The method is that all business transactions of a company are recorded with date, amount, VAT, description and other data and assigned to a system of accounting accounts. After the business transactions are recorded, the system can calculate various evaluations from this data.
What information and documentation are needed for payroll?
For your payroll accounting, we need up to different information. We receive this mainly from you and your employees, but also from offices, cash registers, and other authorities and bring them together in the payroll for you.
Does the minimum wage apply to my employees?
The Minimum Wage Act has been applied to all employees since 2015. Exceptions exist for trainees, entry-level qualifications from unemployment, volunteers, compulsory or orientation interns, or underage vacation jobbers.
What documents are needed for the preparation of current accounting* and how must they be organized?
A distinction must be made as to whether you prepare an income statement or whether you are required to prepare a balance sheet. For the revenue surplus statement, the bank statements or statements of other financial accounts must be (e.g. credit card, PayPal) can be submitted. For each account statement, the relevant outgoing and incoming invoices are to be sorted in the original behind the corresponding bank statement. Otherwise, we need a printout of the cash book with all receipts paid in cash, which must also be arranged chronologically. The same principle applies when you are required to be included in the balance sheet. Furthermore, we still need the open incoming and outgoing invoices at the end of the month. as a copy. We are undoubtedly also familiar with "bookkeeping* in a shoebox". Should you use this "simplified" accounting choose for the income statement, we do not need the bank account statements, here we only record all the Paid invoices/receipts.
How does my accounting* actually work?
Die Methode ist, dass alle Geschäftsvorfälle eines Unternehmens mit Datum, Betrag, MwSt., Beschreibung und weiteren Daten erfasst und einem System von Buchungskonten zugeordnet werden. Nachdem die Geschäftsvorfälle erfasst sind, kann das System aus diesen Daten verschiedene Auswertungen berechnen, z.B. die Betriebswirtschaftliche Auswertung, Umsatzsteuervoranmeldungen, Kostenstellenauswertungen oder die Einnahmenüberschussrechnung.
How long must receipts be kept?
According to HGB §257, accounting vouchers, commercial books, inventories, balance sheets, annual financial statements, financial statements and reports as well as the work instructions and other organizational documents required for their understanding must be kept for 10 years. Commercial letters and e-mails must be kept for 6 years.
What is proper accounting*?
According to the German Commercial Code (HGB §238) and the German Fiscal Code (AO §145), proper accounting is such that it can provide an expert third party with an overview of the business transactions and the situation of the company within a reasonable period of time. It is the scheduled, complete, chronologically and factually ordered recording of all business transactions in a company on the basis of documents. The most fundamental rule is "no entry without a voucher.
Can receipts also be stored electronically?
The storage of the original documents received in paper form can be done by means of data carriers if the complete, orderly, identical in content, and true to the original reproduction is guaranteed at any time until the expiry of the legal storage period and if the procedure used in doing so complies with the principles of proper accounting. In the case of electronic archiving, the taxpayer is obliged to provide the tax authority with the tools (software and hardware) necessary to make the documents readable.
What information and documentation are needed for payroll?
For your payroll accounting, we need up to different information. We receive this mainly from you and your employees, but also from offices, cash registers, and other authorities and bring them together in the payroll for you.
What tasks are performed as part of payroll in the first place?
All in all, we take over different services around your wages. We prepare payroll accounting and communicate with German tax offices, health insurance companies, and employers' liability insurance associations. The main services are the maintenance of your inventory and transaction data, the timely accounting of monthly employee salaries, the calculation and registration of payroll tax and social security contributions, and, last but not least, the transfer of all relevant monthly evaluations and statements.
What are the payment deadlines for payroll?
According to the law, the contribution statement of the current month must already be received by the health insurance company by the third last banking day of the month. Due to the transfer time, 2 more days must be scheduled. The wage tax must be instructed immediately in case of a corrected wage tax declaration, the wage tax of the current month must be transmitted only on the 10th day of the following month. Payments to employees are paid as agreed under labor law. In the spring of the following year, the contributions to the Employer's Liability Insurance Association and the levy for the severely disabled for the past year are calculated and paid.
How high may a self-receipt be?
For small-value invoices up to 150 euros gross, there is usually no problem. This applies in principle to payments made via a bank account.
What must be included on a self-bill?
- Payee with full address,
- Purpose of the operating expense
- Amount
- Date of payment and date of receipt
- Reason for self-documentation and explanations of facts (if required).
- Handwritten signature.
When am I allowed to write a self-bill?
You create a self-receipt if an invoice or receipt can no longer be found and you still want to claim the expenses for tax purposes. However, this should be the exception rather than the rule. The amount is decisive for the tax office. Nevertheless, you should pay attention to certain formalities during the preparation, so that the tax authorities can also understand the facts in the event of an audit.
Who must sign self-receipt?
The holder should personally sign the self-receipt to assert the accuracy of the information provided.
What are the rules for self-supporting documents?
- The operating expenses documented in this way must be based on a business transaction.
- This must be work-related or business-related.
- The operating expenses must be plausible in terms of the amount.
What components must an invoice have?
According to the Value Added Tax Act (UStG §14), every paper with which a delivery or other service is settled is an invoice.
What do I do if I can no longer find a receipt or it is no longer legible?
If a receipt is missing, has been lost, or is no longer legible, a self-receipt can be created. The tax office must accept this receipt as long as the expenses are necessary for business or professional purposes and the amount is plausible. Deduction of input tax is not possible for self-receipts. To preserve the light-sensitive receipts on thermal paper, we recommend filing them in folders and making a copy or scanning them.
What is an e-invoice?
An electronic e-bill is created digitally and delivered to the recipient digitally (by mail, data carrier, download, computer fax, etc.). The e-bill must contain all the mandatory details of an invoice. According to the Tax Simplification Act 2011, an electronic signature is not required if this is accepted by the recipient. The recipient's normal handling of the received invoice (checking, complaint/payment, filing) is considered "silent" consent in this case. Recipients of e-invoices are generally obliged to check (origin, content, and completeness). E-invoices must be archived electronically in an audit-proof manner, only printing and filing are not sufficient! The period for storage and readability is currently 10 years.
What exactly are business transactions?
Business transactions are all processes that change the asset composition of the company. In addition to all types of income and expenses, these also include changes within the company. Business transactions can be divided into those that affect inventory and those that affect profit or loss.
Why can't the cash register be negative?
If you are required to keep a cash book, you must note that the cash balance must not be negative, as there is no negative cash. If this is the case, you should check and correct the cash book. A negative account balance often leads to the entire accounting being called into question during tax audits.
How do I keep a cash book?
For proper cash accounting, the entries in the books of account must be complete, correct, timely, and orderly (Section 146 (1) sentence 1 of the Tax Code). The principle of correctness requires both material and formal correct recording. For this purpose, cash receipts and cash payments must be recorded on a daily basis.
What are small-value invoices?
Kleinbetragsrechnungen sind Rechnungen, deren Gesamtbetrag € 250,00 netto nicht übersteigt. Diese Rechnungen benötigen weniger Pflichtangaben.
What is a financial account?
In accounting, money movements are recorded in the financial accounts. In most cases, it is a bank account and a cash register. Other financial accounts are PayPal accounts or credit card accounts. A non-genuine financial account is a personal account. This is only a clearing account, since for each entry a balancing entry must be made in another account.
What are capital assets?
Fixed assets are assets used in the company on a long-term basis, e.g. vehicles, machines, cash register systems, tools, inventory, office furniture, or computers.
What are write-offs?
Expenditure on fixed assets is not directly considered a cost for tax purposes because the asset itself is brought into the company as a consideration. However, most fixed assets lose value over time. You can deduct this loss in value as a deduction for wear and tear (AfA) or depreciation as a cost. How high these are depends on the value and useful life.
My employee is sick, what to do?
From 2023, employees will no longer have to submit a certificate of incapacity for work to their employer. This will be done electronically. However, they should still insist on an AU printout for themselves. During a period of absence of up to six weeks, the employee is entitled to continued payment of wages. Depending on the health insurance fund, you will be reimbursed up to 80 percent of this.
Does the minimum wage apply to my employees?
The Minimum Wage Act has been applied to all employees since 2015. Exceptions exist for trainees, entry-level qualifications from unemployment, volunteers, compulsory or orientation interns, or underage vacation jobbers.
How much vacation do my employees have?
The statutory minimum leave is 24 working days for a 6-day week or 20 working days for a 5-day week. This regulation also applies to part-time employees and other part-time workers: To determine the vacation entitlement, the weekly hours are calculated in relation to a full-time employment relationship.
Why do I need the tax identification number of my employees?
The tax identification number is used to collect the electronic wage tax deduction characteristics (ELStAM) of your employees from the tax office. The use of this ELStAM data is mandatory. For this reason, always obtain the tax identification number and specify whether it is a primary or secondary employment relationship.
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