Output Electronic Tax Records Files (ETRF) in Navision / Business Central

Nav123: Navision, Showare, OrderApp

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Estimated reading time: 36 minutes

Unfortunately, Microsoft has not yet (2024) delivered a ready-to-use ETRF (Plectronic Gax Records File) output. But it's not rocket science! And yet many system houses are hopelessly out of their depth. Perhaps also due to a lack of accounting expertise. The ETRF setup itself is the same for all Navision versions from 3.70 onwards, and configurable data export is available from this version onwards. However, the Rapidstart module, which can be used to export and import any tables from Navision, is only available from Navision 2013 / Business Central. Note: In Navision from about version 2018, the RapidStart is called "Quickstart". With this tool, you can download my ready-made definition file from this page here and output your first GDPdU file from Navision Financials / Dynamics Attain or Microsoft Business Central BC365 in less than 4 minutes. Whereby the 4 minutes apply depending on the version 🙂 Either way, I will get you from zero to ETRF-capable in one day if your Navision / BC365 fulfills the basic requirements.

You will also find a complete set-up guide here, including information on how "secure" this data is with your tax offices...

For Navision versions between 3.60, 3.70 (I think that's when the GdPDU export was available for the first time) and 2009R2 (until then there was no configurable data export for Navision) you have to do this setup manually or order it from me. But this is usually done in less than 2 hours, and is a one-time process.

Required files

The official instruction issued by tax offices as a (poorly) scanned PDF for creating GDPdU files from Navision. Functionally still valid for all versions from Navision 3.70, 2009 (r2), Business Central. With this document you can also do this setup yourself for a Classic Client Navision or for the earlier used TaxAudit software Transdata. Transdata was used for Navision-versions 1.30, 2.01 etc. to output the necessary files from there. Of course, a separate report could still be created for these versions, which simply generates the finished XML files without any setup. Please contact me if needed.

The ETRF data record definition file (ETRF.dtd) for importing into the data export of Navision or Business Central. Please add the identifier dtd (Gocument Type Gefinition) to the file name after the download.

The package definition for the RapidStart module of Business Central and Navision BEFORE Nav Dynamics 14!

In Nav 14, the data export has been partially changed, so you need this package there. This should also work in later Navision versions (Dynamics) up to about version 2021.

To be on the safe side, here is another version in between, for Navision 2015 and thus possibly also for subsequent versions.

Import of the Rapidstart module

  1. Please import the RapidStart file into your configuration packages:

2. accept the packet. the packet contains the necessary definitions for RapidStart itself, and also the user data for the data export.

Now switch to the Navision data exports (also referred to as "GdPDU definitions" in some Navision/BC 365 versions)

You will now find 2 exports here:

The dtd file must still be read into both.


Then enter the desired export path, which might be created by Navision during this process if it does not already exist.

Output of GDPdU data for the tax office


Select desired output (Minimal or by FA default with a lot of detail data), then go to Data Set Definitions. Please notice the two different "Export", just to be on the safe side 🙂

Enter the desired period, And OK (CTRL+Enter)

Tip: If you need to output multiple clients / years, then rename the resulting folder right away, e.g. to Client-2017.
Tip: If Navision aborts the export with the error message that the file is too large, split the export, e.g. from 1.1.2017-30.6.2017 and 1.7.2017 to 31.12.2017. There is also a workaround from me with which this error no longer occurs, but this is usually not worthwhile, as this activity is performed too rarely.

There is also a more detailed tutorial on how to output GdPDU files under Navision/Business Central 365 here

Please also note that you must also provide data older than 10 years on request, if you have it!Besides DSGVO, one of the most important reasons for regular database cleansing..

Do you have an IDEA about what the IRS/CRA does with your ETRF data?

Basics

I know from experience with my customers that they are usually satisfied with the output (export) of the ETRF data in XML format for the tax office. Previously burned on CD, now sent to the auditor via USB stick or even email... out of sight, out of mind. And nobody actually thinks about what happens to this - very valuable! - Navision Financials, Dynamics, Attain or Microsoft Business Central BC365 data there (and hopefully only there!) in the tax office or at the auditor's office - or from any other accounting system such as SAP, Sage, etc. - or from any other accounting system.
First of all, the data you are disclosing here is highly sensitive! All customers (debtors), all suppliers (creditors), and, depending on the configuration, your entire article master... your competitors would probably be willing to pay money for this too. Currently, this data is read / transferred to mid-range / mainframe systems in the tax offices directly after arrival there (but an email or USB stick can be "lost" or forwarded / copied beforehand...). They are still reasonably secure there today... until a Russian hacker group gets hold of them. They are no geniuses either, but the data that can be accessed there is worth millions! And if the mainframe is not accessible: the mail server might be...
The evaluation of the exported ETRF files itself is done with the IDEA software on conventional Windows computers. We know Windows from the news headlines...

Audits back then...

Do you remember audits in the "last century"? The accountant or auditor had ancient, dusty ToBa lists (totals and balances lists) delivered from the farthest corner of the darkest cellar. He would flick through them, bored, and then point to an entry here, an entry there. In addition to fresh coffee, he also demanded the original receipts for the entries shown in their normal bookkeeping. These were usually purchase receipts, and mostly expense receipts, because this is where most of the "errors" (doesn't always have to be fraud) were to be found. Add to this 1-2 logbooks and his success rate was high enough. Experienced and good auditors very often pointed to exactly the receipts that were really problematic. And this is precisely where the problem lies with the tax authorities, as is the case practically everywhere in the economy:
1. There are too few good and experienced auditors
2. the ones who are really good and put their fingers on the problematic documents quickly and reliably were and are often whistled back by superiors or even politicians if the entrepreneur concerned played in the right golf club... A good employee goes through this once... maybe a second time... The third time he quits and founds his own tax consultancy. He knows how to do it...

As a result, over a long period of time, the tax offices are left with rather average employees. Like almost everywhere else. Just look at most politicians 🙂 Where else can you easily earn 15K euros a month as a trampoline jumper, co-author of children's books, kitchen assistant or without a real educational qualification?... OK, I'm digressing again. Back to the topic...

The Idea testing software

This is, from a very technical point of view, nothing so great. It reads the data record definitions of your Electronic Tax Records File and then reads the user data, which is available in simple CSV format, into corresponding tables defined by the record descriptions. These tables from your bookkeeping/accounting are "mapped" (the columns are standardized, translated), which means that after this import, all your accounting files created via the ETRF interface from Navision Financials, Dynamics Attain & Microsoft Business Central BC365 are uniformly readable for the IDEA software and the auditor/accountant working with it. Gone are the days when auditors had to familiarize themselves with dozens of accounting systems in order to gain online access to company data and bookkeeping/accounting. If you have an electronic archiving system, you even have to hand over the documents contained therein to the auditor on request in such a way that he can easily find the documents imported into IDEA (e.g. via a document number search) in this archive. IDEA is designed to handle a large number of data records in a large number of tables, so Tax Audit (the "ready for the user" add-on on Idea) has no problems not only managing hundreds of thousands or even millions of data records in a table (e.g. the G/L account postings), but also analyzing them according to various criteria. This is where the following check macros come into play...

Test macros for the tax audit via IDEA

These are the magic of IDEA (Interactive Gata Extraction and Analysis). If you're wondering: Wow, a tax office in Germany has developed something this great? No. As written above: There aren't that many great (in the real sense of the word) employees in German tax offices. That may be different in the USA, where tax inspectors are sometimes lowered from a helicopter directly into a company headquarters wearing bulletproof vests. No. IDEA was created by the Canadian Financial Supervisory Authority around 1987and has since been used in tax and financial audits in more and more (industrial) nations around the world. Germany has been involved since 2002 with 14 thousand licenses. And this is where the concept of audit macros And this is where the concept of audit macros paid off, as not all countries can be compared with each other. Some predefined audit methods are already supplied for audits. The few resourceful tax auditors who can still survive in the gray offices create clever (you have to say that!) audit macros from time to time, which pick out exactly the invoice or exactly the payment that should be looked at more closely from the thousands or millions of data records that are flushed into the auditors' laptops when they access a data carrier. And believe me, these macros are quite something. And in stark contrast to the "old days", you no longer need a gifted, experienced auditor. Now, tens of thousands of auditors and accountants can bring critical documents to light at the touch of a button. Fun fact: Germany is the most lucrative market with over 40,000 licenses, and the majority of the internationally used audit macros also come from Germany! This is probably one of the reasons why the German IDEA provider Audicon (and all other local providers of Idea) was integrated into the now globally active parent company Caseware around 2022 .

Examples of automated checks of ETRF data with IDEA

Audit of asset accounting. Does this ring a bell or two in your accounting department?

  • Depreciation start and order date for fixed assets to determine whether depreciation has started too late or too early. Finds all assets whose depreciation start date is unusual.
  • Depreciation percentage, to determine excessive depreciation.
  • Determination of excessive depreciation when applying the simplification rule for additions in the second half of the year
  • Identification of high book losses, non-cash benefits to employees and related parties of the taxpayer. Finds assets with high book losses on disposal.
  • Determination of assets for which the economic life has been changed.
  • Determination of incorrectly recognized declining balance depreciation
  • Determination of unusual business transactions above a certain amount with even amounts or with equal amounts.
  • List of assets whose depreciation start date differs from the date of acquisition.
  • Assets for which the depreciation method was changed incorrectly.
  • Sort selected assets by estimated economic life in ascending order, maybe there are some outliers? A sinfully expensive laptop that was only in use for 1/2 year?
  • Determination of repair and maintenance expenses that must be capitalized and exceed a certain value.
  • Sales... We'll come back to that below!
  • Determination of permanent debts for current accounts and the minimum amount of a current account debt.
  • List of business transactions for which the document date does not fall within the assessment period to be audited.
  • Determination of incorrectly recognized liabilities that have been due for a certain period of time.

Payroll accounting... I myself still know methods that were used by a previous employer... IDEA also knows a few of them 🙂

  • Identification of employees for whom wage tax allowances were incorrectly taken into account in payroll accounting.
  • Employees for whom car benefits in kind were subject to wage tax.
  • List of all employees who have two or more marginal employment relationships with the taxpayer (employer) to be audited.
  • Employees who are listed several times in payroll accounting. (Bank details, name, address, dates of birth)
  • Determination of severance payments that were not or incorrectly subject to wage tax.
  • Employees with incorrect age relief amounts
  • Tax-free wages according to DBA
  • Tax-free employer benefits for double housekeeping

Incoming invoices... more on this below...

  • Incoming invoices with an input tax deduction in the pre-notification period (debit taxation).
  • Incoming invoices with high input tax deduction amounts
  • Conspicuous input tax deduction

These were simple processes that even an average tax auditor would have found quickly without Electronic Tax Records File (ETRF) or IDEA. But the IDEA and TAX Audit analyses go much further! This is where it gets very mathematical in places...

Special test macros in IDEA

  • Balance limits... A cash register can/may never have a negative balance. If your goods movements have also been transferred: An item cannot have a negative balance. Not even "at some point"! This is the perfect opportunity for an estimate!
  • Filter and extract: High or low values are displayed from millions of data records in no time at all. Unusual individual bookings, bookings on Sundays, Santas in July, bikinis in December... Just like you know it from Excel. Except that here your accounting or even merchandise management is filtered at lightning speed according to common search patterns.
  • Totaling, counting amounts,counting duplicates & displaying... across any fields! How often does the amount 633.12 euros occur in all G/L entries? Which amount occurs most frequently? Does a bank account number or a telephone number occur for different customers or employees? This quickly reveals the "income tax card income tax class 5 from grandma" for employees or temporary staff.
  • For example, have purchase invoices been paid more than once (by mistake, of course...)? Does a purchase invoice or a certain amount appear more than once in the items?
  • Gap determination: Are individual document numbers missing in invoice numbers, for example?
  • Pivot tables similar to Excel
  • Benfords Law... this number analysis uncovers every "invented" series of numbers. It can be used to uncover manipulated or retrospectively recorded logbooks or fictitious KM statements at the touch of a button... and that in court. Judges generally have no knowledge of correlation and causality and the difference between them. In addition to Benford's Law, the Chi Square Test has also secured its place in the detection of self-generated ("invented") numerical patterns.
  • Fuzzy search: In addition to the duplicate search already mentioned, IDEA also finds Maier, Meier and Mayer here alongside "Meyer". In connection with similar amounts, incoming invoices duplicated by image processing may be found here...
  • Canceled bookings... Was there an original entry that fits exactly 100%??
  • Calendar anomalies... Which transactions were recorded at the weekend? Or were there hospitality expenses shortly after the managing director's birthday? With an analysis software such as IDEA, this can also be created over years (" hospitality expenses between August 6 and 10 of each year") at the touch of a button. With a check macro, this can also be done automatically. The check macro then only asks for standard information ("G/L account number for entertainment costs, managing director's birthday, wife's birthday") and off you go. Or does the cash register show a high deposit every Friday? Perhaps the cash register was not managed in monetary terms (i.e. real stock, real movements), but only "mathematically" -> estimation and rejection of the cash accounting are the immediate consequence.
  • Jumps... Normally constant developments, e.g. "Cash receipts" or "Expenditure on materials" or hospitality costs can simply be shown graphically. Jumps in this graph naturally tempt the auditor to take a closer look at the jump. This quickly reveals split postings, e.g. for fixed assets, which have been split as low-value assets and entered in the financial accounts for immediate depreciation.
  • Text analysis... Postings with "Telephone costs" o the "Vehicle costs" G/L account were perhaps still common with B-network telephones in the trunk. Today, these are occasions to search for "Ambient private withdrawals" or "Untaxed wage payments".

Further correlations that Idea can already find from Electronic Tax Records Files (ETRF) and other data

  • Pizza boxes => turnover... OK, that's easy.
  • 30/70: In the food service industry, sales are often split 30% beverages and 70% food. Deviations from this can make you want more...
  • Broken glasses, used toilet paper or dish soap, stolen ashtrays -> turnover... This is where it gets more exciting. By means of Idea or ETRF (data carrier transfers) and the resulting sharp increase in company audits, company patterns could and are created for industry-specific comparisons ("ranking"). for industry-specific comparisons ("ranking"). Hairdressers, bakers, butchers, electricians... Small, medium-sized and large restaurateurs in the countryside, the city, a pedestrian zone, near a soccer stadium. One broken glass for every thousand beers served, one stolen ashtray for every 2000 guests, one large pack of toilet paper for every 300 meals. These dependencies are also quickly identified: Get the 10 Metro and 6 SB Union bills from last year, add up the glasses and toilet paper (or record them, adding them up is what Idea does), and you have a new key figure. And you can also quickly subtract the official projects from the meters of cable purchased from the electrician according to statistical consumption... what's left is the rest that was wired in black at the weekend.
  • The number of new tires at a car rental company or cab service, liters of disinfectant solution for the on-board toilet at a bus company quickly bring "illegal driving" to light.
  • Emptying of the porta-potties on construction sites indicates black employment.
  • Used adult diapers should match the customer and sales statistics in care services. And when it comes to the service kilometers billed
  • the "cash on the hand" portion of the nursing staff's wages, which are far too low anyway, also stands out. In addition, there was a much too high
  • advertising cost item in the accounts, which was paid directly to a Polish company, conveniently located in the same street as the accounts department of the audited company.
  • Sales on weekdays or in months. If a Christmas tree retailer records high revenues in May, you could ask about this. The "problem" does not always have to be on the side of the audited company! But perhaps this is an incentive for a cross-check, so that you take a closer look at this particular customer... IDEA also supports the auditor here, because once data has been entered into Idea, it is usually not deleted so quickly. If a North Korean hacker ever notices this...
  • Cross-checks are then possible at the touch of a button years later, once the ETRF data has been read in from both companies: Does every outgoing invoice from company A to company B exist in exactly the same way in company B? In this way, VAT fraud can be uncovered by any novice auditor or tax auditor (tax office auditor).
  • Time series comparison: If purchases rise or have risen, sales should also rise shortly afterwards (depending on the sector).
  • Correlation to other data sets. For example, the auditor can use Website watcher to monitor the homepages of interesting companies and find "documented" construction progress... and then compare this with the G/L accounts of the construction projects.
  • Private websites of managing directors or company owners... Do aviation pictures suddenly appear on the Facebook profile, and during these periods are there conspicuous service costs from an advertising company that also provides aviation training? Are there high construction bills for company buildings without this being proudly pointed out on the website? And then perhaps a private website of the company owner, which proudly advertises the "Completely renovated finca in Spain" for vacation bookings?

This also makes it much easier for tax authorities to find cheating in cost accounting when higher amounts are paid to an LLP (Canada) or an LLC (America) or unusually high consultancy fees are paid to Eastern Europe. Classic letterbox companies and sham transactions for tax avoidance. If, on the other hand, you have your IT consulting and programming for your Navision Financials Dynamics Attain or Microsoft Business Central BC365 provided by me legally, there is no danger here!

You will find regular courses on what is possible with Idea and your ETRF data from Navision Financials Dynamics Attain or Microsoft Business Central BC365 here . The TAXpro YouTube channel is also well worth watching on this topic..

And what does IDEA do for you?

You might think so: Just trouble. But that's not (necessarily) the case. You can use TaxAudit (now TAP or Alessa or GoBD), the add-on for Idea specially prepared for an easy start, to perform the most common standard audits with your own accounting data. It doesn't matter whether you keep your accounts in Navision, Business Central 365, SAP, Lexware or Sage. In the end, the ETRF export results in standardized, highly (but not too highly! This was a problem with SAP for a long time) compressed data records that contain all the truths about your, perhaps also creative, accounting.
With IDEA you ensure a little equality of arms. With TaxAudit you don't get all the audit macros that are devised in the tax offices of the world (!!) - but you do get a pretty good package.
And you can do even more with it. You can subject your own business data to the same audit, regardless of where and how it was collected. Expense reports of your employees, cash withdrawals from your cash register, redirection of supplier payments to private accounts... mileage reports for your truck or car fleet, water or electricity bills for your rental apartments abroad: Maybe you also have an employee who wants to turn a few figures in his direction... with IDEA you can find such anomalies in the same way and just as easily as your auditor / tax auditor. But for classic pivot evaluations, take a look at my BI edition for Navision / Business Central & Excelfirst, maybe that's also quite cool for your purposes! In the end, Idea and its attachments such as the check macros do nothing else than you could do with Excel or directly with Navision Financials / Dynamics Attain or Microsoft Business Central BC365, with the 2024 BC365 even directly in the item pages. But tax audit programs like idea make it child's play, and thanks to their specialization in large amounts of data (Idea: up to 2 billion data records per table!), they do it in no time at all.

ICS & process documentation

Germany is doing everything it can to stifle its drives, its companies, with uncompetitive taxes and excessive bureaucracy. Process documentation with the obligation to have Internal Control Dystems (ICS) is another example of this. However, not every company is able or even willing to o escape this stranglehold by emigrating. On the one hand, exit taxation ("exit tax") or disentanglement is becoming an increasingly strict deterrent to leaving Germany at all. More importantly: Other countries learn from GermanyOther countries learn from Germany, and some of these laws, rules and regulations also come from abroad. Even with taxes and administration, milk and honey do not flow everywhere, even if some "emigration consultants" like to suggest this. However, you can create a kind of "equality of arms" by acquiring tools similar to those used by auditors. Tax audit software such as Idea with common audit macros is a good way to test your own collection of figures ("bookkeeping") for the usual pitfalls before the auditor does. And don't forget: Perhaps you also have a black sheep in your company that is working to its own advantage? You can also uncover these manipulations with these tools. And don't forget: As a managing director/shareholder/company owner, you should have at least a basic knowledge of business management and accounting. I will be happy to support you with a pleasant basic training session under palm trees!

Process documentation

Practically every company (even very small ones!) is obliged by the Pegulations for the proper management and storage of Books, records and documents in electronic form and for Gata access (RBD) require at least rudimentary procedural documentation. Ultimately, this is not rocket science. Process documentation is a written (electronic, e.g. as a Word document is also sufficient) record of various processes in your company. Examples:

  • How are paper incoming invoices and (usually different) electronic (e.g. incoming invoices by e-mail) invoices processed?
  • How can you ensure that incoming invoices are not lost? Here, a documented electronic invoice receipt can perhaps save you any further queries.
  • How are outgoing invoices created and sent, perhaps with Zugpferd or XRechnung?Here, for example, a short procedure including screenshots for posting orders or creating/posting collective invoices in Navision Financials or Dynamics Attain or Microsoft Business Central BC365 may be sufficient.
  • How is a payment run carried out?
  • Who has access rights or access options to the transfer files?
  • How are incoming and outgoing invoices stored? In paper form? According to which rules are they sorted and filed? In electronic form? How is filing security guaranteed?

Or, more factually summarized:

Section 6001 (Internal Revenue Code (IRC))

In Germany, procedural documentation is required by law in accordance with Section 146 (1) of the German Fiscal Code (AO). Characteristics include

  1. Obligation to keep records: Companies must create and retain procedural documentation. This documentation describes processes such as bookkeeping and the handling of receipts.
  2. Content of the procedural documentation:
    • General description: An overview of the IT systems, software and hardware used.
    • Organization of bookkeeping: How are receipts recorded, processed and archived?
    • Access controls: Who has access to the systems and data?
    • Change logs: How are changes to the systems and processes documented?
    • Security measures: What security measures protect the data?
  3. Updating and review: The procedural documentation should be checked regularly (e.g. annually) and updated if necessary
  4. Tax relevance: The procedural documentation is important for proper accounting and the correct preparation of tax returns. It may be checked by the tax office during a tax audit.

However, procedural documentation goes beyond these basics. As the company owner/managing director, you are ultimately also responsible for your operational security, so that your company does not suddenly become "inoperable" as a result of a fire, theft or cyber attack, for example. Of course, you don't have to carry the magnetic tapes to the backup server yourself. But you must have an overview (or at least be able to get one) of how basic IT processes work in your company. Here again, there is no way around procedural documentation. Depending on the IT structure (in-house or cloud , for example), there are also points such as

  • Carrying out and checking data backups (programs, data carriers, cycles, readability check...)
  • Securing the company network against unauthorized access (firewall, passwords, etc.)
  • How are adjustments made to the IT or software (test systems, staging...)

As you can see, procedural documentation does not primarily serve the tax authorities. The primary purpose of procedural documentation is to make your company more transparent - for you too! Whether this should have been cast in laws and regulations (General Data Protection RegulationGDPR, and then in the way that German thoroughness demands, remains to be seen. But... These laws are readily copied from abroad!

Process documentation is a whole separate topic, so perhaps I'll write a separate article about it. For you, this should have stuck:
Process documentation is a matter for the boss! You don't have to create it yourself, but you must have it and be able to produce it if required. If an auditor (or, in the worst case, a tax auditor) notices, for example, that a cash balance repeatedly changes by a round or similar amount between Sunday and Monday, or that bookings are occasionally made to a duplicate bank account on Saturdays, then they can ask about it:
Who has access to your company premises or company network at the weekend (remote workers, home office). Who made these bookings? In the case of the former, your procedural documentation comes into play (who has keys or chip cards for the door opener? When are they valid?) For the latter, your logs and access rights come into play. If Hinz and Kunz can log on to any computer with standardized passwords and supervisor rights, then this is primarily your problem... But secondly, thanks to the GDPR, it is also a serious problem in your administration, and you have to justify yourself for it. It is also possible that a previously undetected fraud by your employees will be charged to you as tax evasion.

IKS (Interne Kontroll Systeme / Interne Kontrollsysteme)

Gratulation, wenn Sie bis hierhin durchgehalten haben. Sie merken schon: Buchhaltung und alles drum herum kann schon ganz schön trocken Sein. Sie sollten sich trotzdem zumindest in die Grundlagen Ihrer eigenen Buchhaltung einarbeiten, wenn Sie nicht gerade eine Einzelunternehmung sind. Dann lesen Sie aber diesen Artikel sowieso nicht.

Interne Controlsysteme IKS… was könnte das sein? Nun, in erster Näherung sind das alle regelmäßig durchgeführten Prozesse, um „Krumme Hunde“ in Ihrem Unternehmen zu entdecken. Schon Inventuren und die Analyse von Inventurabweichungen zählen dazu. Hier kann Ihnen (und ihren Mitarbeitern) ein LVS mit automatischen Nulldurchgangskontrollen vieeeeeel Arbeit abnehmen. Hierzu werde ich noch einen eigenen Artikel veröffentlichen, LVS mit Navision Financials Dynamics Attain oder Microsoft Business Central BC365. Eine regelmässige Kontauszugsdurchsicht, ein vermeiden von Doppelzahlungen, ein automatisiertes Mahnwesen und Forderungsmanagement: All das sind bereits recht „natürliche“ Interne Kontrollsysteme (IKS), welche Sie hoffentlich und vermutlich bereits ohne jeden externen Druck anwenden. Oder, IKS mal sehr sachlich zusammengefasst:

  1. Zweck des IKS:
    • Das IKS überwacht und kontrolliert die Einhaltung gesetzlicher Vorschriften.
    • Es sichert die Wirksamkeit und Wirtschaftlichkeit der Geschäftstätigkeit.
  2. Bestandteile des IKS:
    • Prozessanalyse: Risikoorientierte Analyse der Unternehmensprozesse.
    • Kontrollen: Definition von Kontrollmaßnahmen zur Sicherung der Prozesse.
  3. Vorteile des IKS:
    • Transparency: Klare Strukturen und Kontrollmechanismen.
    • Risikominimierung: Identifikation und Reaktion auf Risiken.
    • Regulatorische Anforderungen: Erfüllung gesetzlicher Vorgaben.
  4. Verzicht auf IKS:
    • Kann zu Reputationsschäden, finanziellen Verlusten und Fehlentscheidungen führen.
    • Unternehmen sollten ein funktionsfähiges IKS implementieren und überwachen.

Ein gut gestaltetes IKS bietet mehr Transparenz und minimiert Risiken im Unternehmen.

Idea bzw. genauer ihre Aufsätze TAP (Tax Audit Professional) oder die einfachere Variante (IDEA GoBD) stellen ihnen noch sehr viel weitere Möglichkeiten zur Verfügung, und mit Alessa können Sie das Reporting dazu auch noch automatisieren – und schon sind wir wieder bei der Verfahrensdokumentation.

Alternativen zu Idea

Idea ist, neben schnell und flexibel und recht pfiffig vor allem eins: Der Liebling der Steuerprüfer! Nein, scherz, das war schon viel weiter Oben erkennbar 🙂 Idea ist schlicht teuer. Idea selber, sozusagen der Datentreiber oder die Analysemaschine, kostet schon schlappe 2.000 Euro (ich glaube, 1.995 Euro) im Jahr – jedes Jahr! Idea selber ist aber nur die Basis, Sie müssen jeden Import und jede Analyse selber erstellen! Daher kommen Sie kaum um einen Makroaufsatz wie TAP (Tax Audit Professional) für noch einmal 2.920 Euro drum herum – pro Jahr! Vielleicht bekommen Sie noch ein paar Rabatte, aber so richtig billig wird das nicht. Es geht bei den Analysen von Idea und TAP um viel Geld, manchmal auch sehr viel Geld… und das lässt sich Caseware fürstlich entlohnen. Es gibt aber auch Alternativen zu Idea, und praktisch alle sind deutlich preiswerter. Z.B.:

Selber machen.

Im Ernst! Sie können die allermeisten Auswertungen von Idea auch mit Excel und wenigen Formeln und Pivot Tabellen erzeugen. Aber jeden Monat neu. Wenn Sie sich nicht mit ausgefuchster VBA Programmierung in Excel auskennen, brauchen Sie nur für die erste Schnellauswertung, welche TAP direkt nach dem Datenimport (Ältestes Datum ,jüngstes Datum, Bewegungen am Montag/Dienstag/Mittwoch…Wochenende, größter Betrag, kleinster Betrag…) einfach so anzeigt bereits leicht ein paar Stunden… jede Woche oder jeden Monat.

Selber programmieren (lassen).

Natürlich können Sie diese Auswertungen auch direkt in Navision Financials oder Business Central erstellen. Rechnen Sie aber lieber mit etwa 1 Tag Aufwand pro Auswertungsmakro. Dafür dann -nach der Erstellung- auf Dauer kostenlos und per Knopfdruck verfügbar. Dies kann sogar eine sehr attraktive Alternative sein, kontaktieren Sie mich dafür!

Eine Mischform aus selber machen und Programmierung

Mittels aufbereiteter (angereicherter) Datenexporte von Navision zu Excel bekommen Sie Quersummen, Min/Max Werte, Monat- und Wochentagauswertungen in Sekunden statt in Stunden aus Excel raus.

ACL Analytics von Diligent

Audit Command Language, entsprechend der Makrosprache von Idea. Wird z.B. von der Österreichischen und Dänischen Finanzverwaltung eingesetzt.

AIS TaxAudit von/für Idea: Dieses Produkt gibt es so nicht mehr, siehe weiter oben. Diese Produkte sind nun nur noch von Caseware erhältlich, z.B. als TAP (Tax Audit Profesional), siehe weiter oben.

ARBUTUS Analyzer

Ein bisschen der Nachfolger von ACL Analytics. Der Ursprüngliche Kern-Entwickler von ACL Analytics hat sich damit selbstständig gemacht.

ACL Comfort – DATEV Data Assurance Package

Auch eine Fortentwicklung von ACL, allerdings mit ACL als Basis (so wie die TAP Aufsätze auf IDEA). Primär für DATEV-Mitglieder, weil auch DATEV sich etwas von dem Kuchen der elektronischen Betriebsprüfung abschneiden möchte. Gilt als einfacher als IDEA und doch sehr leistungsfähig.

DataSniper

TopCAAts von Reinvent Data Limited

Dies ist, wie schon weiter oben vorgeschlagen, eine Makrosammlung, um Excel als Datentreiber/Auswertungsmaschine für Taxaudits, Steuerprüfungen nach GDPdU, DSGVO und GoBD durchzuführen. Hier liegt auch schon die stärkste Beschränkung: TopCAATs ist auf die Leistung von Excel beschränkt, was z.B. maximal 1 Mio Zeilen in Auswertungstabellen bedeutet. Es ist wohl eine neu Version geplant, welche die Daten extern einbindet und damit diese Beschränkung aufhebt, nach meinem Wissen ist derzeit jedoch immer noch die (etwa) 2010er Version erhältlich – diese aber auch als Demoversion.

SAS Visual Analytics

eine Cloudbasierte Lösung. Durch die Natur des weltweiten ZUgriffs eher für innerbetriebliche Revisionen geeignet. Die Ladezeiten um millionen Datensätze von dem eigenen System in die Cloud zu bewegen sollten nicht unterschätzt werden. Wenn die Sätze erst mal dort („In der Cloud“) sind, sehr flott und benötigt keine eigene Hardware. Mitarbeiter in weltweiten Standorten können so leicht ihre Analysedaten hochladen, und Auswertungen können im zentralen Firmensitz oder auf Bali oder auf den Philippinen durchgeführt werden. Ich würde meine kompletten Navision oder BC365 Unternehmensdaten keiner Cloud anvertrauen

Active Data For Eccel/Office & SQL

Auch eine -wenn man so will- fortentwicklung von IDEA. Der frühere Chefentwickler von IDEA hat damit ein massentaugliches Instrument für „Jedermann“ entwickelt. Für kleinere Datenmengen durchaus in Betracht zu ziehen!

Teammate Analytics

Setzt ebenfalls auf Excel auf, und ergänzt Excel um einige der Prüffunktionen von IDEA und ACL. Gut für einen schnellen Überblick bei begrenztem Datenumfang.

Picalo

Eine Open Source entwicklung, um einige der IDEA Prüffunktionen/Analysefunktionen abzubilden. Dieses Projekt erscheint mir derzeit als tot.

Meine Unterstützung

Zu jeder Alternative und auch dem Original (AIS TaxAudit bzw. heute Caseware IDEA mit TAP oder GoBD) gehören ja auch noch die Einarbeitungen hinzu. Zu den jährlichen Kosten kommen noch ihre Arbeitszeit, die immer wieder neue Einarbeitung und die Datenausgaben hinzu. Ich biete ihnen Monatliche, Jährliche oder nach Bedarf Analysen mit IDEA TAP an, und nehme Ihnen diese Arbeit ab. So entdecke ich für Sie Probleme oder auch Betrugsversuche / Betrug in ihrem Unternehmen. Lange, bevor es ein Wirtschaftsprüfer oder Steuerprüfer tut. Dadurch können Ihre Aufwendungen für meinen Einsatz sich oft sogar von selber tragen oder sogar einen Gewinn erbringen. Z.B. durch Rückholung von doppelten Zahlungen, aufdecken von innerbetrieblichen Betrug (Fraud analysis) und Zeitersparnis bei einer Betriebsprüfung. Natürlich verwende ich dafür IDEA. Wenn Sie zum Marktführer werden wollen,. arbeiten Sie mit den Marktführern! Kontaktieren Sie mich für ein Angebot.

…Und IDEA selber?

Wenn Sie bis hierher durchgehalten haben, dann haben Sie bereits bemerkt, das mein Herz natürlich für meine Ehefrau und Navision schlägt… und auch ein wenig für IDEA. Auch wenn man IDEA als TaxAudit / Steuerprüfungsprogramm verdammen möchte: Aus technischer Sicht ist es der Hammer und stand im Prinzip für all die vorher genannten Programme Pate. Sehen Sie auch meine beiden folgenden Empfehlungen!

Welche Lösung ist für die die Richtige?

Ich kann ihnen nur 2 Lösungen wirklich empfehlen: „Meine Unterstützung“ und IDEA TAP oder GdBD. Natürlich können Sie sich aus den vorher genannten Beispielen frei bedienen, aber dann endet meine Unterstützung eben bei der GDPdU Datenausgabe aus Navision.

Meine Unterstützung

Wenn Sie mich ohnehin benötigen, um ihre GDPdU-Daten einzurichten oder auszugeben, sollten Sie sich erst gar nicht daran machen, sich auch in IDEA einzuarbeiten. Wenn Ihnen „Pivot-Tabellen“ in Excel noch eher als Hexenwerk vorkommen: Auch dann greifen Sie lieber zu meiner Hilfe. Für die Jährlichen Lizenzkosten von IDEA um die 5000 Euro kann ich Ihnen ihre GDPdU Datenausgabe und gleich eine erste und auch zweite Analyse ihrer Daten mit den wichtigsten Abweichungen „von der Norm“ auflisten, und bei Bedarf auch gleich bei der Behebung behilflich sein. Kontaktieren Sie mich noch heute, before Ihr Kind im Brunnen liegt – bevor Ihr Betriebsprüfer eigentlich harmlose Abweichungen von der Norm von Ihnen erklärt haben möchte, und Sie nun im Eiskalten Wasser sitzen.

IDEA selber

Die deutschen Behörden verwenden IDEA mit Prüfmakros, welche teilweise auch bei TAP (Tax Audit professional) mitgeliefert werden oder von mir nachgestellt werden können – evtl. auch mit Ideen von Ihnen, weil Ihnen mal bestimmte Betrugsmuster in ihrer Firma aufgefallen sind. Wenn Sie sich auf eine Betriebsprüfung (auf ein Tax-Audit) vorbereiten wollen, nutzen Sie die gleichen Waffen wie ihr Finanzamt!

Daher kann (und will) ich zu den anderen Alternativen auch gar keine weitere Beratung anbieten. Klar, Sie können auch diese (DataSniper, ACL, TopCAATs… einfach mal ansehen und ausprobieren – Ich fokusiere mich dabei aber rein auf die Profiwerkzeuge der deutschen Steuerprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfer, um mich nicht zu verzetteln.