How will retailers remain legally compliant from 2020?

E-3 Magazine spoke with Stephan Kaup, Managing Director of Consult-SK, who is regularly confronted with questions about fiscalization in his daily contact with SAP users in the retail industry.

Mr. Kaup, what innovations are retailers facing with regard to the processing of POS data?

Stephan Kaup: The Cash Register Act stipulates that all bookings and the necessary records must be made individually, completely, correctly, in good time and in an orderly manner.

Cash receipts and expenditures must be recorded daily. One major innovation is the obligation to issue receipts. From 2020, electronic recording systems must also have a technical security device, or TSE for short, certified by the BSI (Federal Office for Information Security).

Several manufacturers of POS systems are currently in the certification process. In addition, two providers (Swissbit and Epson) already have a BSI-certified TSE.

What added value does the whole changeover serve?

Kaup: Essentially, the financial authorities are concerned with protecting cash register data from manipulation and greatly simplifying the auditing of proper accounting.

A digital interface is to be created which, thanks to a uniform standard, makes it possible to retrieve complete data records at any time.

What does "DSFinV-K" mean in this context?

Kaup: The digital interface of the tax authorities for cash register systems requires that all companies that use a computerized cash register system use the same structure for data entry and data export. It is therefore a question of the form of data preparation.

And what do you think retailers should do?

Kaup: My advice is to consult with your cash register manufacturer in order to plan an expansion of the receipt output and the integration of a TSE if necessary. An important question that retailers should ask in this context: How is the export to DSFinV-K planned? In addition to the fear of possible sanctions, SAP customers are faced with the question of how the data from their converted POS system can be meaningfully linked and managed with their financial accounting in the SAP system.

Does only the tax office ultimately benefit from a quick audit option?

Kaup: In my opinion, the thematic concentration on the cash register and the current focus on requirements is too limited. When currently looking at the new and old requirements and associated processes, it is often found that a large number of existing requirements are not met.

And not just at the cash register itself, but across the board right through to financial accounting. In addition, with our SAP add-on Receipt4S, we offer a solution that manages all relevant data for the cash audit process in historical form, across SAP and non-SAP systems.

Archiving, logging of changes and provision of data for auditing purposes are of course also included. This means that SAP customers can also easily carry out audit-compliant accounting in 2020.

The requirements for using our SAP-certified add-on are very simple: a NetWeaver with an Abap stack. Module-specific components are not required.

The ArchiveLink serves as the infrastructure. What's more, customers won't have to worry even after 2024/25: Receipt4S runs on both R/3 and S/4 Hana.

Thank you for the interview.