Getting Started: Ready to Go in Minutes

Welcome to DolmiDesk™! 🎉

DolmiDesk™ runs right in your browser. There's nothing to install, nothing to update, and no extension to set up – you just log in and get going. Plan for about ten minutes for the initial setup.

What You'll Do on This Page

1. Log In – your access to the app.
2. Einrichtungsassistent (setup wizard) – the information that must appear on every invoice.
3. Connect Your Google Calendar – so appointments arrive as Aufträge (orders).
4. Check Your Master Data, Models, and Templates – so your first invoice is spot on.

Logging In

DolmiDesk™ accounts are created by invitation. You'll get an email with a link that lets you set your own password. After that, you can log in anytime at app.dolmidesk.com – from your computer, tablet, or phone.

The DolmiDesk™ login page

Check Angemeldet bleiben (Stay logged in) if you're working on your own device – then you won't have to log in again every time you visit.

Extra Security

Under Einstellungen → Konto (Settings → Account) you can later enable two-factor authentication or set up a passkey that lets you log in without a password at all.

Completing the Initial Setup

On your first login, the Einrichtungsassistent opens as soon as you've made your cookie selection. It asks for exactly the information without which no valid invoice can be written – and explains at every field what it's needed for.

The setup wizard greets you on your first login

1. Click Los geht's.

The wizard then guides you through six steps:

Step	What's Requested	What It's For
Unternehmensdaten	Name, address, email, optionally company and phone number	The letterhead on every invoice – a mandatory item under § 14 UStG
Steuer	VAT mode, tax number, optionally VAT ID (USt-IdNr.)	Determines whether invoices show 19% VAT or 0% with the required legal note
Bank & Zahlung	Account holder, bank, IBAN, BIC, default payment term	Without your bank details, no one can transfer your fee
Fahrt & Route	Starting address, default mode of transport, Deutschland-Ticket	The start and destination of every trip; the basis for calculating travel costs
Belegnummern	Formats for invoice, cancellation, correction, and order numbers	Continuous, gapless numbering as required by the GoBD
Zusammenfassung	All details at a glance	Final check before you finish

Each step is saved individually

1. Fill in the fields and click Speichern und weiter.

Your progress is saved at every step. So you can pause the setup at any point – the next time you log in, it picks up exactly where you left off. If a required field is missing or a format doesn't match, the step won't let you move on and the affected field is highlighted.

The Belegnummern formats consist of text and placeholders

You build number formats by combining fixed text with placeholders (Jahr, Laufende Nummer) – for example, 2026 + - + 001 becomes 2026-001. The defaults work for most people; if you want your own scheme, now is the best time to decide: once the first document has been issued with a given format, that format is locked. The GoBD require this so the numbering sequence stays gapless.

The Zusammenfassung before you finish

1. Review your details. Use Bearbeiten to jump back to a step.
2. Click Einrichtung abschließen.

Nothing Is Set in Stone

You'll find everything from the wizard again later under Einstellungen, reachable via your name in the bottom left, and you can change it there. The only exception is a number format that a document has already been issued with.

Connecting Your Google Calendar

Your calendar is the source of your Aufträge: whatever's on there as an appointment becomes an Auftrag in DolmiDesk™, and later an invoice. You set up this connection right where you need it – during your first import.

The import starts on the Aufträge page

1. Open Aufträge and click Importieren.

If no calendar is connected, the dialog offers to connect one right away

2. Click Kalender verbinden.

A window from Google opens. Select the account that holds your appointments there, and confirm access. The window then closes on its own and you're back in DolmiDesk™.

What DolmiDesk™ Accesses

Read-only, exclusively: your calendars and their appointments, as well as any files attached to an appointment (e.g., assignment sheets or engagement confirmations), so they're delivered along with the Auftrag. DolmiDesk™ never changes or deletes anything in your Google account. More on this in the Privacy chapter.

Once connected, you decide what gets imported. You'll find these settings any time under Einstellungen → Konnektoren (Settings → Connectors).

Import settings for your connected calendar

1. Kalender für den Import – if you have several calendars, choose the one with your assignments here.
2. Termin-Farbe – if you color-code your assignments in Google Calendar, DolmiDesk™ only imports appointments of that color. The colorful dot on the far left means „alle Farben" (all colors).
3. Alter der zu importierenden Termine – the time window that's read from. The left slider skips the most recent days (an appointment from yesterday often isn't ready to be billed yet), and the right slider sets how far back in time it searches. Future appointments are never imported.
4. Häufigkeit des automatischen Imports – whether DolmiDesk™ checks on its own or only when you click Importieren.

Setting Up Kunden and Kostenträger

Two master data lists determine how an Auftrag is billed:

• Kunden – the people you interpret for. A Kunde comes with a default Kostenträger already attached, so an appointment is immediately matched to the right billing.
• Kostenträger (cost bearer) – whoever actually pays the invoice: court, Integrationsamt, health insurance fund, company. This is where address, salutation, payment term, and billing are attached.

When you create a Kostenträger, you decide in the Abrechnung section which rules generate its invoices:

Model and templates all come together at the Kostenträger

1. Abrechnungsmodell (billing model) – the rate logic: hourly rate, travel costs, cancellation rules.
2. Rechnungsvorlage (invoice template) – how line items are named and described on the invoice.
3. E-Mail-Vorlage (email template) – the text used to send the invoice.

If nothing in one of the lists fits, you can create the entry via Jetzt anlegen directly from the form, without losing what you've already entered.

Checking Your Abrechnungsmodelle

DolmiDesk™ already comes with the common rule sets built in – you don't have to type in rates by hand.

The built-in Abrechnungsmodelle

• JVEG – court and § 185 SGB IX (federal): travel time counts as billable time, mileage rate per § 5 Abs. 2.
• LWV – Hesse Integrationsamt (working life): flat travel-time rate based on total distance, online flat rate.
• HessBGGAV – administrative proceedings in Hesse: flat travel-time rate based on one-way distance, mileage rate per HRKG.

Take a look inside and compare the rates with what you actually bill – fees change over time, and your own agreements may differ. You can adjust everything without any programming knowledge; how the individual building blocks work together is explained in the Abrechnungsmodelle chapter.

Old Invoices Stay As They Were

Every change to a model creates a new Version. Invoices that have already been written stay tied to the version they were calculated with – nothing changes retroactively.

Checking Your Invoice and Email Templates

Last but not least: how your documents look and how they get sent. Here too, templates are already set up to match the built-in Abrechnungsmodelle.

The built-in Rechnungsvorlagen

A Rechnungsvorlage controls the text on the invoice: what a line item is called, what its description says, which notes appear below the total. It's attached to the Kostenträger – so a court gets a different line-item label than a health insurance fund.

The template for sending invoices

A Mail-Vorlage supplies the subject and body of the email that sends the invoice out. Placeholders like the invoice number are filled in automatically when it's sent. Read through the Standard template once and adjust the salutation and sign-off to match your tone – it goes out to your Kostenträger just as it is.

All Done – What's Next?

Your system is ready to go. Next, you'll learn how to set up your appointments in the calendar so DolmiDesk™ understands them correctly: The Import Process.