Papierkram

Papierkram occupies a unique position in the German agency tool landscape by combining time tracking and invoicing in a single, affordable platform. For freelancers and very small agencies where the person doing the work is also the person sending the invoice, this combination eliminates the friction of exporting time data from one tool and importing it into another. You track time against a client project, then generate an invoice directly from that tracked time — a workflow that larger, more expensive tools often require multiple integrations to achieve.

The free tier makes Papierkram an attractive starting point for new freelancers and agency founders who want to keep overhead low while still maintaining professional invoicing and basic bookkeeping. As needs grow, paid tiers add more clients, projects, and features, but the core workflow remains the same. The DATEV export ensures that even on the free plan, you can hand off clean data to your tax advisor at the end of each quarter.

Compared to sevDesk or Lexoffice, Papierkram is less capable as a pure accounting tool but more useful as a combined time-tracking-and-invoicing solution. Agencies that need full bookkeeping automation, banking integration, and VAT reporting will likely outgrow Papierkram. But for solo operators and two-to-three-person agencies that bill by the hour, Papierkram's integrated approach saves both time and money compared to subscribing to separate tools for each function.