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Verification process

How we verify the values

Quellenkontor is only as good as its values. Here's where they come from, how often we check them and what happens if one is wrong.

Only promulgated official sources

A value only enters the dataset once it's officially promulgated: in the Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt), the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger), a statute or an official notice. Draft bills, cabinet decisions, press releases and pages from health insurers or trade portals are, to us, a sign to go check, never the evidence itself.

Every step in the data carries its effective date (Gültig-ab-Datum), its legal basis and its source with a link. Which sources and licenses apply is listed under Sources and licenses.

A verification run every week

Every Tuesday we check the datasets against the official sources: do the values match, are the links reachable, has a new ordinance or notice appeared? For the calculators, we compare the change history of the underlying laws. We check the states' public holiday laws (Feiertagsgesetze) in rotation, four states a week, plus a weekly search for newly adopted one-off public holidays.

From December 1 to January 15, when most values for the new year are published, the check runs daily. In addition, a source monitor watches the official publications for every dataset each day and reports every change, so that on the Pro and Enterprise plans a promulgated value is in the data within two business days (service description).

Last checked on September 24, 2026. The date for each dataset is on the status page:

Tests against official examples

The calculators and tables run against automated tests. They check values at the boundaries of each step, meaning the last day of the old value and the first day of the new one, and calculation examples from the official sources, such as the garnishment table (Pfändungstabelle) or notice periods under § 622 BGB. If a test fails, no change goes into the dataset.

An open changelog

Every new, changed or corrected value appears with its date and evidence in the changelog. We mark corrections as such instead of silently overwriting them. From the Pro plan up, a webhook reports every change to your software.

If a value is wrong

If a value doesn't match the official source you know, write to us through the contact form. We check it against the primary source, correct it and document the correction in the changelog.

What we don't do

The calculators apply the statutory rule schematically. They don't know about contracts, collective agreements (Tarifverträge) or the particulars of an individual case. Quellenkontor is not legal advice and not tax advice.

Who's behind it

Quellenkontor is run by Nick from Frankfurt am Main. He has worked in HR (Personalwesen) for more than seven years and built Quellenkontor because the same values get pulled together again in every project. The provider's details are in the imprint.