TSE-Pflicht

TSE stands for technische Sicherheitseinrichtung, a certified security module attached to an electronic till. Its job is narrow and it does that job well. Every transaction the till records is signed at the moment it is recorded, with a sequential number, a time stamp and a checksum, so that an entry cannot be deleted or edited afterwards without the gap or the change becoming visible in the log.

The obligation comes from the Kassensicherungsverordnung and attaches to the electronic recording system rather than to a line of business. That distinction matters, because pharmacies sometimes assume the requirement belongs to retail and stops at the medicine counter. It does not. If a service is rung up on the same till as a box of tablets, the same signing requirement covers it, and if the service is taken on a second device, a tablet in the consultation room or a card terminal with its own app, that device is part of the recording system too and has to be treated as one.

Three practical questions follow. Whether the existing till already holds a working module, and whether the pharmacy can show that rather than infer it from the age of the system. Whether the till has been reported to the tax office as required. And whether a receipt is issued for every transaction, because the receipt obligation sits alongside the signing obligation and a self-pay service is the situation in which a receipt is most easily forgotten.

Modules do not last indefinitely. The certificate inside a TSE has a limited life and the module has to be renewed or exchanged before it runs out. Once it has expired the till is no longer compliant even though it carries on working normally, which is the awkward part, since nothing visibly breaks. Providers usually flag the date, but the responsibility stays with the pharmacy, so the expiry belongs in the same calendar as device calibration rather than in an email folder.

Signing is the technical half of GoBD-konforme Kassenführung, and completeness, order and retention of the records are the other half. Where the money comes from the customer instead of an insurer, the till record becomes the primary evidence for Privatliquidation and for ordinary Rechnungsstellung an Selbstzahler, and a service in the apothekenübliche Dienstleistung category is usually paid in precisely that way. Whether one specific configuration of till, terminal and booking tool satisfies the requirement is a question for the till provider and the Steuerberater before the first paid appointment rather than after it.