Understanding the AEAT pipeline¶

This cluster explains how Cadrumo, the aeat tool, moves your data from your bank records to a finished tax file, and why each step exists. It’s written for the everyday self-employed taxpayer in Spain - the autónomo who prepares their own filings. AEAT is the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria, Spain’s tax agency.

Read this to understand how the pieces fit together. To actually perform a task, follow the how-to guides or the step-by-step Quickstart and Tutorial.

The one promise¶

The tool runs entirely on your own computer. It prepares your filing for you, but it never sends anything to the agency. When the file is ready, you upload it yourself through the agency’s portal. Recording a filing, and why the tool never files for you covers this boundary in full.

The journey at a glance¶

Your data moves one way through the tool. Bank movements come in, get sorted and made tax-ready, pass a readiness check, become the numbered boxes of a form, get edited and double-checked, turn into a file you can upload, and finally get recorded once you’ve filed it yourself.

        graph TD
    A["Bank movements"] --> B["Sorted and made tax-ready"]
    B --> C["Readiness check"]
    C --> D["The numbered boxes of a form"]
    D --> E["Edited and double-checked"]
    E --> F["The file you upload"]
    F --> G["Recorded after you file"]

Each stop on this journey is owned in depth by one member of this cluster. The five sections that follow introduce them in order.

From your records to the figures on the form¶

Your bank movements start as plain amounts and dates with no tax meaning. Before the tool can fill in a form, each movement is sorted into a tax category and, where a cost is partly personal, adjusted to the business share. A readiness check then confirms the records are complete for the period. From there the tool fills in each numbered box of the form, following the rules the agency publishes, and saves the result as a draft. See How your records become tax figures.

Editing and double-checking a calculation¶

A first draft is rarely the last word. You can adjust figures, re-run the calculation, and keep a saved version of each pass without losing the earlier ones. When you’re ready, a completeness check looks over the whole form for missing inputs and inconsistent figures. See Editing and verifying a calculation.

When a form builds on earlier ones¶

Some forms depend on figures you already filed - an annual summary that draws on the quarters, for example. The tool carries those earlier numbers forward so a later form stays consistent with what came before, and it tells you when an earlier filing isn’t ready yet. See How filings build on earlier ones.

Reviewing your numbers and producing the upload file¶

Before you commit to a form, you can review every figure and trace it back to the input that produced it. Once you’re satisfied, the tool produces the official upload file - the exact layout the agency’s portal accepts. See Reviewing your numbers and producing the upload file.

Recording a filing, after you upload it yourself¶

The tool stops at the file. You upload it through the agency’s portal, and the agency hands you a justificante. Back in the tool, you record that the filing is done, so your own history stays accurate. See Recording a filing, and why the tool never files for you.

What “verify” and “file” mean here¶

Two everyday words have narrow, local meanings in this tool:

Verify is a completeness and consistency check that runs on your own computer. It confirms the form holds together and nothing required is missing. It does not test the form against the agency’s portal, and it’s not a promise the agency will accept it.
File is a local “final” note in your own records. It marks a form as done so you don’t change it by accident. It is not a submission - the tool never sends anything to the agency.

These two ideas are covered in depth in Editing and verifying a calculation and Recording a filing, and why the tool never files for you.

How to use this cluster¶

Read straight through for the whole picture, or jump to the stage you’re working on. Every member links to the how-to guide that performs its task and back to the glossary for any word you’re unsure of.

When something goes wrong, see Troubleshooting. For a step-by-step walkthrough of a full filing, follow the Quickstart or the Tutorial.