In short: The GoBD are the German tax authorities’ rules for digital bookkeeping and document retention. The core requirement is that tax-relevant documents are kept unchangeable, complete, traceable and machine-readable – and that a procedural documentation describes how this is done in the company.
What does GoBD mean?
GoBD stands for the “Principles for the proper keeping and retention of books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access”. They apply to every company with tax-relevant digital documents – from sole traders to large groups.
Key principles
- Traceability & verifiability – a knowledgeable third party must be able to audit the bookkeeping in reasonable time.
- Completeness & accuracy – all transactions recorded fully and correctly.
- Immutability – later changes must be logged and the original version preserved.
- Timely posting and orderly filing.
The procedural documentation
It describes organisationally and technically how documents are created, captured, processed and stored. It usually has four parts:
- General description – overview of the procedure.
- User documentation – how staff work (e.g. scanning, tagging).
- Technical system documentation – systems and interfaces used.
- Operating documentation – access rights, backups, controls.
Checklist
- Are documents stored audit-proof and unchangeable?
- Is every change logged?
- Is there an access-rights concept?
- Is there an up-to-date procedural documentation?
- Is replacement scanning described?
How Aktenplatz helps
Aktenplatz meets central GoBD requirements technically: documents are versioned and unchangeable, every action is in the audit log, permissions are fine-grained, and files can be recovered. This also makes the procedural documentation easier.
Note: This article offers general guidance to the best of our knowledge (as of 2026) and does not constitute legal or tax advice. The applicable statutory rules and your tax adviser are authoritative.