Set Up Taxes and Accounting

Set Up Taxes and Accounting

Here you set which tax rate your till calculates with and which accounts products are posted to. Below that, you see your company's DATEV numbers, register the till with the tax office and generate the procedural documentation. You can find this page in the menu under Settings → Tax & accounting → Tax & accounting (/manager/settings/tax). Payment methods, tips, receipts and rounding are on the page Payment methods and receipts.

This page opens once the location's till is switched on, and not in the demo account. All settings apply to the location selected at the top of the dashboard.

As soon as you change something in the tax settings, the “You have unsaved changes” bar appears at the bottom with Save and Discard. Saving prompts you again with “Save changes?”. After that, it shows “Checkout settings have been updated successfully”. The sections “Report your till (ELSTER)” and “Process documentation” save separately.

Tax Settings

Section “Tax settings” applies to the till, dashboard, receipts, invoices, and the DATEV export. You specify which rate applies to an individual service when you define the service.

• Tax exempt: Toggle for small businesses under § 19 UStG. Receipts and invoices are then issued without sales tax, and the fields for tax rate and revenue accounts disappear.
• Tax rate: The standard rate as a percentage, 0 to 100, with up to two decimal places. In Germany, 19%. Applies to all services and products with the standard tax rate.
• Reduced tax rate: Optional, 0 to 100 percent. For services and products subject to the reduced rate—7% in Germany.
• Tax exemption under § 4 UStG: Only if you bill services without VAT, such as medical treatment. The choices are “No exemption”, “Medical treatment (§ 4 No. 14)”, “Education (§ 4 No. 21)”, “Care and support (§ 4 No. 16)” and “Other reason”. With “Other reason”, Reason in your own words appears, where you enter the paragraph yourself, for example “Steuerfrei nach § 4 Nr. 22 UStG”. The reason is printed on every tax-free invoice. If you bill tax-free services and picked no reason, the page warns “Reason for the tax exemption is missing”: without it your invoices lack the notice § 14 UStG requires, and business customers get no e-invoice.
• Product revenue account, standard rate: Four-digit account number. Products with the standard tax rate are posted to this account. With 8400, products and services are posted to a single account. Many tax advisors prefer to see products listed separately; in that case, enter the account from account class 8 that your tax advisor specifies, for example, 8410. This change takes effect starting with the next sale; previous receipts remain where they were posted. An example below the field shows your account with a product price.
• Product revenue account, reduced rate: The same applies to reduced-rate products. Under account 8300, they are combined with reduced-rate services.
• Prices include tax (gross): “On” means the prices for your services are final prices that already include sales tax. “Off” means sales tax is added to each price at checkout. An example below the register calculates what the customer pays based on your tax rate.

DATEV

The “DATEV” section shows the row Consultant and client number with both numbers, for example “Consultant number 1234567 · Client number 55003”. If both are missing, it reads “Not entered yet”. Every DATEV export from the location carries these numbers; without them your tax advisor cannot import it automatically.

The numbers apply to the whole company, so they are the same at every location. That is why you don't enter them here but under Company settings → Accounting (see Company settings). If you are the owner, tapping the row takes you straight there. Everyone else only sees the numbers and the note “Only the owner can change them, under Company settings › Accounting.”

Registering the Till (ELSTER)

Section “Report your till (ELSTER)” is a reminder. According to Section 146a(4) of the German Fiscal Code (AO), every electronic till must be reported to the tax office via Mein ELSTER. Terminz does not submit the report itself. Here is the information that ELSTER requests, along with a tip for copying it:

• Place of business: Name and address of your location.
• Type of system and Manufacturer.
• Under Hardware, list each till with its name (“Unnamed till” if it has none), its Till serial number and the note “Registered in Terminz on …”. ELSTER asks for the purchase date, which you must enter yourself.
• With each till its own TSE: TSE serial number and TSE certificate. If one of them is not available, “Currently not retrievable” appears. A till without a TSE yet shows “This till has not paired its TSE yet.” A till that signs with a practice TSE shows “This till signs with a practice TSE. Report it once the real TSE is paired.”

If you have registered the till with ELSTER, check the box Reported to the tax office. After that, “Reported on …” will appear there. A device that is out of service displays “Out of service” and the deadline “Report the decommissioning via Mein ELSTER by … (§ 146a(4) AO).”. Once you've completed this, check the box Decommissioning reported. Only someone with the “Add/Configure Terminal Devices” permission can check either box; without it you see the current state, but the boxes are locked. If no till is set up for the location, it will display “This location has no till configured, so there is nothing to report.”

Procedure Documentation

The GoBD requires procedural documentation for every IT system in use. Terminz generates this documentation based on your location's data. You add the information that only you know and download the PDF. This section appears only for locations in Germany.

The fields:

• Legal form: Selection, for example, GmbH, e. K., GbR.
• Profit determination: “Cash-basis accounting (EÜR)” or “Balance sheet”.
• Responsible for the till: Who manages the till on a daily basis. Select from your active staff members or “Someone else …” with a custom name.
• Counting rhythm: “daily at closing time”, “at the end of every shift”, “daily and at every shift change”, or “weekly”.
• Procedure during an outage: Free text describing what happens if the TSE or the Internet goes down.
• Responsible for this document: Name of the person responsible for maintaining the documentation, plus optionally Function, for example, management.

Everything except the function is required. If anything is missing, the Generate document button is disabled, and “Still open: …” appears below it listing the missing fields. The button first opens the question “Generate the process documentation?”. This document is your own declaration to the tax office. You are responsible for its accuracy and completeness; have your tax advisor review it beforehand. Each time you generate it, a new, unalterable version is created. Afterward, the PDF opens in a new tab, and “Process documentation generated” appears.

Under “Generated versions”, you'll find all previous versions listed with the date, creator, and template version, each marked with Download. If no version has been generated yet, it will say “No version generated yet.”. If the latest version reflects an older version of the software, a note will indicate that you should generate a new one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I set the tax rate of a single service? On the service itself. Here you only set the location's rates.

Why don't I see the page? You need the “Change business settings” permission and a switched-on till, and it must not be the demo account. In Germany the full till only turns on with a booked TSE module (see Devices).

Where do I set who a tip belongs to? On the page Payment methods and receipts, in the section “Tips”, not here.

Why can't I change the DATEV numbers here? They belong to the company, not the location. The owner changes them under Company settings → Accounting, and from then on they apply to every location.

Does Terminz report my till to the tax office? No. You report it yourself via Mein ELSTER. Terminz shows you the details you need for it.