GoBD Archive Zipper

The GoBD - Germany's principles for the proper keeping and retention of books, records and documents in electronic form - require the self-employed and companies to keep tax-relevant receipts complete, ordered, traceable and unalterable. In practice that means: not just a folder full of PDFs, but a traceable structure with descriptions and proof that nothing was bent afterwards. This bundling is exactly where the Zipper helps.

You simply drag your files into the window - invoices, receipts, contracts, bank statements - and add the key details for each: category, date, receipt number, amount, supplier or customer and a description. This metadata is what turns a pile of files into a traceable archive. For typical cases there are presets that take the categorisation off your hands.

For every file the Zipper calculates a checksum with SHA-256 or SHA-512, right in your browser. A checksum is a digital fingerprint: if even a single byte of the file changes, the checksum changes completely. That way you can later prove that a receipt has not been altered since archiving - tamper detection, not tamper protection.

The finished package is cleanly built: receipts sit in folders by category and year, plus an index.csv with all metadata (Excel-friendly with a BOM header) and a metadata.json with checksums, retention periods and legal bases. A built-in GoBD checklist honestly shows you which principles the package covers - completeness, order, traceability - and which it cannot satisfy on its own.

Because here the Zipper is deliberately honest: a ZIP you hold yourself is regenerable at any time and therefore not audit-proof in the GoBD sense. True immutability requires a WORM system with access control, audit logging and process documentation per GoBD para. 151. The Zipper produces checksums for tamper detection and a traceable structure - the audit-proof storage and the process documentation you have to ensure yourself.

Everything runs entirely locally. None of your files is uploaded, no amount, no receipt, no account balance leaves your device - exactly right for business records. You download the finished archive as a ZIP and file it where it belongs. Use the Zipper as an ordering and bundling aid for your receipts and, for full GoBD compliance, combine it with a suitable archive system and process documentation.