Introduction
Since 1 January 2002, the Principles of data access and auditing of digital documents (GDPdU) have been applicable in the Federal Republic of Germany for tax audits conducted by tax offices.
The new regulations govern data access to application data for the tax authorities and the obligation to archive digital documents.
The requirements in GDPdU include, but are not limited to, the possibility to make tax-relevant data of the company available to the auditor on a data medium. The auditor can load and analyze the transferred data in Germany with the IDEA auditing software (version 2006) by Audicon or with the corresponding software for Austria.
Data are tax-relevant whenever they can be of importance for taxation of the taxpayer. Certainly, they include transactions, balances and the master data of the Financial Accounting and Asset Accounting. The user decides what should be classified as tax-relevant. Of course, the auditor can also request data to be read from certain areas. Currently, only the basic relevant data are output.
For the data transfer, the following data are exported:
- Partner master
- Addresses of suppliers and customers
- G/L account master
- Bank assignments that are labelled as preferred
- One-time addresses
- One-time banks with a relationship to an OI
- Payment terms
- Tax code with the DE and AT country codes
- Periodic G/L account and partner balances prepared with decimal places
- Open items
- Account posting items
If the Asset Accounting function of the Customizing application is active, the following data can be exported for the data transfer:
- Asset master
- Depreciation methods
- Amounts from asset transactions
For the data medium creation, only data from closed fiscal years and settlement periods are taken into account.
Settings
For the data export in the data transfer GDPdU, the following settings must be applied:
Customizing
If the Asset Accounting framework is active, you must specify the folder (directory) for outputting the GDPdU in Customizing under the Asset Accounting main function in the Settings tab. Besides the directory (kstore), work panes (network paths) may be specified here. For further information about work panes, see the articleSystem Cockpit Type: Work Pane. The entry in the field Folder for outputting GDPdU serves as default for the export folder in the batch application GDPdU Asset Accounting.
Under the Financial Accounting main function, the folder (directory) for outputting GDPdU for the financial accounting data must be specified in the Messages function. As mentioned before, work panes (network paths) may be specified here besides the directory (kstore). The entry in the field Folder for outputting GDPdU serves as default for the export folder in the batch application GDPdU Financial Accounting.
Note: Please make sure to define different output folders for exporting asset accounting data and for exporting financial accounting data.
Filters
The data export for data transfer takes place via filters that are assigned to the data to be exported (export objects) in the Configure data export for tax audit application. To do this, you must first download the then import them.
To download the filters, do the following:
- Call up the application Query support deliveries via the NINUS support
- Enter the value *Importfile* in the Description field in the query area of the
- Press the Update
- All deliveries that match the search criteria are
- Now use the Software delivery button to download the import files that are suitable for your current software version (e.g. Comarch Financials Enterprise Version 12.6, Release 5.4 …)
- The filters are imported using the Import data application. The procedure for the import is described in the article Import data.
A separate filter must be imported for each export object, which refers to the business entity corresponding to the export object. Within the filter you specify which data should be exported from the data object.
The following table presents the export objects and their respective business entity.
| Export object | Business entity | ||
| Financial Accounting | |||
| Addresses | com.cisag.app.general.obj.AddressData | ||
| Balance file | com.sem.ext.app.fin.financialaccounting.obj.Balanc e | ||
| Partner bank data | com.cisag.app.general.obj.BankAssignment | ||
| Object accounts | com.sem.ext.app.fin.financialaccounting.obj.Object Account | ||
| One-time address | com.sem.ext.app.fin.financialaccounting.obj.OneTi meAddress | ||
| One-time bank | com.sem.ext.app.fin.financialaccounting.obj.OneTi meBank | ||
| Open item amount | com.sem.ext.app.fin.financialaccounting.obj.OpenIt emAmount | ||
| Partner financials data | com.cisag.app.financials.obj.PartnerAccountingData | ||
| Payment term | com.cisag.app.general.obj.PaymentTerms | ||
| Half posting amount | com.sem.ext.app.fin.financialaccounting.obj.Posting AccountAmount | ||
| Tax code | com.cisag.app.financials.obj.TaxCode | ||
| Asset Accounting | |||
| Asset master | com.sem.ext.app.fin.assetaccounting.obj.AssetMast er | ||
| Asset master method of depreciation | com.sem.ext.app.fin.assetaccounting.obj.AssetMast erDepreciationMethod | ||
| Asset transaction amount | com.sem.ext.app.fin.assetaccounting.obj.AssetTran sactionAmount | ||
It may be necessary to adjust a filter under certain circumstances. For example, the optional dimension that was specified in the respective posting can optionally be output for the posting transactions. To do this, activate the relevant field (s) in the filter for Posting account amount (usually the T1_PostingAccountAmount filter).
For the output of the postings, all transactions with the same voucher number (PostingAccount.PostingItem.PostingHeader.voucherNumber) and record number (PostingAccount.PostingItem.PostingHeader.number) belong to a voucher. Therefore, both fields in the filter for Posting account amount must be activated. This information should be communicated to the tax authorities for the analysis of the data, for example.
To adjust the filter, proceed as follows:
- Call up the application Configure data export for tax audit.
- Use the mouse to go to the Filter column and right-click to open the Export data application for the Posting account amount export
- In this application you can now activate the required fields by ticking
It is crucial that the foreign key (guid) must not be deactivated, otherwise the link between the business objects will not work.
Configure data export for tax audit
In this application, export objects and filters to be used are created automatically by the setup. If this does not happen, the data must be created manually. For a detailed description of the application, refer to the Configure Data Export for Tax Audit article.
Data provision
If all settings have been made, you can execute data export. Basically, the data are output from Financial Accounting and Asset Accounting through separate batch applications.
GDPdU Asset Accounting
The GDPdU Asset Accounting batch application is available for you only when the Asset Accounting function is active in the Customizing application.
Through the batch application, you can output the data of the Asset Accounting. You can define the data to be taken into account with a selection in the Export object field.
GDPdU Asset Accounting batch application:
- Open the GDPdU Asset Accounting batch application. The dialog window will
- The following fields are to be specified for the parameter settings displayed for information purposes:
| Field | Explanation |
| Export folder | This field is initialized by the Customizing application. Select a directory (kstore) into which data are to be exported for the GDPdU data transfer by using the value assistant. Besides kstore, work panes (network paths) may be specified here as well. For further information about work panes, see the article System Cockpit Type: Work Pane.
Note: Do not enter the output directory in this field, which is used to export financial accounting data. |
| Export object | In this field, you can specify which data from the Asset Accounting should be taken into account for the GDPdU. |
| Organization | In this field, enter the organization, the data of which should be processed. |
| Until period | In this field, enter the period up until which the data are to be provided. You can enter only periods that have already been closed. |
- Change the batch settings, if required.
- Select the [In batch] button in the dialog window.
GDPdU Financial Accounting
The GDPdU Financial Accounting batch application is used for outputting data of the Financial Accounting for the data transfer. You can define the data to be taken into account with a selection in the Export object field.
GDPdU Financial Accounting batch application:
- Open the GDPdU Financial Accounting batch application. The dialog window will
- The following fields are to be specified for the parameter settings displayed for information purposes:
| Field | Explanation |
| Export folder | This field is initialized by the Customizing application. Select a directory (kstore) into which data are to be exported for the GDPdU data transfer by using the value assistant. Besides kstore, work panes (network paths) may be specified here as well. For further information about work panes, see the documentation System Cockpit Type: Work Pane.
Note: If the Asset Accounting function is activated, do not enter the output directory in this field, which is used to export asset accounting data. |
| Export object | In this field, you can specify which data from the Financial Accounting should be taken into account for the GDPdU. |
| Organization | In this field, enter the organization, the data of which should be processed. |
| Fiscal year | In this field, enter the fiscal year for which you want to provide data. You can enter an already closed or an open fiscal year here. If you enter an open fiscal year, at least one posting period must be closed. |
| From period | In this field, enter the period from which the data are to be provided. Here, only closed posting periods are allowed.
If real opening postings are active according to Customizing and GDPdU should be output for the whole year, enter the period 00.xx (xx = year) here. |
| Until period | In this field, enter the period up until which the data are to be provided. The delimitation can also be made for supplementary periods if, for example, posting is made up to period 14.2018, but GDPdU should only be output up to period 13.2018. Here, only closed posting periods are allowed. |
| Accounting standard | Enter the accounting standard that should be taken into account for the data provision. This field is prepopulated with the default accounting standard from the Customizing application. |
- Change the batch settings, if required.
- Select the [In batch] button in the dialog window.
File output
In course of the batch processing, a directory is created for the output data in the export folder that you have specified. The name of this directory is assigned automatically, based on the processing organization and the date of execution (organization_yyyymmdd).
The data are output for the export objects specified in the batch application to this directory. A file in the CSV format is created per object. With the use of the assigned filter of the Configure data export for tax audit application, the data are output to the corresponding CSV data, separated by a comma.
At the same time, the Index.xml description file is also generated with the output. The description file is used only for enumerating the transferred files and their fields. This does not clarify the field contents for the auditor. For this simple reason, this can definitely lead to situations in which you have to explain the file contents or the logic of the data recording in detail to your auditor.
The gdpdu-01-09-2004.dtd file that is also necessary is not generated during output. This file must be only placed in the output folder. Based on this file, the Audicon software verifies the correctness of the generated files. This file can be downloaded on the Internet from the Audicon company under the GDPdUBeschreibungsstandard document title and viewed with a text editor, for instance.
The log file is created automatically when creating a data medium in the course of the GDPdU data output. The file provides information on the executed data creations and their contents. The overview shows all records, sorted according to the output directory. You are obliged to apply due diligence with regard to administering the data sets, i.e., as to whether and when the output directories are archived and deleted again.
Generation of data media as such (for example, CD/DVD burning) is not the subject of the Comarch Financial Enterprise application and thus not the subject of this article.