New law on online cash registers: how the service of commercial equipment changes

Image: Rusty Clark , Flickr

In our blog earlier we talked about changes in the law on the use of CCM related to the transition to online data transfer to the Federal Tax Service. FZ-54 seriously changes the whole scheme of work of retail and service enterprises in the territory of the Russian Federation. From July 1, 2017, the law will work in full, which obliges all trade organizations to fully switch to new equipment or modernize old cash register systems.
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Not only the equipment itself will change, but also the principle of its maintenance. Today we will talk about how the new scheme will look and what the business will need to do in order to bring the equipment into compliance with the requirements of the legislation and keep it in working condition in the future.

How it all worked before

Until July 1, maintenance of cash equipment, registered according to the old scheme, with the use of EKLZ is performed according to the scenario worked out over the years. There are three main participants:

• the user is the store where the cash desk is installed;
• technical service center (hereinafter referred to as TEC ) is a company specializing in servicing CMC;
• FTS - tax service.

According to this scheme, the TEC were the supervisors of the fulfillment of fiscal standards for the use of CMC, ensuring the functioning of EKLZ devices and their timely replacement. Service centers were licensed by the Federal Tax Service with the acquisition of the status of the TEC, received accreditation of the general supplier of equipment, which allowed them to engage in servicing the CMC used by the business in a certain area.

For example, the repair of equipment in the DCC was accompanied by the preparation of documents in which the indications of the growing totals of funds stored in the uncorrected memory of the cash register were recorded. Before and after the repair - only after the submission of these documents, the tax inspectorate gave permission to put the CMC back into operation.

What's changing

New norms of the Federal Law-54 seriously change the described scheme. Now, end users of cash equipment will have a greater freedom of choice - that is, companies and entrepreneurs, since the use of CCT does not require the obligatory conclusion of a service contract with the TEC. They can independently purchase equipment and necessary consumables, including fiscal drives that replaced the EKLZ ( we wrote about the hardware changes here ), and then independently register the equipment with the FTS and service it at any service center that has been trained at the KKM supplier. All equipment manipulations (registration of CCP, re-registration of CCP, de-registration of CCP) can now be performed in your account on the tax service website.

In fact, the TEC was simply excluded from the scheme - now representatives of the organization operating CCP can use the services of any company located not only in their own region. Similarly, service centers can expand the number of customers without being constrained by geographic boundaries.

Expectations vs reality

It must be said that on paper, the new opportunities that open up for the business look good. However, in reality, few people want to enjoy new rights. It is easier for companies to continue working with a partner, who used to be called the TEC, and now has become a simple “service center”.

There are quite objective reasons for this - the specialists of such a company have long worked with the specific cash register equipment used in stores and know all its features. In addition, it is important and a good understanding of the features of the software that is installed on this equipment. A business does not need risks - the level of trust that develops between the two companies during the period of cooperation is important. Finally, a service center change entails additional verification and evaluation in the future service partner's business - in one case, there is already a valid service contract with a reliable, proven service partner, in the other it needs to be redone with an untested service center.

We see from our own example that a business is not ready to make efforts in order to use the right prescribed by law to work with any service center. Most of the customers both appealed to us and they are contacting - for example, they ask to modernize cash equipment to meet the changes in the norms of the Federal Law-54, to help with its registration with the Federal Tax Service.

Large retail chains will never embark on risky experiments, although there are cases when small companies and entrepreneurs try to save money by doing everything on their own. However, in this case, the likelihood of making mistakes increases, which professionals still ask to correct - and these are just the former TEC. Now, TEC will not play the role of supervisors of the implementation of fiscal standards for the use of CCT, but the equipment itself is serviced exactly as it was done before. And even more than that - they can do it all over the country, and not on a specific territory.

For small trade enterprises, this opens up the possibility of cooperation with more experienced service centers than those in their region. This is especially important during the transition period - before July 1, 2017, the business should switch to using online cash registers of a new sample, for which it is necessary to replace or upgrade equipment. All this is fraught with great difficulty and the need to replace versions of system software, elements of cash registers, tests, as well as modifications of the new technology, inevitable in the first two years after the entry into force of the new law. And here the help of experienced specialists will be practically necessary.