Advantages and disadvantages of the changeover

Digital bookkeeping enables companies to make accounts more efficient and avoid filing mountains. The additional effort by scanning the receipts is compensated for by the better availability and the saving of printing costs.

Nevertheless, there are some risks and costs that need to be considered when digitizing accounting. In our advisor we give you important decision criteriawith which you can weigh when the changeover is worthwhile for a company.

1. The advantages of digital accounting

1.1. Digital accounting saves space and protects resources

Digitizing the bookkeeping has many advantages, the most obvious of it is certainly that Evidence no longer have to be kept in paper form. Due to the legal retention periods, which are usually 10 years, tremendous mountains of files can accumulate that not only have to be available at any time, but should also be well structured so that business activities can be traced back years after the actual booking.

Due to electronic accounting, the overview is much easierbut here too, a clear structure must be retained, which is usually specified by your accounting program. Of course, a retention obligation also applies to digital accounting. They fulfill these by scanning the documents and entering accounting. Due to digital archiving, you can then destroy the documents in paper form.

The paperless office also has the advantage that you no longer have to print out invoices etc. that you are already reaching electronically, for example via email. This not only saves time and costs, but is also Environmental and resource-saving. If you still have the need, to look through annual financial statements or determined balance sheets in paper form, you can easily print them out.

1.2. The paperless office facilitates the analysis of corporate development

The analysis of the business figures is facilitated by the fact that all money and goods movement are entered into a digital accounting system. In practice, this means that you With one click, the balances of the accounts can display and they can be updated automatically. Diagrams and tables no longer have to be processed manually, but can be created from the data record of digital accounting.

1.3. The automatic filling accelerates the bookkeeping

As soon as a sole proprietor exceeds a certain sales or surplus limit or the company is subject to one of the common legal forms (GmbH, AG, KG, etc.), a double bookkeeping is required. A suitable accounting software can not only make it easier to assign them to the accounts, but also to take bookings immediately in all relevant accounts. Specifically, this means that they Business activities are only chronological must. If you have created the land register or journal, the bookings are automatically transferred to all relevant accounts. Therefore, the manual addendum in main and secondary books can mostly be eliminated when it comes to digital accounting. The additional effort of the scanning of the documents is therefore compensated for here at the latest.

When it comes to digital accounting, the proper bookkeeping must also be taken into account (GoBD). Subsequent changes in booking rates are excluded for reasons of verifiability. Therefore, errors can also be compensated for by correction bookings.

Digital accounting also has the advantage that they are very easy Implement automatic invoicing can, so that a manual booking is eliminated. If a claim is not paid on time, many programs can also automatically create reminders.

By linking the accounting program and bank account, regular payments such as rent and personnel costs can also be booked without any problems. Of course, the same also applies to receipts that can be clearly assigned.

1.4. Online accounting is available everywhere

Depending on which software you choose, the question arises whether you save the data on a single computer or in a central cloud. The cloud has the advantage that data can be called up everywhere. This means that it is possible without any problems that different locations of a company work together in terms of accounting and that access to access can also view and expand the data in the home office. Many online accounting also does not need software installation, but can be reached via the browser.

With online accounting, however, you should always take data protection into account. If you do not have your own servers and commission foreign companies to store (mostly the company of the accounting program), you should Check trustworthiness and, if possible, pay attention to domestic server locations. In order to protect yourself from foreign access and hackers, you also need to choose safe passwords that are changed regularly.

Hackers can get to confidential passwords in their encryption or phishing emails. If you do not have a corresponding know-how, you should seek advice from IT security companies.

No matter which software solution (online/offline) you choose, in any case you should Ensure additional fusesso you also have access to your data when the central servers of online accounting crash or fails your computer's hard drive. There is also an external hard drive that you store in a different location, so that there is also a fuse of your data in the event of a fire, burglary, etc. If important evidence is missing, the tax office will interpret this for the disadvantage of the company.

1.5. Simplified communication with tax advice

If you commission an external tax advisor, it is important that he has access to the receipts. In the event of an analog accounting, the documents are collected every month and handed over to tax advice in paper form. This process is much easier for digital accounting, since the tax advisor with the corresponding permissions can call up the required data in real time. It is an advantage if tax advisors and entrepreneurs use the same software (e.g. DATEV accounting).

When communicating with tax advice, you should also make sure that no unauthorized third parties have access to your data. E-mail shipping from receipts and confidential financial information should only be encrypted. For example, PGP encryption is suitable for this.

2. Risks and costs of digital accounting

The greatest risk accompanied by digital accounting is the data theft. As soon as data is available online, you are also potentially exposed to the attack by hackers. This also applies to a normal PC with network access. With the right safety precautions, however, this problem is easy to handle.

It is far more difficult to make itself Getting used to the new processes of accounting. Responsible staff may have to be incorporated into the new software. Financially, the changeover can also cost the new acquisition of computers and servers.

A common problem is also changing communication with the tax advisor. Many tax advisors still prefer documents in paper form. So before retrofitting, you should clarify whether your tax advisor accepts digital evidence or which digital transmission system will be best suited in the future. If necessary, it may also make sense to switch to a tax advisor who specializes in digital accounting.

Tip: When choosing the software, make sure that you can transmit the data to the tax advisor.

3. Conclusion

A switch to digital bookkeeping is forward -looking, but associated with considerable costs. The time that is lost by digitizing the documents is usually saved elsewhere. The great advantage of digital accounting is the better availability of the data and the material savings. To what extent work processes are accelerated can only be assessed in individual cases. Below we created a short pro conta list that can make the decision easier for you.

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