What to give your fiduciary
At the end of each fiscal year, your fiduciary (accountant or tax advisor) needs a complete set of accounting data to prepare your tax return and statutory financial statements. Gäld's Fiduciary Export bundles everything into a single ZIP file.
When to generate the export
Generate the export after completing the year-end closing (Accounting → Year-End Closing). Sending pre-closing data to your fiduciary leads to corrections and delays.
The correct sequence is:
- ✅ All bank statements reconciled
- ✅ All expenses and invoices posted
- ✅ Depreciation entries recorded
- ✅ Social charges (AVS/LPP) recorded
- ✅ Final VAT declaration filed and posted
- ✅ Year-end closing run in Gäld
- → Generate Fiduciary Export
How to generate the export in Gäld
- Go to Accounting → Fiduciary Export
- Select the fiscal year to export
- Click Generate ZIP
- Wait for Gäld to compile the files (typically under 30 seconds)
- Click Download
What's in the ZIP
| File | Format | Description |
|---|---|---|
journal.csv | CSV | Full journal — every posted entry for the year |
balance-sheet.pdf | Balance sheet as of 31 December | |
income-statement.pdf | Profit & loss statement for the year | |
trial-balance.csv | CSV | Account-by-account debit/credit totals |
accounts.csv | CSV | Chart of accounts used |
vat-reports/ | Folder of PDFs | All VAT declarations filed during the year |
invoices/ | Folder of PDFs | All issued invoices |
expenses/ | Folder of PDFs | All expense receipts |
README.txt | Plain text | Description of each file for the fiduciary |
Under Swiss Code of Obligations (CO) Art. 958f ↗, you and your fiduciary must retain these documents for 10 years. Gäld stores the source data indefinitely; the ZIP is a snapshot for external use.
What your fiduciary will do with these files
| File | Fiduciary use |
|---|---|
journal.csv | Import into their accounting software (e.g. Abacus, SAP) for review and adjustments |
balance-sheet.pdf + income-statement.pdf | Basis for the statutory financial statements (Swiss Code of Obligations (CO) Art. 959 ↗) |
trial-balance.csv | Reconciliation and year-end audit checks |
vat-reports/ | Cross-check that VAT was declared correctly |
invoices/ + expenses/ | Supporting documents for deductible expenses |
Frequently asked questions
My fiduciary uses Abacus — can they import the CSV?
Yes. The journal.csv uses a standard column layout (date, account debit, account credit, amount, description) compatible with most Swiss accounting software. Your fiduciary may need to map column names on first import.
Can I export for a custom date range (not a full year)?
The fiduciary export is generated per fiscal year. For mid-year reviews, use the individual report exports (P&L, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance) which support custom date ranges.
My fiduciary asked for a DATEV export — does Gäld support this?
DATEV export is not currently supported. Most Swiss fiduciaries accept the standard CSV format included in the ZIP. If DATEV is required, your fiduciary can typically import the journal.csv with column mapping.
Legal Archives
When you run the year-end closing, Gäld automatically generates a legal archive — a tamper-evident snapshot of your accounting data for that fiscal year, secured with a SHA-256 integrity hash.
Legal archives fulfil the 10-year record-keeping requirement under CO Art. 958f.
Viewing archives
Go to Accounting → Archives. Archives are grouped by fiscal year and show the generation date and integrity status.
Verifying an archive
To confirm an archive has not been tampered with:
- Open Accounting → Archives
- Find the archive and click Verify
- Gäld recalculates the SHA-256 hash and compares it to the stored value
- A green checkmark confirms the archive is intact; a red warning indicates a mismatch
Downloading an archive
Click Download next to any archive to save a local copy. Store this alongside your fiduciary export for maximum compliance.