Belegstücken

Belegstücken is a German term used in accounting to refer to individual documents that provide evidence for a business transaction. The standard term is Belegstück, with the plural Belegstücke. These documents, or source documents, include invoices, receipts, delivery notes, credit notes, bank statements, payment orders, and internal allocation memos. Belegstücke form the evidentiary basis for bookkeeping entries and are essential for verification, auditing, and tax compliance.

In practice, a Belegstück should contain key information such as the date of the transaction, the amount, the parties involved, a description of the goods or services, and, when applicable, tax details and account assignment. They are used to reconstruct the financial record of a company and to ensure traceability between the original transaction and the entered accounting entry. Belegstücke can be stored in physical form or as digital records, provided the digital copies are accurate, legible, and tamper-resistant.

Legal and regulatory dimensions include retention and accessibility requirements. Many jurisdictions require Belegstücke to be retained for a specified period (often six to ten years, depending on the document type and national regulation) to support tax declarations and financial reporting. Modern standards, such as GoBD in Germany, permit electronic archiving if the documents remain authentic, complete, and easily retrievable, and if the integrity of the data is maintained through appropriate controls and metadata.

Effective handling of Belegstücke involves proper filing, indexing, and timely scanning of documents, along with clear policies for their retention, retrieval, and eventual destruction in compliance with applicable laws.