Updated: May 2026
mika is like software and a tax firm in one: the complete bookkeeping for your operating GmbH, UG or AG (German limited companies and stock corporations) plus your holding company on one platform, including the Jahresabschluss (the annual financial statement), the balance sheet and all three tax returns. The holding financial statement costs €600/year on its own, or only €200/year as an add-on if your operating company runs on mika as well.
Fideus is a young Berlin startup focused on holding companies. Fideus does not serve the operating GmbH. The regulated tax advisory work is not performed by Fideus itself but by the outside firm TechTax Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH in Hamburg.
€99/month for the operating GmbH including the Jahresabschluss at up to 25 bank transactions per month (€1,188/year) plus €200/year for the holding financial statement adds up to €1,388/year for both companies in full. One platform, one invoice, one contracting party.
Fideus serves holding companies only. For your operating GmbH you need a second provider, a second contract and a second relationship to manage.
mika runs on its own bookkeeping ledger, independent of DATEV (since April 2026), allows custom HGB accounts on top of the SKR03 and SKR04 charts of accounts, integrates Pathway for ecommerce aggregation and has been running a native MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other LLM clients since March 2026.
Fideus is a platform layer that hands structured data over to the outside tax firm. An MCP server, an own ledger, ecommerce aggregation on a par with Pathway: none of that is documented in the publicly available Fideus product.
With mika you have one contract, one contracting party, one person to talk to. Receipt checks, account assignment, the Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung (the monthly VAT return), the Jahresabschluss, the balance sheet and the tax returns all come from one place.
With Fideus you have two contracts: a platform contract with Fideus GmbH in Berlin and a classic client relationship with the outside firm TechTax in Hamburg.
Some providers keep the misconception alive that a setup with an outside tax firm attached is safer, because "the Steuerberater is liable". That does not hold up legally.
Here is the reality: as a managing director or business owner you are always liable for your tax returns, no matter whether you use a Steuerberater, a platform with a firm attached to it, or an AI alternative like mika. You sign the Jahresabschluss, you file the tax returns, you answer to the Finanzamt (the German tax office). A Steuerberater is liable for their own professional mistakes in the work they do, and that is not a shield for your own liability as a managing director under section 43 GmbHG.
We unpacked this over a full episode of the mika podcast Too Small To Fail with auditor and Steuerberater Christian Farin: "Geschäftsführerhaftung: Wann haftest du privat?" ("Managing director liability: when are you personally on the hook?") from 16 April 2026. A quote from the episode: "The biggest misconception: 'my Steuerberater is liable.' You sign the Jahresabschluss, you are liable."
mika is liable for its own mistakes in the work it does too, in the receipt check or the account assignment for example. The outside firm at Fideus is likewise liable for its own mistakes. What stays with you: your liability as a managing director, your liability as a business owner towards the Finanzamt, your responsibility for filing on time. No solution takes that off your hands.
An operating GmbH receives dozens to hundreds of supplier invoices every month, each one with mandatory details required under section 14 UStG (the German VAT Act). At mika the AI checks every receipt automatically for the VAT rate, the recipient, the address and the mandatory details. Where there is doubt, the trained bookkeepers on the mika team take a look. That saves corrections later on and it saves money: a missing tax number or a wrong VAT rate on a supplier invoice costs you the 19 percent input VAT refund on the invoice amount. On €500 of goods purchased that is €95, simply gone.
At Fideus the final check sits with the outside firm TechTax. The model is built for holdings with three transactions a month, not for hundreds of operating receipts.
With mika's AI the account assignment happens automatically at line item level, even on complex invoices with different VAT rates, a catering invoice with 7 percent on the food and 19 percent on the service for example. Trained bookkeepers quality check the ongoing books. You do not need any prior bookkeeping knowledge.
Since April 2026 mika has run its own bookkeeping ledger, independent of DATEV, and allows custom HGB accounts on top of SKR03 and SKR04. Holdings with several subsidiaries and shareholdings, SaaS with staggered revenue recognition, a product mix with one-off revenue, intercompany charges: all of it fits on one platform, with your own accounts and structures that match your reality.
With mika the AI calculates the Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung from the bookings, the bookkeepers check it and you approve it. You can file straight from mika and you do not need your own ELSTER certificate for it. Deadlines, the Sondervorauszahlung (the special VAT prepayment) and reminders all live in the app.
At Fideus the Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung goes through the outside partner firm TechTax. A classic tax advisory process with an extra processing loop between the platform and the firm, built for holding companies.
At mika the Jahresabschluss is part of the "Bookkeeping and financial statements" plan from €99/month. The balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes under HGB (the German Commercial Code) are prepared from the ongoing bookkeeping, you approve them as the managing director and you file them. You do not need your own ELSTER certificate for it. The Bundesanzeiger XML for publication in the German federal gazette is included. For the eBilanz (the electronic balance sheet filing) mika works together with eBilanzPlus. Everything is finished by July after the end of the financial year, because the ongoing bookkeeping is already tidy during the year.
At Fideus the Jahresabschluss sits with the outside partner firm TechTax and is built for holding structures.
mika has a directly comparable holding offer, and bundled with the operating company the price picture is clearly better.
At Fideus this bundling is not possible. Anyone with a holding and an operating business (which in practice is every founder after the first year or two) has to park the operating company with a second provider. At mika everything runs in one app, on one contract, with one invoice.
An operating GmbH writes outgoing invoices every month, reimburses employee expenses and processes travel costs. With mika you do that from the app: e-invoices in the XRechnung and ZUGFeRD formats with a QR code for instant payment, payment runs straight from mika, a native 5-step process for expenses, external people submit through a public link and mika's AI assigns the expense to the right account automatically.
Since March 2026 mika has run a native MCP server (Model Context Protocol) for Claude, ChatGPT and other LLM clients. Read-only, for every customer. You connect your AI tools straight to your mika data and ask bookkeeping questions with your real numbers as context. The answers come out of your data, not off the internet.
On top of that there is the mika Agent in the app: it has access to your own data, answers questions like "why does this invoice have a to-do?", "show me all AWS invoices from Q3" or "what do I owe the Finanzamt this month?" and turns letters from the authorities into clear instructions. A letter saying "section 152 AO late filing penalty" becomes: "you filed the Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung late, the Finanzamt wants €50, and here is the deadline for appealing."
A native MCP server for external LLM clients is not offered in the Fideus product.
mika sits at 4.2 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, on a broad base of reviews from day-to-day operations. More than 700 GmbHs and UGs use mika in production, most of them operating companies.
Fideus sits at around 4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, on a small base of reviews. The startup has been on the market since the end of 2024.
mika: holding first, operating company next, both on one platform
The holding financial statement at mika:
The operating GmbH at mika scales with bank transactions per month, six bands between €49 and €549/month, anything above that as an individual quote.
Standard plan (agencies, consultancies, B2B and B2C SaaS, ecommerce with Pathway, real estate either purely commercial or purely private):
Fideus does not offer anything for the operating GmbH.
The cost anchor for the tax firm route is the StBVV mid-range fee (the StBVV is the German fee schedule that sets what a Steuerberater may charge), because Fideus does not cover the operating GmbH use case and a second solution would be needed on top.
A GmbH with a balance sheet total of €2.5 million and 10 employees pays €24,298/year to its Steuerberater at the StBVV mid-range fee. For a typical GmbH that means a saving of roughly €8,000 to €20,000/year against a classic tax firm solution.
For mika's typical audience (companies of up to roughly 50 employees, with an operating GmbH plus a holding, without a close tie to a Steuerberater and without any appetite for two contracts) Fideus is the more complicated option.
For a GmbH, UG or AG of up to roughly 50 employees, mika is the right choice if you want bookkeeping off your plate as a task. mika is like software and a tax firm in one. With mika the bookkeeping takes care of itself, including the Jahresabschluss, the balance sheet and the tax returns. Trained bookkeepers quality check the ongoing books. The "Bookkeeping and financial statements" plan starts at €99/month. Bundling the holding on top costs only €200/year as an add-on: one provider, one contract, both companies in one app.
Fideus is the right choice if you explicitly want a classic Steuerberater mandate with an outside firm and your focus is a pure holding with a low transaction volume. For your operating GmbH you will need a second provider either way.
Sources
As of May 2026.
As of May 2026.
mika has made my life so much easier and more efficient!
Not on the standard plan. The Holding Lite plan covers 40 transactions per year, which works out at around three bookings a month. For your operating GmbH you need a different provider.
€99/month for the operating GmbH (€1,188/year) plus the €200/year holding add-on = €1,388/year for both companies in full, including the Jahresabschluss, all tax returns and the publication.
No. Fideus is a platform run by Fideus GmbH in Berlin. The activities reserved to the profession under section 3 StBerG are performed by the outside firm TechTax in Hamburg. You sign two contracts.
No. mika is an AI alternative to a tax firm, with trained bookkeepers on its own team. For the activities reserved to the profession under section 3 StBerG, mika will match you with a partner Steuerberater when you need one.
Yes, and mid financial year too. mika imports your master data and open items. The switch usually takes 14 days.
Yes. Since March 2026 mika has had a native MCP server (read-only) for every customer. You connect Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP-compatible tool straight to your mika data.
No. You do not need your own ELSTER certificate. You never have to log into ELSTER.
No. As a business owner you are always liable for your tax returns, with any solution. The Jahresabschluss carries your signature, and the tax returns are filed under your tax number. A Steuerberater is only liable for their own professional mistakes in the work they do, which is not a shield against your own liability as a managing director under section 43 GmbHG.
€99/month for the operating GmbH with up to 25 bank transactions per month including the Jahresabschluss (€1,188/year) plus the €200/year holding add-on = €1,388/year for both companies in full, including the Jahresabschluss, all tax returns and the publication.
No. Fideus is a platform run by Fideus GmbH in Berlin. The activities reserved to the profession under section 3 StBerG are performed by the outside firm TechTax Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH in Hamburg. As a Fideus customer you become a client of TechTax in parallel and sign a platform contract with Fideus, so two contracts.
No. mika is an AI alternative to a tax firm, with trained bookkeepers (Steuerfachangestellte and Bilanzbuchhalter, the German bookkeeping qualifications) on its own team who quality check the ongoing books. For the activities reserved to the profession under section 3 StBerG, mika will match you with a partner Steuerberater from its network when you need one.
Yes, and mid financial year too. mika imports your master data and open items and takes over the ongoing bookkeeping from a date of your choosing. If the Jahresabschluss is still open, you do it with mika retroactively. The switch usually takes 14 days.
Yes. mika prepares the holding financial statement for €600/year as a standalone offer. If your operating GmbH or UG runs on mika as well, the price drops to €200/year as an add-on. It covers the balance sheet, the profit and loss account, corporate income tax, trade tax, the annual VAT return and the Bundesanzeiger publication.
It is included in the "Bookkeeping and financial statements" plan, staggered by transactions per month: €99 at up to 25, €199 at up to 50, €549 at up to 150. A micro GmbH with up to 25 transactions per month pays around €1,188/year for the complete bookkeeping plus the Jahresabschluss plus all three big tax returns. For comparison, under the StBVV (the German fee schedule for Steuerberater): a GmbH with a balance sheet total of €2.5 million and 10 employees pays a mid-range €24,298/year to its Steuerberater.
Yes. mika exports your bookkeeping in the DATEV EXTF format at any time. You can hand the data to your Steuerberater without mika locking you in.
For the routine (the ongoing bookkeeping, the Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung, the Jahresabschluss, the balance sheet, corporate income tax, trade tax, the annual VAT return) mika is enough. If you need strategic tax advice, for complex shareholder structures or cross-border matters for example, mika will match you with a partner Steuerberater. A common setup: mika for the routine, your own Steuerberater for the strategy. The DATEV EXTF export is available at any time.
With mika the Jahresabschluss is included in the "Bookkeeping and financial statements" plan. The pricing scales with transactions per month: €99 at up to 25 transactions, €199 at up to 50, €549 at up to 150. So a small GmbH with up to 25 transactions per month pays around €1,188 per year for the complete bookkeeping plus the Jahresabschluss plus all three big tax returns. A typical agency with 50 transactions per month pays €2,388/year. For comparison: under the StBVV, the German fee schedule for Steuerberater, a GmbH with a balance sheet total of €2.5 million and 10 employees pays a mid-range €24,298/year to its Steuerberater, and over €40,000 at the top end.
By July after the end of the financial year. At classic firms it often takes until October or longer, because the financial statement is scheduled as a separate job. At mika it is part of the package and takes shape continuously out of the data that has already been checked.
Yes. Since March 2026 mika has had a native, official MCP server (read-only) for every customer. You connect Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP-compatible tool straight to your mika data and ask bookkeeping questions with your real numbers as context.
All data on German servers, GDPR compliant, AWS infrastructure in Frankfurt. mika is built along the GoBD principles for proper bookkeeping in electronic form. Authentication with two-factor (a TOTP authenticator app).