Digital financial report

The digital financial report is a process that enables the annual financial statements of a company ( balance sheet , income statement ) to be transmitted in digital form directly and without media discontinuity from the creator of the financial statements to a bank or savings bank . It is irrelevant whether the reporting company itself or a service provider commissioned by it ( tax adviser or auditor ).

General

Banks and savings banks are required by law to inform themselves before credit is granted on the economic conditions of their borrowers and during the repayment term to keep it up to date. In corporate banking, they can be used to fulfill this obligation. a. present the annual accounts of the companies concerned. Up to now, the financial statements prepared digitally by the reporting companies themselves or by their tax advisors or auditors have been printed out, given to the bank or savings bank in paper form and entered there manually for processing in the respective electronic balance sheet analysis system.

With the digital financial report, annual financial statements and income statements can be sent electronically to banks and savings banks. The handover in paper form is thus replaced. Routine activities in balance sheet analysis can increasingly be automated in the future.

procedure

The submission of the legally binding degree recognized by the appointed company representatives for the digital financial report is as follows:

The reporting company submits a declaration of participation and liability to its bank or savings bank. With this declaration, the company identifies the sender of the financial statements (the company itself or its tax advisor or auditor) to the bank or savings bank and declares the financial statements submitted as digital financial reports to be binding. The reporting company only needs to make this declaration once. It can be revoked at any time.
If the company sends the financial statement itself, it technically proceeds as the IT service provider in question specifies.
If the company's tax advisor or auditor is to send the legally binding financial statements, the company instructs him to do so. The tax consultant or auditor technically proceeds as his IT service provider specifies.

The receiving bank or savings bank checks the authenticity of the data sent using the reporting company's declaration of participation and liability and, if the authentication is positive, imports the data into the company's own balance sheet analysis system. The credit check will then be carried out as before.

Components of the digital financial report

A digital financial report consists of

an XBRL data set with the figures for the reporting year and the previous year's figures,
a pictorial copy of the prepared financial statements in PDF file format ,
optionally up to four additional PDF documents (e.g. certificate),
Data record information (identification feature of the sender, identity feature for the conformity of the prepared financial statements and XBRL data, information on creation and transmission software, information on the transmission path).

Data format and transmission technology

The closing data for the digital financial report is transmitted in the form of XBRL data. XBRL (E x tensible B usiness R eporting L anguage) is a freely available on XML (E x tensible M arkup L anguage) based language for structured representation of business information as part of the financial reporting. XBRL provides standardized data schemes for the purposes of the respective reporting in the form of so-called taxonomies. The digital financial report uses the HGB taxonomy 6.0 for balance sheets and the EÜR taxonomy 1.0 or its future developments for income surplus calculations.

The balance sheet must be submitted to the tax office in the form of an XBRL data record at the latest since the 2013 financial year and the balance sheet has been submitted to the Federal Gazette for publication in XBRL format since 2007. In both applications, the XBRL format has also proven itself from a practical point of view.

The data is transmitted encrypted and directly, i.e. without an intermediate station, using IFP web service technology ( I nitiative F inanzplatz P rozesse).

Scope and depth of the report

The XBRL standard does not represent its own accounting standard, but rather maps existing accounting standards (e.g. HGB, IFRS). The innovative transmission method of the digital financial report should neither expand nor deepen the material scope of the disclosure. The scope and depth of the information required also result from the individual business relationship between the bank or savings bank and the reporting company.

Legal framework

The legal framework of the digital financial report is formed by unilateral declarations by those involved, so that no bilateral or multilateral agreements are required. These are the following declarations:

Declaration of liability by the bank or savings bank. This declaration is intended to ensure that the liability situation between tax consultants or auditors on the one hand and the bank or savings bank on the other hand does not change as a result of the transmission process of the digital financial report compared to the previous legal situation. Banks or savings banks that wish to participate in the digital financial report process must submit the declaration of liability.
Declaration of conformity of the IT service provider. By submitting this declaration, the IT service providers of the sender and recipient assure that their respective solution complies with all professional and technical requirements of the digital financial report.
Declaration of participation and commitment by the reporting company. See above "Procedure", Bulletpoint 1.

Data security and data protection

The digital financial report is transmitted directly from the sender to the recipient in encrypted form without intermediate stations. The technologies used for encryption and authentication of digital financial reports have been tried and tested in the banking industry.

All relevant data protection regulations as well as all legal and contractual confidentiality obligations also apply to the digital financial report.

Date of introduction

From April 2018, annual financial statements and income statements can be transmitted to participating banks and savings banks as a digital financial report.

literature

Carmen Mausbach: Leveraging synergies with the e-balance sheet, in Bankmagazin 6/2016, p. 50 f.

Klaus Oechsle: The digital financial report, in DB supplement 04 to issue No. 47 from November 25, 2016, p. 45 ff.