What zedl.app Does
Zedl is a receipt-scanning app for sole proprietors, freelancers, and small businesses across the DACH region.
The idea: photograph or upload a receipt, done. Zedl automatically reads the date, amount, and tax rate, suggests reverse charge when it applies, and exports the result directly in BMD or DATEV format, ready for your bookkeeping. On desktop and mobile, always with you.
No vendor lock-in. Data is encrypted and stays in the EU. Stored tamper-proof for up to ten years.
The first ten receipts are free, no credit card required: zedl.app
How It Came About
The problem hit us directly. I work professionally with data and AI platforms, and I still couldn't keep track of my own company's receipts. Same routine every quarter: our accountant calls. Some receipt is missing again.
My wife had the same problem in a different shape: part of her receipts sat in a folder, unscanned, printed on fading thermal paper.
Sebastian and I know this from daily life. We wanted to take this nerve-wracking work off our own plates, and we built something we actually enjoy using.
How We Built It
We built Zedl toward the end of last year, while both working full-time jobs. No outside dev team. No offshore developers.
What changed wasn't the tool. It was the thinking.
Using AI, for us, doesn't mean asking ChatGPT and copying code. AI-first means building processes, architecture, tests, and documentation so a coding agent can work effectively. With clear guardrails. With verifiable results. Responsibility stays with us.
In practice that looks like this: we describe a feature so the agent has exactly the context it needs to implement it correctly. It messages us on Telegram once it's done. Depending on the feature, that takes minutes or a few hours.
What came out of this is not automation in the old sense. It's a different relationship to development work altogether.
What We Learned
Three things turned out to matter most:
- Processes are AI-first, not code-first. The agent doesn't need a pre-chewed solution. It needs the right context and clear boundaries.
- Tests are the foundation. If the agent writes the code, the result has to be verifiable. Well-designed tests give confidence, even when the code doesn't match anyone's personal style.
- Implicit knowledge has to become explicit. Whatever lives in our heads has to make it into the documentation, otherwise no agent can work with it.
Most people we show this to react with skepticism at first. For us it's become as normal as programming used to be.
Who zedl.app Is Built For
If you dread reassembling receipts every quarter, if you're a freelancer or sole proprietor who knows exactly how annoying missing receipts are, if you're a dentist or small business owner juggling a pile of small receipts, if you find BMD's interface as ugly and unintuitive as we do, Zedl was built for you.
Concretely, it helps:
- Sole proprietors and small businesses across the DACH region who pre-process their own bookkeeping
- Freelancers who regularly prepare receipts for their tax accountant
- Small businesses with reverse-charge cases, where automatic detection saves real time
- Bookkeepers and tax accountants who want client receipts in BMD or DATEV format, ready to process further
Frequently Asked Questions
What can zedl.app detect automatically? Zedl reads the date, amount, and tax rate off a receipt. For intra-community transactions, it automatically suggests reverse charge. Detection runs on Google Document AI in the background.
Which export formats does Zedl support? Currently BMD and DATEV, plus CSV and Excel. That covers a direct export into the accounting software most commonly used across the DACH region.
Where is my data stored? All data is encrypted and stays in the EU. Retention is tamper-proof for up to ten years, as legally required for accounting receipts.
Is there vendor lock-in? No. Receipts can be exported at any time. That mattered to us while building it, because we don't want vendor lock-in ourselves either.
What does zedl.app cost? The first ten receipts are free, no credit card required. After that there's a simple volume-based model. Details at zedl.app.
Can I use Zedl on mobile? Yes. The app works on desktop and mobile, and receipts can be photographed and uploaded directly from your phone.
Did you build zedl.app with AI? Yes, in the sense that we didn't write every line of code ourselves. We described requirements, designed architecture and tests, and let coding agents handle implementation. We go into more detail in the article AI-First Software Development.
Is Zedl a product of ex-nihilo? Zedl is an independent product that Sebastian Beyer and Christian Eichberger built as a side project alongside ex-nihilo. It's an example of what small expert teams can build today with the right process and an AI-first approach.