bessa Sign is the in-house online signature service of bessa POS. It performs the fiscally compliant signing of every receipt, buffers short-term offline periods, archives the fiscal receipt chain over the long term, and produces audit-ready exports for the tax authority. In Austria, bessa Sign also takes care of the fully automated communication with FinanzOnline – from registering the cash register to deregistering it.
bessa Sign replaces the traditional overhead of signature cards, in-house archives, and manual authority filings with a fully managed service.
What bessa Sign Does for You
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Fiscally compliant signing of every receipt – every transaction is signed in real time and added to the fiscal receipt chain.
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Short-term offline buffering – if the internet goes down, receipts are buffered locally and signed retroactively once the connection is restored.
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Secure long-term archival – the signed receipt chain is stored in an audit-proof manner for the legally required retention period.
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Export for tax audits – the full fiscal export for the tax authority is available at the click of a button.
Behind the scenes, bessa Sign relies on proven, certified signature and fiscalisation backends per jurisdiction. For you as a user, bessa remains your single point of contact for contract, billing, and support.
Supported Countries and Data Requirements
bessa Sign is available in Austria, Germany, and Croatia. The data you need to provide depends on the jurisdiction.
Austria
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Required information |
Description |
|---|---|
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Steuernummer or UID or GISA number |
Any one of these three identifiers is sufficient to uniquely link your cash register to the tax authority. |
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FinanzOnline Webservice User |
Participant ID, user ID, and PIN of a dedicated webservice user. See FinanzOnline Integration – Create a Webservice User for how to create one. |
Germany
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Required information |
Description |
|---|---|
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Steuernummer |
Tax number of your company. |
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UID |
VAT identification number. |
Croatia
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Required information |
Description |
|---|---|
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UID (OIB) |
Osobni identifikacijski broj – the Croatian tax identification number. |
Additional Automation in Austria
In Austria, bessa Sign handles all communication with FinanzOnline. The following steps run without any manual intervention:
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Cash register registration – including the Startbeleg and the entry in the FinanzOnline portal.
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Outage report – if the signature creation unit is unavailable beyond the permitted period, bessa Sign reports the outage automatically. Background and self-service steps: Signature Device Failed – What to Do?.
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Annual receipt report – the annual audit due by 15 February is generated and submitted automatically. Details: Annual Receipt Audit (Jahresbeleg).
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Decommissioning and deregistration – when you take a cash register out of service, bessa Sign generates and submits the Schlussbeleg.
Full automation in Austria requires a valid FinanzOnline webservice user. Without it, bessa Sign can still sign and archive receipts, but cannot submit messages to FinanzOnline.
Setup in bessa Manager
The data for bessa Sign is maintained centrally in the company master data.
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Log in to bessa Manager.
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Navigate to Master Data → Companies → [Your company] and open the Tax tab. A complete field reference is available in Managing Companies.
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Enter the identifiers required for your jurisdiction (Steuernummer, UID, or GISA number).
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In Austria: add the FinanzOnline credentials (participant ID, user ID, PIN) of your webservice user.
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Activate bessa Sign and use "Check FinanzOnline access" (Austria only) to verify the connection.
Activation itself is not a manual self-service step in the narrow sense: as soon as the data is complete, bessa Sign registers your cash register with the tax authority automatically in the background.
FAQ
What happens during a longer internet outage?
Receipts are buffered locally and added to the fiscal receipt chain. Once the connection returns, bessa Sign signs the buffered receipts retroactively. If the outage in Austria exceeds the legally permitted period, bessa Sign automatically files the outage report with FinanzOnline.
Can I switch from my own signature creation unit to bessa Sign?
Yes. In Austria, switching the signature creation unit is a regular operation. bessa Sign registers the new signature assignment via FinanzOnline; no new Startbeleg is required. Your existing receipt chain remains verifiable.
How long are my receipts archived?
bessa Sign archives the fiscal receipt chain for at least the retention period legally required in your jurisdiction (7 years in Austria and Germany).
How do I export receipts for a tax audit?
bessa Manager provides a fiscal export with date-range selection that produces the format required by your tax authority (e.g. DEP in Austria, DSFinV-K in Germany).
Do I need to do anything when I move locations or add new cash registers?
A new main sales point is created in master data; bessa Sign handles every further step – including registration with the tax authority – automatically.