[News brief] nf525 certification: a major change is coming to the pos system!

Can you provide more information on the Sales Marketing team and the products that you manage?

Most of the team resides in Rennes, with about 30 people in total. We are simultaneously working on two different types of software that, while separate, work in perfect synergy with each other. The first part of the puzzle is our POS software and the other piece is our sales marketing platform that combines customer loyalty and sales promotions, as well as areas such as shopping cart management. As product owner of these two solutions, I am in charge of the functional side of development and marketing, including collecting client specs, and ensuring the products continue to meet client needs post-development and post-installation.

Can you tell us more about your Sales Marketing clients?

We have a diverse group of clients from different verticals. In general, they are mainly retailers, but we also work with some franchises. Our clients are typically large businesses such as Cultura, Nature & Découverte, Maison du Monde, Feu Vert, Ludendo and Armand Thiery to name a few, and some smaller chains. They are largely B2C, but we do work with a few B2B clients, as well. While we work with clients from all different businesses, our software package is standard for everyone, and we just configure the settings so that they are adapted to the client’s vertical.

What can you tell us about this new law and the effect it will have on businesses?

In an attempt to cut down on the amount of fiscal fraud that is passed through current cash register systems, the French government has passed a law that requires all retailers to use software that is compliant with the new regulations.

Compliance means that all POS software must ensure stringent data conservation, inalterability, and integrity, as well as an archive of all cash register data, all in a fight against sales tax (VAT) fraud.

Up until now, there were certain ways for businesses to circumvent their POS systems and pocket the cash without registering the sale and paying sales tax or any other local taxes. This happens a lot in the hospitality industry, especially when it comes to cash sales. Certain systems are able to actually “remove” a sale from the server, and effectively wipe it from any saved data. These types of systems allow for many grey areas in terms of tax payments, so in an effort to fight against this, the government is giving all businesses until January 2018 to comply with the new law and update their software.

The 2016 Finance Act affects all companies that are required to pay sales tax/VAT in France. All companies have until January 2018 to update their systems in order to comply with the law.

We are therefore required to rework our POS encryption and signature data and so we are working in collaboration with other product teams to ensure our software complies with the new law.

This new law means that both software publishers and retailers are required to provide compliance certification. We’ll have more articles to come exploring the new requirements for both client and publisher, stay tuned for more information on this new law and how it affects you!