Receipt issuance and TSE signature

In Germany every transaction is signed by the TSE. This signing is handled automatically in the background by bessa Sign. The signed data is stored and is not transmitted to the tax office on an ongoing basis — it is provided only during an audit (see below).

What appears on the receipt

Since the receipt-issuance obligation (Belegausgabepflicht, 2020) every receipt contains, among other things:

the timestamp of the transaction start and end and the date of issuance
the transaction number
the serial number of the recording system and the serial number of the TSE
the signature counter and the check value of the signature

This information is readable in plain text or via a QR code (the QR code is optional).

Short-term offline operation

Unlike Croatia, Germany permits short-term offline operation. If the connection to the TSE fails temporarily:

you can keep posting — receipt issuance continues normally,
the outage is marked on the receipt (by the missing transaction number or a clear note),
the recording system supplies the date and time itself during this period,
the affected receipts are signed afterwards (late signing) as soon as the connection is restored.

This applies only to temporary outages, not to planned offline operation. The outage must be documented and the cause remedied without delay.

Messages during an outage

From bessa POS version 6.2.0, the Sales Point names the provider and the cause when TSE signing fails – in the status menu as a short line with the duration of the outage, and under Menu → Settings → Sales Point → Signature Management with an additional explanation of what to do. This tells you whether you need to act on site. Whatever the cause, you keep posting as described above.

Message in the status menu	What to do
"‹provider›: server certificate expired"	Nothing. The signature service's server certificate has expired; this affects all of the provider's customers. Once fixed, the next receipt is signed again.
"‹provider› disrupted"	Nothing. The signature service reports an error itself. The Sales Point retries with every receipt.
"‹provider› unreachable"	Check the Sales Point's internet connection and restart the router or modem if necessary. If the internet works and other locations are affected too, the cause lies with the provider.
"‹provider›: access denied"	Does not resolve itself. The credentials are stored in bessa Manager – contact bessa or your reseller to have them checked.
"Signature outage since: … h" (no cause)	The Sales Point could not assign the error to a cause. This message also appears after a restart until the next signing attempt fails, and in versions before 6.2.0. If the outage persists, contact bessa or your reseller.

To document the outage, note its start, its end and the cause the Sales Point reported.

No ongoing report — provided only on inspection

There is no periodic or real-time transmission to the tax office. The recorded data is provided only on demand — during an audit or an (unannounced) cash inspection (Kassen-Nachschau) — as a DSFinV-K export. The retention obligations under GoBD and § 147 AO apply; your tax advisor uses this data.