Maintenance work – FinanzOnline offline

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance informs that the service “FinanzOnline” will not be available next Wednesday, 6 July 2022, in the period from 15:30 to presumably 18:30, due to maintenance work. Furthermore, there may also be disruptions between 18:30 and 19:30.

Cash register notifications (registrations, deregistrations, failure notification of the signature creation unit) occurring during this period are buffered by the RetailForce Fiscal system and forwarded 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.

FinanzOnline-operations disrupted

We have just received notification of planned extensive maintenance work at the Austrian Federal Computing Centre. On Saturday, 21.05.2022, in the time between 07:00 and 22:00, the FinanzOnline service, among others, will not be available. Even outside this time window, there may be disruptions in the operation of FinanzOnline between Sat. 21.05, 0:00 hrs and Sun. 22.05.2022, 23:00 hrs.

We recommend that you plan accordingly for this when planning any commissioning of cash registers. During this time, FinanzOnline cannot process any notifications. The RetailForce system will forward any FinanzOnline-notifications received during the above-mentioned period as soon as possible.

Extensive maintenance work BRZ

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance would like to inform you about upcoming extensive maintenance work at the Federal Computing Centre (BRZ). Due to maintenance work on the network, server and databases, FinanzOnline will only be available to a limited extent on Saturday 23 April from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday 24 April 2022 and will not be available at all between 5 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. thereafter. The FinanzOnline team asks for your understanding.

Please plan any commissioning of cash registers accordingly, as no FinanzOnline messages can be processed by the BRZ during this time. The RetailForce system will forward any FinanzOnline-notifications received during the above-mentioned period as soon as possible.

FinanzOnline Offline

The FinanzOnline team of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance informs about upcoming maintenance work. This time the work will take place during the week, on the 06th of April 2022. On this day, FinanzOnline will not be available from 15:30 to 18:30. Furthermore, operations may be disrupted between 18:30 and 19:30.

Cash register notifications (registrations, deregistrations, failure notification of the signature creation unit) occurring during this period are buffered by the RetailForce Fiscal system and forwarded 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 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 Release – Fiscal Client 1.2.7.

The current version of the Fiscal Client – v. 1.2.7. – is available for download: https://www.retailforce.cloud/downloads/Version%201.2.7/. The version contains an important update for Austria (FiscalAT).

FiscalAT

Due to an error, the automatic annual receipt is not created correctly. This bug has been fixed in the current version. We recommend that all customers upgrade to the latest version so that the annual receipt can be checked correctly via FinanzOnline.

Furthermore, the reduced tax rates for all food and beverages in the catering sector, as well as services in the cultural sector, which were reduced to 5% in the course of the Corona measures, were set back to the original values of 10% and 13%.

Docker Hub

As of this version, the Docker container of the Fiscal Client can be downloaded directly from the Docker Hub. Below is the link to download: https://hub.docker.com/r/retailforce/trusted-fiscal-service.

Digital receipt

Another innovation concerns our “digital receipt” service. The delivery page for digital receipts can be adapted to the company’s own corporate design. We will be happy to support you in this. Please contact us via the contact form contact form, or send us an e-mail.

As usual, you will find all changes of version 1.2.7. in the Release-Notes.

Maintenance work FinanzOnline

Once again, the Austrian Ministry of Finance informs us about a FinanzOnline maintenance window: Extensive maintenance work (network, server, databases) will be carried out at the Federal Computing Centre on 22 January, 2022, between 09:00 and 19:00 CET. FinanzOnline is not available during this period. Furthermore, the operation of FinanzOnline may be disrupted outside this time, from 00:00 on Saturday 22 January 2022 to 23:00 on Sunday 23 January 2022.

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.

RKSV certificates expire

After five years, some certificates of the signature and seal creation units used within the framework of the Cash Register Security Ordinance (RKSV) in Austria are now expiring. The signature or seal creation unit is part of the technical security device with which every cash register must be equipped since 1 April 2017. The three Austrian trust service vendors (TSV) that issue RKSV signature creation devices (a-trust, Globaltrust and PrimeSign) have each given their RKSV products different certificate validities. While PrimeSign and a-trust certificates are issued for a period of 5 years, Globaltrust offers its RKSV signature smart cards with a validity period of 3, 5 or 10 years.

Continued use of expired certificates

Expired certificates may continue to be used regularly in normal cashiering operations according to § 15 para. 3, provided that the signature algorithm in the certificate is considered secure. Currently, there is no information that the algorithm would be considered unsafe.

Commissioning of new cash registers

However, if a cash register is to be put into operation for the first time, a new signature or seal creation unit with an unexpired certificate must be used. Otherwise, the registration will be rejected by FinanzOnline.

HSM / Remote Signing

In addition to the signature smart cards, the a-trust signature service of the 1st generation is also affected by the certificate expiry. The online certificates were issued with a validity of 5 years at the time of introduction and are no longer renewed. a-trust discontinues its old signature service (a.sign RK Online). As an alternative, a-trust offers the signature service (2nd generation) a.sign RK HSM. RemoteSigning certificates from PrimeSign are not affected. The provider always automatically extends the validity of the HSM certificates by one year.

What to do?

If the certificates of your signature or seal creation units expire in the coming year, we will be happy to advise you on an exchange. Contact us via our contact form, or via email at office at retailforce dot cloud.