About the GoBD
The German acronym GoBD stands for "principles for the proper management and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form, as well as data access".
The GoBD principles apply to all areas in which operational processes are recorded by means of digital processing techniques. This includes, for example payment systems. They apply to all tax relevant documents that are digitally recorded, used or archived. Every business transaction needs to be documented with a receipt. Each German taxpayer is responsible for the compliance.
GoBD Core principles
According to the GoBD, the documents and bookings need to fulfil the following core requirements:
# | GoBD | Little Hotelier |
1 | Traceability | Every booking in the LH system is clearly documented and recorded.
Reservations include payment processing, discounts, and refunds which are all tracked in the LH system. Users may easily add additional transactions processed outside of the system in order to have complete transaction records. The General Ledger section of LH gives comprehensible reservations and corresponding transactional information to a knowledgeable third party. Process documentation can be found here to be consumed by any third party (Ex. Auditors). Documentation includes complete walkthrough of the system, and supported general ledger functionality. |
2 | Completeness | All reservations created within Little Hotelier are recorded and cannot be deleted providing the full gap free documentation. |
3 | Accuracy | Reservation and fiscal transactions data is recorded and tracked from the time of creation. Any and all modifications to this data are also recorded real time. Little Hotelier maintains a unified data model across the application, data storage and archiving systems. This allows the system to maintain data integrity, traceability and security across the board. |
4 | Timely bookings and recording | Little Hotelier provides the capability for property users to record all transactions. Due to the cloud based nature of LH all reservations and transactions are immediately stored upon users recording this information. However, it is the users' responsibility to log all cash and non-cash transactions into the system if not using an integrated payment gateway. |
5 | Order | Little Hotelier has a General Ledger section that enables users to clearly visualise bookings and transactions per booking:
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6 | Immutability | Every transaction made within Little Hotelier is stored in an immutable data source, which cannot be altered by the customers. The customers have no point of entry to alter data, other than in a way where a new record for any alteration is created. A snapshot of the reservation data is taken for every modification made and stored to track all changes |
7 | Retention | Every transaction made within Little Hotelier for every reservation is stored in an immutable data source, with archiving functions built in. Once this data has been stored, it can be retrieved at any time by using the “General Ledger” functionality to view a breakdown of the transactions made. In addition to archiving transaction level data, Little Hotelier also archives all cumulative and perpetual closings data. Archived data is never purged and hence is available for the lifetime of a customer's system usage. |
The General Ledger
To ensure compliance with the GoBD's core principles, the Little Hotelier Front Desk has a General Ledger functionality.
The General Ledger tracks the fiscal transactions of a property and enables users to clearly visualise bookings and transactions per booking.
It gives comprehensible reservations and corresponding transactional information to a knowledgeable third party.
Process documentation can be found in the Little Hotelier Front Desk - General Ledger User Manual to be consumed by any third party (Ex. Auditors). Documentation includes complete walkthrough of the system, and supported general ledger functionality.