FAQ - Answers to Questions of Interest

The generic term "Kasse 2020" refers to the period since 01.01.2020 with new legal requirements for cash registers/cash register systems in Germany.

These requirements affect all entrepreneurial activities - whether in trade, gastronomy or crafts.

"Kasse 2020" is the generic term for the following provisions, among others:

- GOBD = Principles for the proper keeping and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form as well as for data access.
- Law to protect against manipulation of basic digital records
- Cash Register Security Ordinance (KassenSichV)
- DSFIN-VK
- (EU 2016/2235) Bisphenol-A-free (BPA) thermal paper becomes mandatory

The "TSE" (abbreviation for Technical Security Device) has been mandatory for the proper operation of an electronic recording system (cash register) since 01.01.2020.

It encrypts and stores all relevant business transactions of the recording system in a tamper-proof manner. What must be stored is specified in the Cash Register Security Ordinance.

Important: The TSE must be officially certified - not the cash register hardware! Current PC cash register systems offer all the prerequisites for legally compliant operation of the TSE.

What form does the TSE take?

On the one hand, it is offered as a hardware solution that is either installed directly by the cash register manufacturer or, in most cases, plugged into the cash register's port in an external housing. (e.g. special USB stick).

In this way, even older cash registers with USB ports can be upgraded inexpensively. In principle, all current PC cash registers should be able to be upgraded.

Cloud solutions have been developed as a further option, which are not only considered a feasible form for tablet cash registers.

The official approval of online/offline TSE by the BSI is important.

The answer is NO.

Only if an electronic recording system is used does the Cash Register Security Ordinance apply and a TSE must also be used.

Cash register systems are therefore not mandatory - but are nevertheless recommended when implementing the legal requirements, because the tamper-proof recording of business transactions and the document output obligation cannot be implemented manually in most business situations.

This includes, for example, the sequentially numbered recording of all (business) transactions and the manual creation of each sales document with all specified data - tamper-proof! Although exemptions for low-value goods are planned, they must be applied for in a procedure yet to be defined. Therefore, even in small businesses, the use of an electronic cash register is recommended.

Please consult your tax advisor or the tax office on the above points.

The answer is yes!

Every taxable person who uses an electronic recording system is subject to the obligation to issue receipts (Section 146a (2) AO).

This must be provided to each customer after the sale has been made - usually in the form of a printed receipt. It is therefore important to provide receipt printers in the appropriate number and capacity as quickly as possible.

Alternatively, the receipt can also be provided to the customer in electronic form. But beware: it is not enough to display it on a monitor! The receipt must be made available to the customer via SMS, email or download link. This is now often done via QR codes on the customer monitor, which can be captured by the customer using a smartphone.
However, this remains only one option, as a printed receipt must be offered as a matter of principle.

Important: Once again, the taxpayer alone is responsible for providing the receipt in compliance with the law!

Can current cash registers be upgraded with the TSE (Technical Security Equipment)?

Many current POS systems can be upgraded, but they must meet all requirements on the hardware side and the POS software must meet the current requirements. Some software manufacturers have decided not to implement this far-reaching change - solutions from these partners must be replaced.

Current PC-based POS systems should be upgradeable with a certified USB stick - proprietary systems are also prepared for this.

In addition, a possible cloud solution is on the horizon as a TSE alternative - in this case, only Internet access is required.

The decisive factor is the correct control of the certified TSE by the POS software used!

Good planning when buying a cash register saves real money!
Where to buy a cash register for retail or catering?

In principle, cash register systems are offered through numerous channels. On the Internet, the number of providers who want to sell systems cheaply and visually appealing is growing. However, in addition to many reputable companies, providers who offer little value in reality have also positioned themselves there.

The cash register has priority in the operation and as a store of your finances!

Decisive for the choice of the cash register supplier are exclusively your personal requirements. Keep in mind that modern cash registers are not counting machines, but the most important component in the operation of the company and for the daily workload!

Key questions:

How long is the cash register in operation daily? E.g. 7 days 7/14h it should be robust.

How many times a day is cashiered during peak periods? Not the total number per day, but the use at peak times is decisive!

Is the cash register in direct view of the customers? Then pay attention to the design of the cash register for an appealing ambience - otherwise it should be rather neutral/unobtrusive.

Who operates the cash register? This does not mean the touchscreen - which is an absolute must for sensible investment and a prerequisite for easy operation even by temporary staff. The question is aimed at body size and number of operators - so it should be individually height-adjustable. A robust cash register always makes sense, the degree is determined by the environment (e.g. drugstore, auto parts store or restaurant/hotel industry).

In which environment is the cash register located? E.g. gastronomy and bakeries with sometimes high requirements regarding heat and dust.

What happens in case of failure? This question is essential, because without a cash register it becomes critical - not only in store operations. Companies with several cash registers in the store are more relaxed, because the failure of one cash register is absorbed by another system.

What service does the supplier offer? When can he be reached, how quickly can he be on site, and what can he support with (installation, error analysis, etc.)?

Also important: In which industry do you work? Does the supplier know the industry and thus your requirements? Only then can he support you with useful tips.

There are many more questions you can ask. Do it! If the supplier won't/cannot answer, he may not be the right partner.

From our experience, the professional suppliers are always recommended - from single-station to multi-country branch projects. These are industry-specialized system and software houses and, of course, local cash register retailers. The latter, however, is often not positioned for extensive installations, but may work together with other partners.

As a distributor, we are not allowed to sell software or cash registers to end customers, but we will gladly provide you with the name of one or more contacts for your industry without obligation.

What must be paid for a certified cash register?

The price range is wide - from a few hundred to several thousand euros, everything is possible and justified. Demand/range of tasks and duration play a big role. It's no different with televisions and cars - with the difference that a cash register is critical to operations and tax assessment!

So it makes sense to get in-depth advice from expert partners.

Basically, these considerations should drive the decision:

What does the cash register need to be able to do? It makes sense to assign additional tasks to cash registers right away.
A PC system is currently powerful enough to perform many additional tasks (merchandise management, connection to the online store or online reservation, goods receipt, advertising via customer monitors, etc.).

Does design play a role? If you invest a lot of money in store design, you should not skimp on the cash register. The cash register is always seen by the customer....

Is quality important? Long opening hours and full workloads can put a strain on cash register systems. High quality pays off, because a cash register failure means money lost. Here, too, the principle applies: you get what you pay for.
Every breakdown disrupts the operating process. But if you have enough immediately available replacement systems, you can deal with the issue calmly.
Repurchase guarantee: Particularly in branch operations, it is important to have products that can be repurchased over a longer period of time with the same design. Lower service costs and a better customer experience are the result of a homogeneous checkout landscape.

How much support and service do I need - and how quickly?
First of all: Nobody works for free! Service costs money, and rightly so - this is an area where savings should not be made. Trustworthy suppliers will explain the services they offer and explain the prices.
Tip: Ask yourself if you would work at the prices....

Speaking of trust: The cash register is among the most important building blocks of your business! Value it as highly as your banking and tax data. Who would you trust with them? So don't be rushed by supposedly good offers and keep a cool head. The long-term success of your business is closely tied to your POS system.

Finally: Look at the real costs! In addition to the (sometimes not exactly quantifiable) savings in the workflow, the effective purchase price is always calculated on the entire term - in the POS area, it should be 5-7 years!

Formula: Purchase price of the cash register + service costs + possible monthly fees (e.g. software) = total price.

No way!
Even every well-made and well-intentioned information page can only represent the author's subjective view and level of knowledge - as is the case with our page!

You can only be provided with legally secure information by the tax consulting professions and by tax authorities.

And don't forget: The trader is exclusively responsible for the correct implementation of the KassenSichV under tax law - not the specialist retailer and also not a webshop provider.

An up-to-date overview of our state of knowledge with many links to sources of information can be found on our website in the Cashier 2020 section - under News/Industry Topics.

We can also recommend the official websites of the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the state ministries of finance and the BSI.

In the course of the cash security ordinance, the tax office has the possibility to check the regularity of the cash registers at any time and without notice during business hours - the so-called cash inspection. For this purpose, the auditor must be granted immediate access to the cash register and an employee must be available who is trained in the procedure of a cash register inspection. Many people are not aware of this point!
What must be provided? Here an overview based on information of the ministries of finance - as always without any contentwise legal obligation:

The taxpayer is obligated to cooperate in a cash inspection (§ 146b Abs. 2 AO). In addition to granting or fulfilling the right to access data, he must submit the procedural documentation on the recording system used, including information on the TSE, upon request.

Detailed procedural documentation should contain at least:

- Initial setup log
- Change logs, including lists with validity period and sequential number, p. 825
- programming guidelines
- error logs
- Operating manual
- Programming manual
- Program description
- Work instructions for the personnel
- Export instructions for a cash register inspection or external audit
- Proofs for certificates of the TSE

Note:
Tax advisors should prepare together with their clients for data access in the context of a cash inspection. It must be ensured that all (individual) data subject to recording, storage and submission requirements can be made available at any time.

In addition to up-to-date procedural documentation, a position (one employee) called "auditor" should be set up for direct data access in the electronic recording system. Extensive reading rights must be granted to this employee, i.e. he or she must be granted at least the same access rights as the entrepreneur himself or herself.

Since a cash audit is always unannounced, it can happen that the entrepreneur himself is not found in the company (or in the branch). In such a case, the above-mentioned person who has all the essential rights to access and use the cash register system (employee or branch manager) must then fulfill the entrepreneur's corresponding duties to cooperate with regard to the cash register system. The cash register inspection is carried out during the normal business hours of the respective company and can thus, in the case of certain branches, e.g. a bar or discotheque, also take place in the late evening hours. Since it will be difficult to reach a cashier during such evening or nighttime hours, the necessary rights should already have been set up on the cash register system and corresponding instructions or guidance should have been stored in the procedural documentation.

Source: https://datenbank.nwb.de/Dokument/864765/

RETAIL HARDENED - the decisive argument.
Developed and introduced by IBM - practiced and continued by TOSHIBA.

Acquiring the best product is the goal of every investment!
Performance is no longer defined in terms of technical billing capacity, but rather in terms of the longest possible service life - especially robust hardware - homogeneous and thus inexpensive to operate checkout environment - supplier security - compliance with legal regulations - high prestige value - and ultimately in the ecological balance.

So make your decisions with confidence.

Your investment - your decision - your responsibility - your future.

RMA - Remote maintenance included with Toshiba POS and kiosk systems
The abbreviation RMA stands for "Remote Management Agent" (remote maintenance).

This extraordinary tool from Toshiba (originally from IBM) allows in combination with the software "Toshiba Director" complete remote maintenance and cataloging of your Toshiba POS hardware. It is a differentiator from the competition - and is included free of charge.

Only 1 basic computer (server) is needed, on which the software "Toshiba Director" is installed - no matter where in the world. This server is then used to control 1 computer per store, to which all cash registers on site are connected via a network.

Much more than the status report expresses: the options of the RMA tool

- Transmission of the current system status

- Long-term recording of system statuses
- e.g. temperature CPU, utilization HDD

- Event-based information of the administrator
- e.g. if HDD utilization exceeds 80%, information is sent to administrator

- Deep control of adapted peripheries
- e.g. number of executed cuts on receipt printers

- Automated planning of the hardware service BEFORE the error occurs
- e.g. if number of cuts >3 million: replace cutting unit on receipt printer

- Complete asset management
- e.g. listing of all hardware with serial numbers, bios status, etc.

- Automated rollout of bios updates online
... and much more.

Let us explain the comprehensive features of this tool to you in a conversation with our team. We will gladly organize a consultation appointment online or in person. Ask us!

So far, so-called singletouch technologies were used for touchmonitors. These recorded the position where the finger touched the touch surface based on X and Y coordinates at the intersection point.

Modern multitouch systems, on the other hand, can detect several fingers (up to 10, depending on the technology) simultaneously and even measure their movement. This enables many more functions, e.g. "wiping" and "zooming", which is familiar from smartphones.

Even if many POS software manufacturers have not yet integrated the functions, multitouch is at least supported by current operating systems and is also important for future further developments.

After all, the POS system of today should be able to be used for many years with new developments.

How big is my screen really?

Manufacturers define size specifications in inches (") - 1 inch corresponds to approx. 2.54 cm. The size specification does not refer to width or height, but to the diagonal of the monitor - i.e. the distance from the lower left to the upper right corner of the screen.

Tip: Not only the size of a monitor is important - the resolution is also important in the checkout and self-checkout area.

And here, the brightness of the screen (specified in cd/m2) plays the decisive role > the higher its value, the better the image result in direct sunlight or halogen light.

Also important: the lateral viewing angle. The larger it is, the better the cash register can be positioned and used (also for customer information).

In the meantime, access to information is increasingly made possible with a QR code. This square code usually leads to websites, but can also contain completely different information - depending on the design, even entire patient files.

The QR code belongs to the family of 2D codes, where the 2D stands for two dimensions.

In contrast to the 1D barcode - e.g. the familiar barcode on products - simplified 2D codes are read both horizontally and vertically.

The scanners detect the width and ratio of the light and dark areas in the code and calculate the information from this.

To ensure that this can be done quickly, imager technology is currently being used to take a photo of the code and decode the information from the 2D code.

Smartphones also use the internal camera to capture the codes, and the corresponding software translates them.

Professional 2D imagers from our Auto-ID section offer many additional services - for example, in addition to the QR code, they also capture other 2D and 1D codes super-fast and are also able to read damaged codes perfectly.

Conclusion: 1D barcode scanners are limited to conventional barcodes, 2D imagers can read both 1D and 2D codes (such as the QR code) and are therefore more future-proof - another application example is the capture of loyalty cards from the cell phone display.

In the thermal process, the printing on the surface is not produced by "pressure" but by spot heating. For this purpose, the surface must be chemically prepared - normal paper cannot be printed with this process.

By heating the thermal paper surface with pinpoint accuracy, it turns dark so that letters or complex drawings can be displayed. Modern (receipt) printers can even regulate the degree of heat per point individually. In principle, this technology can be used to produce multicolor prints - provided that more expensive paper is used.

Advantages of thermal printing:
- Very fast printing
- High print density
- Much quieter than dot matrix printing
- More robust than dot-matrix printing, as there are hardly any moving parts
- Thermal print head with long service life

Disadvantages of thermal printing:
- Heat-sensitive paper surface
- Print can blacken due to exposure to sunlight/heat
- Thermal paper has only limited durability compared to normal paper

Prerequisite for thermal printing:
- Thermal print-capable receipt or label printer.
- Paper or label roll must be thermally coated!

As with pure thermal printing, the surface is not printed by "pressure" but by selective heating.

In contrast to the thermal process, however, the surface of the paper does not have to be chemically prepared; normal paper can be used - or synthetic materials. The thermal transfer process is frequently used in the labeling sector.

Process: An ink ribbon made of wax, resin or a mixture of both materials is fed between the thermal print head and the surface to be printed. By heating the ribbon surface with pinpoint accuracy, it discolors the underlying surface so that letters as well as complex graphics can be printed.

Depending on the application, plain paper labels (inexpensive) or synthetic versions (very durable) are recommended. The choice of label surface also determines the choice of ribbon material. Thus, plain paper labels are often printed with wax, synthetic labels with wax/resin combinations.

Advantages thermal transfer printing:
- Very fast printing
- Better print quality compared to thermal printing (up to 600 dpi)
- Free choice of surface
- Much quieter and more robust than dot matrix printing
- No fading of the printing - depending on the material, not even under extreme temperatures or chemical influences

Disadvantage of thermal printing:
- More expensive overall due to the additional use of ink ribbon

Prerequisite Thermal transfer printing:
- Special ink ribbons (thermal transfer foils)

Powered USB refers to a USB 2.0 interface that has an additional power supply. Color-coded accordingly, peripherals with 12V or 24V can be connected.

The advantage besides saving an additional power supply is the fixed locking of the Powered USB cable, comparable to a network cable.

Powered USB interfaces can also be used for standard USB peripherals. This increases the number of available interfaces.

Example:
24V USB to control and simultaneously power a receipt printer.
12V USB to control and simultaneously power a touch screen.

A new generation of USB interface that not only enables significantly higher data transfer rates, but can also take on many other functions such as monitor control and power supply, depending on the model.

The first cash register manufacturers have already integrated this new technology into their hardware.

We are available by phone from Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 17:30 at +49 2941/2801-0. We are also happy to receive inquiries by email at info@quad.de or via the contact button on this website.
All details with extensions to the departments and teams are waiting for you on this website in the "Contact" section.

In a nutshell: Any company that resells products purchased from us directly or indirectly to their end customers can buy from us.
These resellers of IT technology can be, for example, specialist dealers, software houses, system houses, consulting companies or integrators or producers.

As a distributor - and thus official representative of the respective brand manufacturers

Of course, end customers can also contact us with project inquiries. We will be happy to support you with advice and analysis and find the right specialist partner for your request.

Interested new customers simply send us an email with the proof of reseller activity (trade license, HR statement, etc.) or fill out the new customer form on this website. We will contact you immediately!

In the area Contact/Accounting/SEPA Direct Debit you can download the form.
Please do not forget to countersign the original and send it back to QUAD GmbH.

Questions? You can reach our accounting department at +49 2941/2801-750 or buchhaltung@quad.de.

Across all product groups, our customers can contact us by phone at +49 2941/2801-900 or send an email with details to support@quad.de right away.
From there, we will forward your request to the appropriate specialists.
Important: Please have the serial number or our invoice number of the product ready, as we can understandably only offer our premium support for products purchased from us.

The support of end customers is always taken over by the specialist partner. Therefore, please contact your supplier directly - he will then contact us immediately if necessary.

Both within and outside the warranty, our customers can contact our RMA department directly by phone +49 2941/2901-700 or email RMA@quad.de.
There, the cooperation with our technical support will be coordinated and further steps will be initiated.

Before each shipment, an individual RMA return number must be requested from our RMA department. The process description awaits you on this website in the Consulting&Support/RMA area.
Important: The assigned RMA number must be clearly visible on the shipping packaging of the defective product! Without the RMA number, we reserve the right to refuse acceptance or to delay processing.

Document the damage as best as possible using pictures and have the condition confirmed in writing by the delivery agent on the delivery receipt!
Afterwards, please inform our RMA department immediately.
In case of doubt, refuse acceptance with reference to the damaged condition.

No, the activation for price viewing and ordering is also done for existing customers upon request - either by email or simply as a new customer application via this website under "My QUAD".

We offer the possibility of repair for many product series - even outside the warranty period.
Contact our RMA department and let us advise you - because it also makes sense for environmental reasons to put valuable devices back into use.
Resource conservation also includes the intensive cleaning and servicing of printers, which often provide many years of good service afterwards.

Yes, from 09:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 17:00 our collection is available. However, please make an appointment in advance!
Central warehouse QUAD GmbH, Windmüllerstrasse 30, D-59557 Lippstadt

A good contribution to environmental protection and therefore we gladly support to send all invoices and credit notes only by email to your individual mail address, which can also be different from your standard address.
For this purpose it is sufficient to send an email with your name, customer number, business address and the desired email address for receiving invoices to rechnung@quad.de.
You can cancel this service at any time.

Apropos: This also applies to invoices to QUAD GmbH! Suppliers please send invoices exclusively to the tax-relevant incoming address: rechnung@quad.de