[Advacs-discuss] [Fwd: RE: Software Compliance.]

[Helmut Wollmersdorfer]

[cc because of instable alioth server]

Oliver Elphick wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-08-20 at 06:29, David Palmer wrote:

>>O.K. Here's the reply from the Australian Tax office.
[...]
> The ATO requirements are specifically about tax so far as I can see. 
> This is useful to have, but it's the person who writes the Australian
> tax module who will need the exact details.

I agree, that national logic should be developed by national developers.

But maybe we should collect examples from which we can learn something 
about necessary design. I assume (or hope) that some national 
requirements can be inplemented in a more generalised way, usabale for 
more than one nation with a minimum of changes.

> I'll try to build a sample interface to a tax module soon so that there
> will be a target to shoot at.

This is an example, where I believe, that most of the countries within 
the European Community can use the British tax modul.

But let me give a quick overview about interfaces to external systems in 
my area. This does not mean, that it is of high priority (= version 
1.0), but users will request it sooner or later.

1) Tax Office
    (XML, manually Web-Interface, or PDF)

- monthly and yearly VAT declaration
   monthly VAT declaration
   http://www.bmf.gv.at/egov/fonline/software/u30_10/_start.htm

- income or corporate tax declaration
   yearly declarations
   http://www.bmf.gv.at/egov/fonline/software/Form03/_start.htm

- yearly tax summary per employee
   http://www.bmf.gv.at/egov/fonline/software/l1_03/_start.htm

2) Company Register
    (XML or printed paper)

- financial report
   http://www.bmj.gv.at/broschueren/download/schnittstellen.pdf
   http://www.brz.gv.at/Content.Node_brz/it/613.html?SMSESSION=NO

3) banks

- payment transactions (incoming and outgoing)
   different formats like EDIFACT, CSV, XML

4) invoices

Fryday a friend told me, that he needs an accounting system, which 
imports invoices directly from his billing system. (He developed a 
billing system for small ISPs). The XML-format of the interface is an 
open standard - http://www.opentrans.org/, which seems to become 
widespread in German speaking countries. I think we can use most of the 
data design of opentrans for Order Processing and Invoices.

5) external accountant

In Austria most of the small companies do only the simple accounting 
transactions themselves. At the end of the year an external accountant 
does all the adjustments, accruals, depreciations etc. necessary to get 
a correct financial report. Usally ledgers have interfaces to export the 
necessary data.

Second, payroll calculation is very complex, needs expensive software 
and special educated persons. In most cases it is cheaper to give this 
task to external experts.

Helmut Wollmersdorfer