Hi Robin,

We’ve already removed the daily receipts book once we made the move to MEWS.
Everyday an export is sent with all transactions to our accountant. He can then load these into our accounting software. This was a custom made export by the Planet Winner team, so I’m not entirely sure how to set this up unfortunately.

Regards,

Matthias

Dear  @MatthiasH 

Thank you very much for your answer, that is also the way we work, but yesterday we just had controlle from the flying brigade of the FOD Financieen. Here they are now asking me for proof once the daily receipts are forwarded to the accountant that they cannot be changed to commit fraud. The Circular 2020/C/20 regarding the digitally kept diary of receipts and centralization book of the FPS states that when keeping the daily receipts digitally, it must be possible to prove that when digitally transferred the file cannot be changed.

Here with their legislation:
First condition: the taxpayer must guarantee the integrity of the contents of the
diary of receipts from the time of entry until the end of
the legal retention period.
www.fisconetplus.be
9
By "integrity of the contents" one means the fact that the entries in the diary of receipts
entries are not altered after their entry. Any entry in the
diary of receipts must therefore have an immutable character.
In case of correction of an entry already made, the original erroneous
entry may not be erased under any circumstances and under any pretext.
In the context of a digital diary of receipts, this implies that it should not be technically
possible, after its entry in the diary of receipts, to modify or delete an entry without leaving a trace.
change or delete an entry without leaving a trace of it.
The original entry must always remain legible. In concrete terms, this means that the line or entry to be modified
line or entry, for example, may be crossed out, but only in such a way that the
crossed out data can be deciphered. If an entire line has been crossed out, the
the correct entry is then placed on the next available line. If
on the other hand, one (more) entry(s) of a line must be corrected without
affecting the entire line, the correct entry(s) will be entered
in the same box(es) as the data crossed out.
The taxpayer determines how the integrity of the contents of the journal of receipts is
is guaranteed. He must therefore, upon any request from control agents of the competent
administration, be able to prove that this condition has been met.
To this end, he may, for example, use:
- the security of the daily entry by means of an advanced electronic
signature;
- a system of company controls that allows to verify the conformity of the
entries in the diary of receipts with the amounts mentioned on other documents
(tenders, work orders, account statements, etc.) and thus establish that the contents of the diary of revenue
of receipts is correct and has not been modified;
- a trusted (external) cloud provider;
- an immutable database (with cryptography to verify);
- a blockchain system (blocks of data linked via cryptography);
- a database with cryptographic verification (and signing by an external party);
- a combination of 2 or more of the preceding means or systems.
Second condition: the taxpayer must guarantee the readability of the journal of
receipts guarantee from the time of entry until the end of the legal
retention period.
Legibility" means that the revenue journal is displayed in such a way that
all data it contains and which are related to VAT are clearly legible, whether on paper
or on digital screen, without requiring much examination or interpretation.
The taxpayer decides how the legibility of the diary of receipts will be
ensured.

Hope sombody can help me out here ;-)

Best regards,

Robin

Thanks @MatthiasH 

Maybe someone from Mews can answer this if the daily receipts book that is sent through can still be changed or adjusted after sending. I ask this because I have been audited by the FOD Financien in Belgium and I have to be able to prove that this cannot be changed anymore to prevent fraud.

Hi @barb00sa,

I am looking into it, trying to find more info 

Once I know more, I´ll let you know 

Hello, @MarketaOupi 

for your answer.

I hope you can help me because I had the Fod Finance people over for a second time and they want more explanation on this.

Hello @barb00sa , and hello @MatthiasH 

@MatthiasH nice to see you being so involved here 

I am afraid my friend, that I am that little ex-Planet Winner devil who made sure your accounting data can be moved from Mews to your accounting software every day

To answer the question of @barb00sa : the export can only be done on data that cannot be changed anymore; in most hotels that is the data from the day(s) before. So if the controller of FOD Finance refers to the accounting software when he/she is talking about the daily receipt book, you can tell him there are no issues here. The data in Mews is protected from changes, once transmitted to accounting.

However, as Matthias knows, I used to have my own PMS system in Belgium, so I am quite familiar with the different regulations. I also know that the controllers demand different proofs depending on the region in Belgium your hotel is situated and I think this controller is referring to a report that comes out of your PMS system, Mews. 

Take a look at the Managers report and compare this with the daily receipt book you are now keeping manually; if you think that the information on there is sufficient, i would suggest to create an export schedule which exports this report automatically each morning for the day before; The Managers report data is produced at night and the info on there does not change anymore once the data is produced.

You can also mention that Mews is NF-525 compliant, the law in France that is much more strict than all ETxxxx rules in Belgium.

If the controller needs more info, I am more than willing to jump on a call as well.

I hope this answer helps, have a great end of the week!

Dear @Ria and @MatthiasH 
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation on this Ria. i have therefore forwarded your reply to the people at the Fod. Hopefully this will give them enough information. If they have any further questions, I will be sure to let you know. Thank you in advance for your input.
Greetings 

Robin