Romania
 

Fiscal devices – where and how to start. Access to fiscal device during development of software and tests.

 

For the purpose of the development of your software in the final phase for testing it is a must to ensure the availability of a real device. If you do not have the opportunity - you will have to develop your program in a "dry" way and hope everything is okay. Do not get involved with this! From my humble twenty years of experience in the developing of this type of software, I assure you that I have not encountered a single case where a software which was developed without testing start without problems. It's simple - make sure you do it beforehand and test everything.

You should really test everything. What happens if there is a power outage while your device is in a status of the opening a fiscal receipt? Do you have a way to react programmatically to the user error? Do you have all the necessary reports? Do the sums in your product and the fiscal device match?

 

 

In Romania you have the right to:

• use certified solutions (including applications and libraries) from the manufacturer of the corresponding fiscal device - there is no need to certify the usage of the fiscal device;
• use third-party certified fiscal libraries. In this case, you must certify the usage of the fiscal device;
• you can get the device communication protocol from the manufacturer, but keep in mind that you will need to go through a certification procedure for using this fiscal device. If a client, wishing to use an another model, appears - you have to go through the such procedure for the new model;

My personal opinion is that in any of the above mentioned cases, you should not allow your software to be sold or used in Romania (and anywhere else) without having passed the tests with the proper hardware.

To get a fiscal drive and to make the process as effective and as painless as possible, I recommend that you do the following:

1. Contact a representative of a company producing or selling cash registers and fiscal printers. In Romania you can buy a fiscal device not only from its manufacturer but also from a number of authorized companies. Typically, they are an Authorized Service Provider, and can help you not only with fiscal information, but also direct you to the use of an already-developed and tested SDK, or contact you with software developers for help;
2. It is very important you clarify that you are using it for software development purposes and want to return it backlater on. You will most likely fill out the relevant protocol or another similar document, then leave a deposit in your company. In most cases, the amount is the same as if you were to have purchased the same device;
3. Get detailed information from the particular merchant, under what conditions the warranty is breached, and also under what conditions your device will not be taken back to get your deposit. For example: If you mechanically break the fiscal device - most of the merchants will not accept taking it back and taking your deposit;
4. There is a set of commands that you do not need and do not need to maintain or run in your software product, because by law these operations are performed only by an authorized service technician. It is good to be informed by the distributor or service provider, what should not be done. For example: You do not have to fiscalize the device;
5. Ask your dealer or service technician to check whether the fiscal device is set to work in fiscal printer mode, and if not, to show you how to switch to a this mode (if it is a cash register). It is best to pay a course to teach you how to work properly with the device. This will help you in many ways later;
6. Ask the retailer or service technician to set up the fiscal device accordingly in order to work seamlessly in your office. (This is only in case the device needs this setting);
7. Ask the retailer or service technician to make a fiscal printer management test to make sure everything is OK. If you are confident that your device is running and you have no trouble working with it, you will reduce the number of locations where you will be looking for the problem;
8. Ask the retailer or service technician to give you a program (usually free of charge) with which you can check the performance of the commands and methods you are developing in parallel;
9. Ask to purchase the appropriate amount of paper from the dealer or service technician for the device you are collecting. Strangely enough, this is often forgotten, and although it's not a problem - the paper runs out fast, and fiscal devices do not print receipts without paper. It's bothersome, but it does not work and will certainly stop you from working;
10. Make sure (or ask the service technician for confirmation) that your device is in test mode;
11. Make sure to ask the distributor for documentation and user manuals;

In test mode, you can print the documents that your clients will need. The document will be marked as a test document. The test mode ends automatically when printing a Z-report. If the fiscal device is owned by an end-user, please note that the documents issued in this mode must be stored and handed over to the customer. At the end of the month these documents will need to your client's accounting. If you do not know how to set the device to a test mode - ask the reseller! Once again - it is better that you don’t develop your product directly over the already fiscalized printer of the customer. This can cause problems in case of inattention.

 

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