In this article, you will learn everything about the GoBD compliance of your Magicline and what our audit according to IDW PS 880 means for you.
Contents
- What is GoBD?
- Magicline and GoBD Compliance
- What does the IDW PS 880 audit mean?
- Data Export for Tax Audits
Fast Lane
- Your Magicline is audited according to the IDW PS 880 standard and supports you in GoBD-compliant bookkeeping.
- All data relevant to accounting is stored immutably within Magicline.
- The necessary data can be exported for a tax audit.
- The integrity of the data is guaranteed at the time of export from Magicline.
What is GoBD?
GoBD stands for the "Grundsätze zur ordnungsmäßigen Führung und Aufbewahrung von Büchern, Aufzeichnungen und Unterlagen in elektronischer Form sowie zum Datenzugriff" (Principles for the Proper Management and Storage of Books, Records, and Documents in Electronic Form, as well as for Data Access). These principles are a directive from the German tax authorities that specifies how digital accounting data must be recorded and stored. The core principles include:
- Traceability and Verifiability: Every business transaction must be fully traceable.
- Completeness: All transactions relevant to accounting must be recorded.
- Accuracy: The entries must correspond to the facts.
- Timely Recording: Business transactions must be recorded promptly.
- Orderliness: The bookkeeping must be clear and organized.
- Immutability: Once recorded, entries may not be altered without a traceable log.
Magicline and GoBD Compliance
Magicline was developed to provide you with the best possible support in complying with these principles. Magicline's internal accounting system ensures the immutability of your accounting data. Specifically, this means: every transaction relevant to accounting, once recorded in the system, is stored there permanently and immutably. If you perform a data export today and run the same export again at a later date, you will receive the exact same data for the past period. This guarantees the integrity and consistency of your bookkeeping within Magicline.
What does the IDW PS 880 audit mean?
Magicline is audited according to the Standard (PS) 880 of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW). This audit is an important quality seal for software solutions in accounting. An independent auditor has thoroughly tested our software and confirmed that Magicline, when used correctly, enables GoBD-compliant bookkeeping. The audit thus certifies that the software's technical requirements, such as the immutable storage of data, are met in Magicline. This is a strong argument to present to your tax advisor or the tax office, highlighting the reliability of our software.
Data Export for Tax Audits
For a tax audit, the data must be provided in a machine-readable format. If your tax advisor points out that formats like PDF or Excel are not considered immutable because they could theoretically be edited after export, they are correct. However, it is important to understand the following: Our responsibility and guarantee relate to the data integrity within Magicline. Once the data is exported, the responsibility for the correct and secure handling of the exported file lies with you and your tax advisor. This is not a specific issue with Magicline, but a general challenge in digital data transfer.
Even the IDEA export often required by the tax authorities (a special data format for auditing purposes) would output the data in a CSV-like format that could theoretically be altered after export. We ensure that the data exported from Magicline is correct, complete, and unchanged at the time of export. We are currently considering the future provision of the IDEA format, but cannot yet provide a timeline for this.