The use of Process documentation It describes the organisational and technical procedures of an IT-supported Buchführung or recording process. It is intended to make it traceable how tax-relevant data and documents are generated, processed, stored, protected and retrieved.
What is a Procedural documentation?
The Procedural documentation is a component of the requirements for the traceability and verifiability of Buchführungs and recording procedures.
After GoBD it must be described in a comprehensible manner for a relevant IT system how the deployed procedure actually works. The documentation must be sufficiently understandable that an expert third party can comprehend and verify the procedure within a reasonable timeframe.
What does a Procedural documentation describe?
The documentation describes the organisational and technical procedures intended for a process. This may include, for example, how electronic documents are created or received, processed, stored, retrieved, protected against loss or alteration, and reproduced.
Following the GoBD, a Procedural documentation generally consists of a general description, user documentation, technical system documentation and operational documentation.
Does a Procedural documentation need to be kept up to date?
The documented process must match the process actually used. Changes to systems or processes must therefore remain historically traceable.
The GoBD provide in particular a versioning system or a traceable change history for this purpose. The documentation must also be available for the required retention period remain in place insofar as it is necessary for the understanding of the documents in question.
Procedural documentation and ICS – what is the difference?
The Procedural documentation describes the procedure used and makes its organisational and technical process transparent.
A Internal Control System on the other hand, comprises the established controls designed to ensure or monitor compliance with defined procedures and requirements. Control measures can be described within the Procedural documentation, but the two terms are not synonymous.
What is the legal basis for Procedural documentation?
The requirements are related to the statutory regulations for Bookkeeping and records, in particular §§ 145 et seq. AO and the corresponding commercial law provisions.
The GoBD guidelines set out the administrative position on these requirements for electronic Buchführung and recording procedures. In particular, they require the procedures used to be documented in a manner that is transparent and verifiable.
Important: A missing or inadequate Procedural documentation does not automatically lead to the rejection of a Bookkeeping following the GoBD. The decisive factor, in particular, is whether this impairs traceability and verifiability.
