Principles of orderly accounting
If the question arises as to how documents relevant to tax law are to be kept, the German Fiscal Code (AO) refers in §147 to the principles of proper accounting. This set of rules consisting of partly written and unwritten conventions developed from case law, recommendations by associations of business people, but also from economic practice.
In addition to the probably most important legal construct, the German Commercial Code (HGB), the tax law requirements of proper accounting are concretized and interpreted in detail by the “Principles of Proper Keeping and Retention of Books, Records and Documents in Electronic Form and of Data Access – GoBD”). This letter, published by the Federal Ministry of Finance, was last updated on 28 November 2019 and has been valid since 1 January 2020.
For a smooth audit by the tax office, such as a cash inspection, the company’s digital records should in any case comply with the GoBD.
Which impact does the GoBD have on companies?
The principles on which the GoBD is based are taken from the German Commercial Code. Specifically, these are:
Principle of:
- Comprehensibility and verifiability
- Completeness
- Correctness
- Timely entries and recording
- Orderliness
- Inalterability
These principles must be demonstrably met for the entire duration of the statutory retention period. However, many things can change in 10 years, so a necessary, major update of the Pos system because the software house – long overdue – has switched to a current technology is the least of the changes. In order to be able to provide the records at all in the case of an audit, a legacy system would have to continue to be operated if no complete data transfer was made from the old cash registers. Once all hurdles have been overcome, the question arises as to whether the system itself complies with the principle of the immutability of records.<
Revision proof
The term revision proved, or revision-proof archiving, is nowadays often used generally for tamper proof long-term archiving of digital content. In addition to the technical solution to store data in an unchangeable way, revision security also includes the organisational mechanisms that serve to ensure the secure operation of the solution.
In order to be considered audit-proof and thus meet the requirements of the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the GoBD, archives must in any case ensure that the data transferred to the archive is stored in a complete, unchangeable and tamper-proof manner.
RetailForce Cloud Archive
In the RetailForce Cloud Archive, the company’s valuable data is not only stored unchangeably. Rather, the decision to entrust RetailForce with data management is about risk management: RetailForce is responsible for ensuring that data integrity is maintained, i. e. that the data is available in full at the right time should an auditor enter the premises unannounced.
A piece of software transmits the receipt data from the cash register to the RetailForce cloud system immediately after it is created, for audit-proof long-term archiving in an unchangeable storage area. The geo redundant storage of the data provides additional effective protection against destruction.
Using the RetailForce Cloud Archive is an essential contribution to compliance and an efficient protective measure against the intended and unintended falsification of data.<
In addition to the audit-proof cloud archiving of the basic digital record, RetailForce also offers the fiscalization of cash register and other electronic recording systems. This means full compliance with legal fiscal regulations – soon for 21 countries!
In the next article, we will look at what other added value can be generated from the RetailForce Cloud Archive.