Important Release 1.2.13

Attention: in order to continue to meet the legal requirements of the KassenSichV, all systems in Germany must be updated to the current release version 1.2.13 by 31 June 2022! The new version is available in the downloads section of the RetailForce website.

The v 1.2.13 of the Fiscal Client contains changes resulting from the DSFinV-K 2.3 – mandatory from 1 July 2022. Furthermore, the Swissbit Fiskal Cloud Connector version 4.0.1 is supported from this release. Since the certification of Swissbit’s FCC 3 is expiring, all systems using the Swissbit Cloud TSE must be updated to FCC version 4 by 31 July 2022 at the latest!

Extensions and features

Release Auditlog – with this release the so-called “Technical Event Log” is published and can now be used productively. In the countries Denmark and France, the technical event log is part of the country-specific fiscal requirements.

Swissbit Fiscal Cloud Connector 4.0.1 supported – As of this release, the Swissbit FCC is supported in the latest, certified version 4.0.1. As mentioned in the introduction, the upgrade to the new FCC version must be made by the end of July this year at the latest, as the certification of the old version 3.x is expiring.

Implementation DSFinV-K 2.3 – all changes in the DSFinV-K version 2.3, which was published on 21 April 2022, are included in the new release. The DSFinV-K is mandatory as of 1 July 2022. See also the BMF letter dated 21 April. Details on the changes can be found in the linked news article on our website.

Standard Test Client GER – The Standard Test Client, which is installed with the fiscal service, now connects to the fiskaly Test Cloud TSE again. This function was deactivated during the migration to fiskaly Cloud TSE 2.0 and is now available again.

Denmark Release Candidate – furthermore, the Fiskal Client Version 1.2.13 contains the Release Candidate for Denmark. With the next version (1.3.0), the Danish country implementation will be officially published.

Changes TrustedFiscalModule

BusinessTransactionType.Discount – from now on discounts have to be sent as part of the position item and not as a separate discount item.

Bulgaria – new fiscal document types have been added for the Bulgaria implementation. Details can be found in the release notes.

Changes TrustesFiscalService

Fiscal Country properties – country-specific information regarding fiscalisation (supported business cases, documents, payment types as well as fiscal documents) can now be queried via the Fiscal Client.

Furthermore, due to the upcoming release of the country extensions for Bulgaria, Denmark and France, the test unit coverage has been greatly increased.

Details on the enhancements and changes can be found, as usual, in the release notes of the current version of the Fiscal Client in the downloads section of our website.

DSFinV-K new version valid from 1 July 2022

Last week, the German Federal Ministry of Finance announced the publication of a new version of the so-called “Digital Interface of the Tax Administration for Cash Register Systems (DSFinV-K)”. The specifications were published on the website of the Federal Central Tax Office. The current version, 2.3, must be used from 1st of July 2022.

RetailForce integrates the changes resulting from the new version into the Fiscal Middleware.

Changes

The majority of the changes are textual additions and clarifications, but a few more serious changes have also been fixed.

One of these significant changes to the DSFinV-K concerns the cash register number (KASSE_SERIENNR). Quote:

“For technical reasons, neither slashes (“/”) nor underscores (“_”) may be used in the cash register serial number.” [translated from the original German text]

DSFinV-K, annex E Nr. 3, p. 69.

In the RetailForce system, the cash register number is used for initialising the Fiscal Client and is entered in the “Terminal number” field in the Cloud Portal when a new terminal (= cash register) is created. We recommend not using slashes (“/”) or underscores (“_”) when assigning “Store number” (creation of a new store) and “Terminal number” (only numbers and letters – without separators).

Compared to the previous version, the payment method “rechargable value card” (not to confuse with credit cards!) has been described in much more detail. The explanation is based on the EU Directive 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market. Important: These value cards are mere means of payment and are considered as such if they can be exchanged back for the amount originally paid (or the amount not yet used) at any time and without preconditions. They are therefore not equivalent to single-purpose vouchers.

Furthermore, a small but decisive textual adjustment was made to the receipt reference. The short description of the reference date (DSFinV-K field: REF_DATUM) was changed from: (v2.2) “Timestamp of the transaction being referenced” to: (v2.3) “Timestamp of the cash closure being referenced”.

In view of the changes to the KassenSichV, which were passed by the Federal Council last summer (see our article from July 2021), the section “Definition of the QR code for machine-verifiable cash receipts” was also revised. An edge length of at least 3 cm is prescribed for the display of the QR code. Further information on the QR code can also be found in our Solution Centre. An edge length of at least 3 cm is prescribed for the display of the QR code. Further information on the QR code can also be found in our Solution Centre.

From today’s perspective, all changes resulting from the new version of the DSFinV-K can be implemented by RetailForce without adapting the integration. Should there be any changes to this assessment, we will inform you in good time. The changes will be made available via a new version of the Fiscal Client, which is expected to be published by us at the beginning of the second half of May.

Current release 1.2.11

The latest release of RetailForce Fiscal Middleware is available in the download directory. This version is dedicated to the preparation for the country extensions that will be available soon. You will soon find more information here in the news section of our website.

The most important innovations of this version are that with version 1.2.11:

Fiscal Module

Newly added are fields for company identification, which are used, among other things, to establish the cloud connection of the Fiscal Client. The new fields are:

  • Business identification number and
  • Statistical classification number.

and must be declared as mandatory in certain countries. The identifiers listed above have different meanings for each country. Further information on this can also be found in our Solution Centre: https://support.retailforce.cloud/hc/de/articles/4405772745617.

Technical Journal / Audit Log

As of the current version, the fiscal client can manage a technical journal, also called an audit log, which is required in certain countries. Various events can be transmitted to the middleware for this purpose.

Reprint Count

Some countries require that the number of voucher reprints be recorded. The new version 1.2.11 provides for print count management.

In the course of the extensive revisions of the Fiscal Client with the present version, many test units were also newly created and existing ones revised.

All changes and improvements of this release are listed in the release notes of the current version.

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.

New release of the Fiscal Client – Version 1.2.4.

On 17.11.2021 we unscheduledly published a new release of the Fiscal Client – version 1.2.4. The version is dominated by the Swissbit hardware TSE in the USB form factor.

Seamless TSE exchange

The current update enables a seamless replacement of the swissbit Micro USB TSE if, for example, the certificate has expired. All data on the TSE can be exported. After the new TSE has been plugged in, cashiering can continue without interruption. The function is also available for defective TSEs. If no more data can be retrieved from the memory of the TSE, however, it must be confirmed to continue working without exporting data. Furthermore, improvements to the daily TAR file backup have been implemented in the current version of the middleware.

Firmware Update TSE

The new version 1.2.4. offers a function to upgrade the firmware of the swissbit Micro USB TSE to a new version. The update must be carried out intentionally.

Client recovery

Another security feature is the new Restore by Cloud function. This enables the complete recovery of a Fiscal Client after a hardware defect of the cash register.

Config by Cloud

Furthermore, we have improved the well-known function of configuring Fiscal Clients centrally in the RetailForce Cloud so that configurations can now be validated. After creating a configuration, it can be checked in the terminal view whether the configuration would run without errors when downloaded by an installed client or whether it would lead to an error.

As always, you can find an overview of all changes and improvements in the release notes for the new version at: https://www.retailforce.cloud/downloads/Version%201.2.4/ReleaseNotes1.2.4.md

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.