzt abrechnen” (Bill now). The invoice gets its number, and DolmiDesk takes you to the invoices. Open it. On the left you see the finished document, on the right the status. Click “Per E-Mail senden” (Send by email) and check recipient and text. Send it. The invoice is now marked as sent.
5. 3:18Bill several jobsFor the next steps I've also created a few clients, Kostenträger, jobs and invoices. Back on the jobs page, “Anzeigen” (Show) takes you to everything billable. Select the jobs right in the list – all at once, if you like – and click “Abrechnen” (Bill). DolmiDesk groups them for you: Jobs with the same client, the same Kostenträger, the same job type and the same billing model become one collective invoice. This online appointment has a different job type and so gets its own invoice. You can preview every invoice first, the collective ones too. “Rechnungen erstellen” (Create invoices) – and all four are issued at once.
6. 4:20Create a payment reminderA few invoices are overdue. The filter at the top shows only those. Open one. Under “Mahnwesen” (Dunning) you see that it's overdue and hasn't had a reminder yet. Click “1. Mahnung erstellen” (Create 1st reminder) and confirm. A reminder is final – it can't be undone. The reminder appears with interest and the new total. Send it by email, just like an invoice.
7. 4:56Cancellation and correction invoiceNow a mistake: on this invoice we billed too many hours. Open it. An issued invoice can't be changed, so we cancel it. Click “Stornieren” (Cancel) and confirm. DolmiDesk creates a cancellation invoice with its own number and releases the job for correction. From the cancelled invoice, open the job. Correct the interpreting time. Then you bill it again. DolmiDesk spots the cancelled invoice and suggests a correction invoice that continues the document chain. There it is: the correction invoice, linked to the cancellation.
8. 5:51Invoice analyticsNow the analytics: on the invoices page, click “Auswertung” (Analytics). At the top: expected revenue, received, outstanding and overdue. Below that, revenue per month and the days you issued invoices. Further down: where the money came from – by client, or by Kostenträger. Then the share from social agencies. This is where the switch from the Kostenträger shows: In this example, eighty-nine percent of revenue comes from social agencies. And where your revenue stands: received, open and overdue. With “Export” you download the figures as a spreadsheet. Analytics are available from the Standard package.
9. 6:40Job analyticsThere are analytics for the jobs too: total jobs, what's still to be billed, interpreting hours and travel hours. And further down: jobs per month, your working days, who the work was for and your hours.
10. 7:02Cost estimateSometimes a Kostenträger wants a cost estimate first. In “Kostenvoranschläge” (Cost estimates) you create it just like a job. You can make it binding and set how long it's valid. It's calculated with the same billing model. Check the preview – and create it. From here you send it by email.
11. 7:44Receipts and EÜR (income statement)Receipts. Upload what you've paid for: a ticket, a parking ticket, a specialist book. DolmiDesk automatically reads the amount, date and VAT. You choose the category and confirm. Receipts are in the Pro package. The EÜR (income statement) adds it all up: income from the payments received, expenses from your confirmed receipts – and the result. Further down you see where the expenses go, the VAT – that is, the tax in your income minus the input tax from your receipts – and the lines of the Anlage EÜR tax form. With “Export” you get the spreadsheet for your tax return or your tax advisor.
12. 8:45Connect your calendarFinally, the calendar. Open the account menu, “Einstellungen” (Settings), “Konnektoren” (Connectors) “Mit Google verbinden” (Connect to Google) links your calendar. Then you choose the calendar, the color and how old appointments may be. In the Pro package you can also set up the automatic import: daily, weekly or monthly. For everything to fill in automatically, write your appointments like this: The title becomes the occasion. In the description, write “Kunde” (client), a colon and the name – “Kostenträger” and “Transportmittel” (mode of transport) work the same way. All these lines are optional: if you only name the client, DolmiDesk takes the Kostenträger stored for them in the master data. The job type goes in the title. Without a prefix, the job is on site. Put “Online” in front for an online appointment. “Ausfall” (No-show) means you came to the appointment, and it fell through on site. “Absage” (Cancellation) means the appointment was cancelled in advance. You'll find the import itself on the jobs page, under “Importieren” (Import). “Neu synchronisieren” (Resync) gets the appointments from your calendar. Here you see them, already filled in: For Anna Schulz, the Kostenträger comes from the master data, and Online, Ausfall and Absage were recognized by DolmiDesk from the title. “Termine importieren” (Import appointments) turns them into jobs. Whatever is missing, you add in the job – and bill as usual.
13. 10:26That was the whole app. The more you automate, the more time you save: with full automation, up to eighty percent of your invoices are created, sent and chased up automatically. That saves you many hours every month. Enjoy DolmiDesk!

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 cost bearer pays 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 Kostenträger, you determine which model applies – and you can deviate from it for individual jobs:

• 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.

Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial: you order directly on the website, and your access is set up automatically; the email where you set your password usually arrives within a few minutes. The 30 trial days start with your order – you're only charged after that, and if you cancel before then, there are no costs.

Ready to automate your accounting? Try DolmiDesk free for 30 days 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.