New Fiscal Client Version 1.2.10

The latest version of the RetailForce Fiscal Client is ready for use. Currently, the latest versions can be found, as usual, in the downloads section of the RetailForce website. With one of the next versions, the download area will be moved to its own website.

Main Features

Essentially, this version provides the following changes:

  • Austria: the automatic generation of the annual receipt in the cloud has been revised and improved.
  • General
    • One of the integrated validations of the Fiscal Clients checks whether the sum of the gross and net totals transferred from the POS system corresponds to the receipt total. In order to avoid error messages in case of deviations in this respect, a tolerance range of e.g. a few euro cents can now be defined.
    • With the method “UpdateClientByCloud”, configuration objects changed in the cloud can be updated on the client

As usual, you will find a summary of all changes in the release notes.

Release Version 1.2.9

Version 1.2.9 of the Fiscal Client is available in the downloads section of the RetailForce website. When upgrading to this version, please note the implementation instructions, which are also available as a Word document in the Downloads directory.

Migration tool

One of the main innovations in this version is that the middleware provides a migration tool for fiscal systems in Austria. This makes it possible to take over data collection logs (DEP7/DCL7) and AES keys from other fiscal middleware systems from other manufacturers without having to take the corresponding cash registers out of operation in FinanzOnline and then register them again. When switching to the RetailForce Fiskal middleware, it is possible to continue working seamlessly with the existing DEP7 / DCL7 (data collection log according to §7 Cash Register Security Ordinance – “RKSV”). The user key (AES-256 key) is also reused.

Fiscal Client

The Fiscal Client is now also available via NuGet. The packages can be found on the website https://www.nuget.org/profiles/RetailForceDevelopment.

Furthermore, as of now a backup copy of the Fiscal Client can be created and a restore can be carried out if required. More information can be found in the RetailForce Solution Centre in the following article:https://support.retailforce.cloud/hc/en-gb/articles/4421675764497-Moving-FiscalClient-from-one-computer-to-another.

FiscalAT

Further improvements to this version mainly concern the Austria variant of the Fiscal Client:

  • Documentation of the VAT positions was revised
  • Added call “GetStartReceipt”
  • Test methods for reporting status of cash registers, signature creation unit, annual receipt improved
  • Last added line in DEP7 can be checked against FinanzOnline (Document Verification)

FiscalDE

In the German version, Fiskaly’s cloud TSE was released for productive operation.

RetailForce Cloud

Some changes and improvements have also been made to the RetailForce Cloud Portal.

In the main menu (left), the menu item “Information” now shows the essential characteristics of the different fiscal countries. Here you can see at a glance which document types must be transferred in a certain country.

For Austria versions, the date of the first or the current last DEP entry is displayed in the terminal insights. For systems in Germany, the date of the first daily closing performed on the terminal – since the RetailForce Fiscal Middleware went live – and the last daily closing created are displayed.

All changes and improvements can be found in the release notes of this version.

Maintenance work at the Federal Computing Centre

We have just received the news about the upcoming extensive maintenance work at the Austrian Federal Computing Centre. Due to this, FinanzOnline will not be available next Saturday, 19.03.2022 in the period from 06:45 to 22:30 CET. Furthermore, the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) would like to point out that there may also be disruptions in the operation of FinanzOnline from Saturday (19.03.2022), following the aforementioned time window, until the following Sunday, 20.03.2022, until 23:00. The Federal Ministry of Finance asks for your understanding.

As usual, the RetailForce system forwards any cash register notifications (registrations, deregistrations, failure notification of the signature creation unit as well as receipt validations) to FinanzOnline as soon as the portal is available again without restrictions. We recommend that planned cash register registrations are carried out at a later date, if possible.

Maintenance work FinanzOnline

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance draws attention to planned maintenance work on the FinanzOnline portal. The service will not be available on Wednesday March 2nd 2022 from 15:30 until 18:00. Even afterwards, until 19:30, there may still be disruptions to operations.

As usual, the RetailForce system forwards any cash register messages (registrations, deregistrations, message of failed signature creation devices) to FinanzOnline as soon as the portal is available again without restrictions. We recommend that planned cash register registrations are carried out at a later date, if possible.

Maintenance work FinanzOnline

Attention is drawn to a new maintenance window at the Austrian Federal Computing Centre. The FinanzOnline service will not be available on Wednesday, 02 Feb. 2022, between 15:30 and 19:00. Feb. 2022, im Zeitraum zwischen 15:30 und 19:00 Uhr steht der Dienst FinanzOnline nicht zur Verfügung. In addition, operations may also be disrupted from 19:00 to approx. 19:30 on the same day. The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance asks for your understanding.

As usual, the RetailForce system forwards any cash register messages (registrations, deregistrations, message of failed signature creation devices) to FinanzOnline as soon as the portal is available again without restrictions. We recommend that planned cash register registrations are carried out at a later date, if possible.

New year and new release

The coming turn of the year brings with it a change in the VAT regime in Austria. As part of the measures adopted by the federal government in the course of Corona, the VAT rates of 10% and 13% were temporarily reduced to a reduced rate of 5%. The measure applied to gastronomy, the hotel industry, the cultural sector as well as the publication sector. This temporary regulation expires at the end of the year. As of 01 January 2022, the old VAT rates pursuant to § 10 of the Value Added Tax Act (UStG 1994).

Cash register systems and other electronic recording systems must be converted accordingly in good time. The VAT department of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has issued a statement on the offsetting of services extending over the turn of the year.

Zitat: “For reasons of administrative economy, turnover in the hotel and catering sector that is exported during the night from 31 December 2021 to 1 January 2022 may be treated uniformly in accordance with the legal situation up to 31 December 2021 or in accordance with the legal situation from 1 January 2022.”

This means that hotels and restaurants that entertain guests in the night from 31.12.2021 until midnight and provide services that are not invoiced until after the turn of the year can choose whether to apply the reduced tax rate or the old one.

The new “old” VAT rates can be validated from version 1.2.7, which will be made available by us this week.

Version 1.2.6

Since this week, a new version of the Fiscal Client is available for download. As announced, the Fiskal Client is now available as a Docker Container on the Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/u/retailforce. Instructions for commissioning the container can be found on our support portal at: https://support.retailforce.cloud/hc/en-gb/articles/4413162938641-Linux-TrustedFiscalService-as-Docker-Container.

Significant new functions and improvements

  • Austria: the RestoreByCloud function now automatically checks whether the cash register is already registered in FinanzOnline. If this is not the case, the cash registration will be carried out.
  • Austria: to avoid rounding differences, VAT totals can be transmitted for the entire document (Document model version 1.0.3.)
  • General: the last saved document can be retrieved by the Fiscal Client

Furthermore, the error handling has been improved.

As always, you will find all changes, additions and improvements in the current Release-Notes.

Current release – Fiscal Client v. 1.2.5.

As of today, the new version 1.2.5. of our Fiscal Client is available for download at https://retailforce.cloud/downloads/. IIn this version we have extended and improved the integration possibilities of the Fiscal Client for different operating systems. You can also access the preview version of the licence accounting in the RetailForce portal.

Docker Container

The RetailForce Fiscal Service is now available as a Docker container for the country implementations Germany and Austria. If you are interested in the implementation via Docker, please contact us by (office at retailforce dot cloud) or via our Solution Center (RetailForce Software GmbH).

For Germany, the following technical security devices (TSE) are supported under Linux:

  • swissbit Cloud TSE
  • fiskaly Cloud TSE (v. 2.0)

From the upcoming version 1.2.6. the Docker Container will be available on Docker Hub.

Fiskal Service as nuget package

As a further integration variant, we are now providing the Fiscal Service as a nuget package. You can find the packages in the nuget-store at: https://www.nuget.org/profiles/RetailForceDevelopment.

Fiskaly 2.0

The integration of the Fiskaly Cloud TSE into the Fiscal Service has been completed and can also be used as of v. 1.2.5. If you use the automatic configuration of the Fiscal Clients (ConfigClient byCloud), the fiskaly Cloud TSEs are automatically provisioned via the RetailForce Cloud and stored in the Fiscal Client.

Preview for v 1.2.6.

In the next release, we plan to include the following features and functions, among others:

  • Support swissbit hardware TSE under Linux (Docker Container)
  • Deploy Docker Containers on Docker Hub

All detailed information about the new version can be found in the Release notes.

Fiscal Client – new version 1.2.3.

The new version of the Fiscal Client (v. 1.2.3.) has recently been made available for download at https://retailforce.cloud/downloads/ .

Especially for fiscalisation in Germany, version 1.2.3. is providing several stability fixes. We therefore recommend that all our clients upgrade their installed clients to the latest version. Furthermore, we have significantly improved the start-up time of the client compared to previous versions.

In the RetailForce Cloud, some monitoring functions have been added in the area of notification. Please check whether a technical contact has actually been defined at the organisation so that notifications – e.g. about the expiry of TSE certificates, TSE failures, etc. – are also forwarded to the appropriate persons within the organisation.

The display of digital receipts in the RetailForce portal has been supplemented with further search and filter criteria (available from product “Digital Voucher – Professional”). In addition, the receipt display has been visually improved.

All changes can be found, as usual, in the Release Notes at: https://www.retailforce.cloud/downloads/Version%201.2.4/ReleaseNotes1.2.4.md.

Return to Standard Time FinanzOnline

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance informs: Due to the changeover from daylight saving time to standard time, FinanzOnline will not be available on Sunday, 31 Oct. 2021 from 02:00 summer time (CEST) until presumably 03:30 standard time (CET).

As usual, the RetailForce system forwards any cash register messages (registrations, deregistrations, message of failed signature creation devices) to FinanzOnline as soon as the portal is available again without restrictions. We recommend that cash register registrations are carried out at a later date, if possible.