We traditionally send out our hsp News on the last Friday of the month. In „hsp live at 11“ on 30 June, hsp CEO Paul Liese presents the latest developments in Opti.Tax. The focus is on planned new features in the upcoming Opti.Tax version 23.2.

We have been announcing for some time now that helpful videos will soon be embedded directly within Opti.Tax. Depending on what the user is currently doing, relevant videos will be provided to offer technical support. These will appear directly within the software, in the bottom right-hand corner of the standard view.

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For the e-balance sheet, Taxonomy 6.6 is provided in Opti.Tax version 23.2. In the DiFin (Digital Financial Report) area, hsp is currently in the process of implementing the return channel, i.e. the return transmission from the bank to the users. There are also plans to incorporate the digital emergency file feature. The digital emergency file is designed to protect clients in the event of sudden staff absences. The development is being supported by a specialist development partner, the law firm Schröder & Partner from Berlin. Sustainability reporting is also set to be rolled out with Release 23.2. The hsp development team is currently incorporating valuable feedback from tax advisers into this feature.

In the field of process and procedure documentation, the topic of BAFA-Funding applications have been amended. At the start of the pandemic, the BAFA set up a funding programme for consultancy services. This funding programme has now been extended by three years, although there have been a few changes to its content. Over the three-year period, five consultancy projects are eligible for funding, although these are no longer subject to specific themes. This information is provided without guarantee. Due to a technology change at BAFA, it was no longer possible to submit the funding application directly from within Opti.Tax. This is due to be rectified with Release 23.2. Once the data has been entered in Opti.Tax and the application process initiated, the BAFA form opens with all the data automatically populated. This now happens very quickly: thanks to Opti.Tax’s new 64-bit technology, the application runs faster overall.

Opti.Tax and the cloud, with significant functional enhancements

Next section: Tax Compliance Management System (TCMS). In the TCMS reporting overview, the probability of occurrence and the amount of loss are displayed for both gross and net figures using a traffic-light system. Until now, this information could only be made available to clients as a PDF file. In future, there will be another option: the Opti.Tax Cloud. To use this, simply right-click on the „VAT“ item in the project structure on the left. Then select „TCMS-“Upload summary to the cloud„. When the authorised person on the client side clicks on “Tax Compliance„ in the cloud interface, they will see all the ratings in the overall score. If they then click on the overview, all processes with their respective ratings will be displayed. Clicking on “Details’ displays, amongst other things, the risk control matrices. Incidentally, many users are still unaware that the entire Opti.Tax cloud interface can be customised with any colour scheme. This allows firms to use their own colours and logos.

One major area that the hsp development team will continue to work on in the coming weeks is the multilingual capability of Opti.Tax. The cloud interface already allows the service to be displayed in English via the settings. In future, it should be possible for questions that the tax consultancy asks clients in German to be automatically displayed in the clients’ own languages – such as English or Spanish – for those whose first language is not German. They will then be able to answer the questions in their respective languages. The original reply will be sent back to the tax consultancy and displayed alongside an automatic translation into German. Entire sets of documentation are also set to be available in different languages in this way. Once a translation has been carried out, it is stored in the cloud, meaning that a new request does not have to be sent to the DeepL translation service for every enquiry.