Branches & Chains¶

If you operate several locations under one brand — as your own business premises or as a franchise network — DiKAS combines them into a chain. Each branch remains an independent tenant with its own POS, its own TSE and its own end-of-day closing; the chain adds a shared layer on top:

Central article master — maintain once, all branches inherit
Instant dashboard and monthly query — sales of all branches at a glance
Chain-wide customer file, vouchers and points — valid at every location
Clearing and franchise fee — claims between the businesses, with DATEV export

You manage everything in the customer account at konto.dikas.de in the Filialen (branches) area.

Language of the customer account

The customer account at konto.dikas.de is available in German and Spanish. This guide therefore gives its labels in the German original, followed by a translation in brackets.

Requirements¶

Each branch has its own DiKAS licence (cloud tenant or local machine with cloud connection).
You see all licences in your customer account — or you invite other licence holders (e.g. franchisees) by their online name.
Each branch continues to register its POS systems with the tax office itself (Kassenmeldung per business premises) — the chain changes nothing about that.

What the chain costs¶

The branch module is charged per participating branch and month and becomes cheaper as the chain grows:

Chain size	per branch / month
1 – 4 branches	€19
from 5 branches	€15
from 20 branches	€9
from 50 branches	€5

Flat tiers, no stepped calculation

Once the chain reaches a tier, the new price applies to all branches — with six branches, all six pay €15, not just the sixth. Only branches with an active link are counted, including participation as "Nur Reporting" (reporting only); invited but not yet confirmed branches do not count. A chain without active members costs nothing.

On the Mitglieder (members) tab you, as the chain owner, see the current bill: number of active branches, price per branch, monthly total and the complete tier table. It also shows what one more branch would cost. There is no set-up fee; a price change takes effect from the next subscription invoice.

Creating a chain¶

Sign in to the customer account at konto.dikas.de.
In the sidebar click Filialen (branches).
Click Neue Kette (new chain) and give it a name (e.g. "Pizzeria Roma Group").

The chain is now created — by default only reporting is active at first. You control all further releases deliberately via the sync settings.

Linking branches¶

Adding your own licence¶

On the Mitglieder (members) tab, under Eigene Lizenz hinzufügen (add own licence), select one of your licences and set:

Field	Meaning
Rechtsform (legal form)	"Eigene Betriebsstätte" (own business premises; same legal entity) or "Franchise" (independent legal entity)
Teilnahme (participation)	"Nur Reporting" (reporting only; the branch only supplies key figures) or "Voll" (full; also takes part in vouchers, points, customer file and central article master)

The link is active immediately — your consent is already given for your own licences.

Ordering a new branch¶

If the new branch does not have a licence yet, click Filiale hinzufügen (neue Lizenz bestellen) (add branch — order new licence). The order wizard guides you through the order and at the end attaches the new licence automatically to this chain — you do not have to find and link it afterwards.

Inviting another business's branch (franchise/partner)¶

In the Fremde Filiale einladen (invite another business's branch) area, enter the online name of the other tenant.
The invited customer sees the invitation in their customer account under Filialen → Offene Einladungen (branches → open invitations) and can accept or reject it.
Only after their consent is the branch actively linked.

Finding the online name

The online name is shown in the customer account of the respective branch (section "Meine Lizenz", my licence) and corresponds to the tenant's subdomain.

Assigning a region¶

Each branch carries a freely nameable region field (e.g. federal state, area or operator). Dashboard and evaluation can be filtered by it. The region is purely a grouping: there is no regional manager level and no permissions tied to a region.

Removing a member¶

In the member list click Entfernen (remove). The branch loses access to the chain; its own data remains unchanged. Beforehand, check open vouchers issued by this branch, payment transactions in progress and claims not yet settled. Removing the membership does not pay out remaining balances and does not re-regulate liability for issued vouchers. A stored franchise rate is reset in the process. The action is recorded in the log.

Who sees which branches?

The chain owner sees all branches with all figures. A participating branch sees only its own locations in the member list, dashboard and monthly query — franchisees therefore see neither the sales nor the conditions of the others.

Sync settings (centrally control what is shared)¶

On the Sync-Einstellungen (sync settings) tab you, as the chain owner, decide which data applies chain-wide. Changes are versioned and logged.

Area	Settings
Customers	Off / On · de-duplication key (card, email, phone)
Vouchers	Off / own business premises only / chain-wide incl. franchise · default voucher type of the chain
Points	Off / own business premises only / chain-wide · points per euro, value per point, expiry, cap per redemption
Articles	Off / Push / Push + Lock · choice of locked fields
Franchise fee	Calculation basis: net or gross sales (uniform across the chain)

VAT note on vouchers

Whether a voucher is single-purpose or multi-purpose cannot be derived from the number of branches or the legal form alone. For Germany, what matters in particular is that the place of supply and the tax due are already known when the voucher is issued (§ 3 (13)–(15) UStG). DiKAS issues vouchers of a franchise branch as multi-purpose vouchers; single-purpose issuing is limited to your own business premises. Agree the voucher type, the services and the permitted acceptance points with your tax adviser before set-up.

Rules for vouchers¶

On the Sync-Einstellungen (sync settings) tab there is the block Regeln für Gutscheine (rules for vouchers) with two switches. Both apply chain-wide; changes are recorded in the log.

Switch	Default	Effect
Abgelaufene Gutscheine noch erstatten (still refund expired vouchers)	on	On: a refund (for example through a receipt cancellation) to an expired voucher is booked if the redemption took place before expiry. Off: DiKAS rejects it with "Voucher expired" without booking anything. The expiry date is never extended in any case.
Abgebrochene Aktivierung gibt die vorgedruckte Karte wieder frei (a cancelled activation releases the pre-printed card)	off	Off: if the activation of a pre-printed card is cancelled before the receipt exists, the card is invalidated. On: it becomes an unused card again (without balance) and can be activated again with a new transaction. Applies to pre-printed cards only; a cancelled new sale of a voucher is always invalidated.

Older portal versions or access points that do not send these fields leave the stored values unchanged. Decide together with your bookkeeping: if you switch off "refund expired vouchers", the return of goods redeemed before expiry is no longer credited to the voucher.

A newly created chain has everything switched off

Customer, voucher, points and article sync are off after creation; only reporting runs. This is intentional — you deliberately release what should be shared.

Central article master¶

On the Artikel (articles) tab you maintain the chain's article master: create, edit, delete, search by name, number, barcode or article group.

Initial filling: with Artikel aus eigener Filiale importieren (import articles from own branch) you take over the existing article master of one of your own active branches into the chain — you do not have to type anything.

Distributing: changes only take effect in the branches once they are distributed — automatically depending on the sync setting, or immediately via Jetzt pushen (push now).

The three modes at a glance:

Mode	Effect
Aus (off)	The master can be maintained but is not distributed.
Push	Branches receive the articles and may change all fields themselves.
Push + Lock	Like Push, but locked fields (you choose them; price, tax rate and name are common) are pulled back to the central value on every run.

Locked fields do not keep local changes

In the normal article editor, a change to a locked field is already rejected on saving. If a deviation nevertheless gets into a branch's data, the next synchronisation resets the field to the central value. Such deviations appear in the push status as a conflict. Make changes on the central article therefore.

Push status per branch (Push-Status je Filiale) shows the last success, number of applied articles, errors and, when expanded, the conflicts and local deviations of a branch.

Whom the push reaches

Only branches with participation "Voll" (full). Branches in "Nur Reporting" (reporting only) mode receive no articles — nor does a chain whose article sync is set to "Aus" (off). "Push ran, nothing arrived" almost always has one of these two causes.

Chain-wide customer file¶

On the Kunden (customers) tab you manage the shared customer file. It does not automatically replace all existing local customer master data through a continuous synchronisation. Active members can search shared customer data; store only the data and notes that the network actually needs.

The file offers:

Search by card number, name, email or phone
Create with card number (mandatory, unique across the chain)
Duplicate notices: with the same email or phone number you get a warning — the customer is created anyway (e.g. families sharing a number)
Account statement: expanding a row shows the points balance and all bookings with date, type, amount and receipt

Vouchers¶

Status of the procedures

This chapter describes the procedures with provisional issue, receipt announcement, automatic refund and points reservation. They apply when server and POS systems run on the October 2026 version or newer. A POS with an older program version still works according to the earlier procedure (for example without a refund on receipt cancellation). Update all branches of a chain together.

On the Gutscheine (vouchers) tab you see all vouchers of the chain with number, mode, remaining amount, face value, status, issuing branch and date — filterable by status and searchable by number.

As the chain owner you create card batches (for pre-printed voucher cards) directly: name, quantity, optional printed value and optional validity. For each batch there is

a CSV export of the card numbers and
a PDF card sheet as a print template.

A batch that should no longer be issued is invalidated with Restliche entwerten (invalidate remaining) — cards already activated are not affected.

Distinguishing chain vouchers and local vouchers¶

A chain voucher carries a code with DCH- and is managed centrally for the chain. A local voucher belongs to the voucher management of a single tenant. Linking branches does not automatically make existing local vouchers valid chain-wide. Topping up and extending local vouchers also cannot be transferred unchanged to chain vouchers.

→ Local vouchers · Legacy systems and technical integration

Issuing and activating a card¶

Link the chain and branches actively, choose Voll (full) for the selling and redeeming branches, and release the voucher sync accordingly.
For pre-printed cards, create a batch in the portal and download the CSV/PDF. The cards initially have no balance. A printed amount is only a default, not a top-up.
When selling a voucher at the POS, scan the pre-printed card, check the amount and add it to the sale. Alternatively, issue a new chain voucher without a pre-printed card.
Pay for the sale and complete it. Only with the saved receipt does the voucher become effective and carry the amount paid; the selling branch is the issuer.

What happens between scanning and payment: from the moment the POS creates the voucher or activates the card, it is provisional. A provisional voucher has no balance and can be neither redeemed nor sold. If the sale is safely cancelled before a receipt exists, the voucher is invalidated. If the POS aborts in the middle of a sale (crash, power failure), it stays blocked until the POS finds the receipt at the next reconciliation (then it becomes effective) or discards it after 30 minutes without a receipt. This way no payable balance arises without a paid receipt.

Do not sell a provisional voucher again

An invalidated voucher stays invalidated; for a new attempt use a new card (or issue a new voucher). In the chain settings you can choose that a cancelled activation of a pre-printed card releases the card again instead of invalidating it — see Rules for vouchers. The cancelled sales transaction itself cannot be repeated that way; the POS creates a new transaction for the new attempt.

The Restliche entwerten (invalidate remaining) action affects only cards of a batch that have not yet been activated. Customer balances already activated remain. Give CSV/PDF files with complete codes only to authorised persons and the commissioned print service.

Redemption in another branch¶

Enter the purchase and open the payment dialog.
Scan the chain voucher or enter the complete code. DiKAS checks the central acceptance (see Single-purpose and multi-purpose vouchers) and reserves the required amount for 15 minutes.
If the voucher is not enough, pay the difference with another payment method on offer. If the purchase is cheaper, the remaining value stays on the same card.
Complete the payment. Shortly before the POS saves the receipt for the first time, it announces the receipt to the central service. From this announcement on, the reservation no longer expires by itself, even if the receipt is only completed hours later.
With the saved receipt the redemption is confirmed centrally. For different legal entities, the corresponding clearing item arises.

Example: card with €50, purchase of €18 in another branch → €32 remaining value. An active reservation can temporarily block the card during another payment transaction. Scanning several times does not create any additional balance.

States of a reservation:

State	Meaning	What to do
Reserved	Amount is held for 15 minutes; no receipt announced yet	Nothing. If it is not completed, the amount is released after 15 minutes.
Receipt announced	The POS has announced the receipt; the amount stays held without expiry	Nothing. The POS completes or releases it as soon as it knows whether the receipt exists.
Check needed	After 30 minutes without completion it is unclear whether the receipt was created	Is handled as an open transaction and blocks the voucher until it is resolved (see below). Support can reconcile.

Authorised staff see a branch's open transactions in the POS transaction list; the chain owner sees those of the whole chain. The POS reconciles on its own at start-up and every 5 minutes thereafter: if the receipt exists, the redemption is confirmed. If it was never saved (and at least 10 minutes have passed), the amount is released.

Redemption in the web shop¶

Suitable, activated multi-purpose cards from a card batch can be redeemed online. A sequential chain code newly assigned at the POS is not automatically redeemable online.

Enter the card code at checkout; one voucher is used per order. Any remaining amount is settled via the online payment offered. If the card covers the whole order, the order is completed without an additional card payment. If you pay on site, redeem the voucher at the POS there. Selling a voucher through the web shop is not part of this procedure.

Cancellation, reversal and return¶

Situation	Procedure
Payment not yet completed	Cancel the transaction at the POS; the reservation is released or expires after 15 minutes. If the receipt has already been announced, only the POS that announced it can release it.
Receipt booked, voucher status unclear	Do not charge again with a new transaction. The POS reconciles by itself within 5 minutes. If the transaction persists: note receipt number, branch, amount and time and have support reconcile it.
Cancel a booked sale or take goods back	The receipt cancellation refunds the chain voucher redemption automatically (see below).
Voucher is to become invalid after issue	Invalidate by the issuing branch. This returns no money and is not a refund.
Stop a batch not yet sold	Invalidate remaining; activated customer cards are not affected.

Refund on receipt cancellation¶

If a receipt paid with a chain voucher is cancelled, DiKAS books the redeemed amount back to the same voucher. This is a reversal entry, not a new voucher. The following applies:

Only the redeeming branch can refund. Another branch gets the message that only the redeeming branch may refund the redemption.
Partial returns are possible. The sum of all refunds for one redemption is at most the amount redeemed at the time; more is rejected with "Refund exceeds the remaining refundable amount".
A fully redeemed voucher comes back to life through the refund. The expiry date stays unchanged; the refund extends nothing.
An invalidated voucher is not refunded ("The voucher has been invalidated"). In this case issue a replacement voucher. Whether expired vouchers are still refunded is set in the Rules for vouchers (default: yes).
With franchise (different legal entities) the clearing is reversed: the issuer owes the redeemer the refunded amount back; the original clearing item remains as evidence.
A repeat after a connection loss never books back twice.

An unclear redemption is not refunded

If the original redemption is still announced or still being checked, DiKAS does not refund but reports "Redemption still open". Have it reconciled first, then cancel. If no redemption matches the receipt, the message "Redemption not found" appears; if there are several redemptions of the same voucher for the same receipt, the case is not unambiguous and support names the redemption concerned.

If the central service cannot be reached during the cancellation, a warning appears on the cancellation receipt and the cancellation is not yet completed. The POS fetches the refund in the background every 5 minutes (for up to 14 days) and then completes the cancellation. If something else besides the voucher refund was still open (customer account, local voucher), the background reconciliation does not complete: then repeat the cancellation by hand.

Example: voucher €100, €30 redeemed in branch B (different legal entity) → remaining value €70, B has a €30 claim against the issuer A. Receipt cancelled → remaining value €100 again, the claim is cancelled by the reversal entry. Had the customer also made a second redemption of €20, then with a partial return of €10 the still refundable remainder of that redemption would be €10.

Connection interrupted¶

The local POS can keep working with other available payment methods. Chain vouchers and chain points, however, need the connection to the central service. An old remaining value displayed locally is not sufficient for an offline redemption.

If the disruption is recognisable before the receipt is completed, use another payment method. If a receipt has already been created, first clarify its status: the POS announced the receipt beforehand, and the automatic reconciliation confirms or releases. The same purchase must not be charged again unchecked. POS systems with an older program version (without receipt announcement) behave as before: an expired reservation is released. Therefore update all branches to the same version.

Have ready for support: issuing and redeeming branch, receipt/order number, time, amount, error message and voucher reference. Send complete codes only via the agreed support channel, and never send access keys.

Single-purpose and multi-purpose vouchers¶

Every chain voucher carries the legal entities where it is accepted. A multi-purpose voucher applies chain-wide. A single-purpose voucher is redeemed only at the issuing legal entity; at another branch the message "Voucher is not accepted here" appears before anything is reserved or booked. Check the acceptance points with your tax adviser before issuing (see the VAT note above).

Currency¶

A chain has exactly one currency (default euro). Vouchers, clearing and point value run in this currency, and nothing is converted. If a POS sends a currency other than that of the voucher, the transaction is rejected before any booking ("Currency does not match"). The chain currency can only be changed as long as no voucher exists yet; after that it is fixed.

Currency and reports

Vouchers and clearing are kept separately by currency. The DATEV export processes only items in euro; franchise fee, key figures and point value are calculated in the chain's currency. If you want to run a chain in a currency other than euro, please talk to support first.

Who sees what?¶

The chain owner sees all vouchers, customers and log entries of the chain with complete data. A participating branch sees considerably less:

Area	Owner	Participating branch (Voll)	Participating branch (Nur Reporting)
Voucher list	all, with full code	only vouchers of its own branch, number masked (e.g. `***0010`)	as "Voll"
Voucher search	partial string possible	only with the complete number	only with the complete number
Customer search	chain-wide	chain-wide via card and name; email, phone and notes only for customers of its own branch	as "Voll", without contact data
Customer history	all	only customers of its own branch	no access
Log	everything	only entries concerning its own branch; voucher and card numbers masked in the text	as "Voll"

Customers you create in the portal have no home branch; their contact data is therefore visible only to the owner. The POS itself is not affected: with the complete number a voucher can still be checked, reserved and redeemed.

Masking is display protection

Voucher numbers consist of a sequential counter with a check digit and can therefore be guessed. The real protection is the restriction to the own branch. Treat complete codes (card sheet, CSV, receipts) confidentially.

Loyalty points¶

Points apply in the branches permitted by the central setting. When redeeming, the points balance is reserved at the POS before the receipt (15 minutes): if two branches redeem the same points at the same time, only one gets the reservation and the other gets the message "not enough points" — before a receipt is even created. With the receipt the points are consumed; if the sale is cancelled before the receipt, the reservation is released or expires by itself. A repeated confirmation (after a connection loss) does not deduct the points twice and returns the same result as the first time. POS systems with an older version keep redeeming without reservation and take other reservations into account.

Limits

If the confirmation fails after the receipt is completed and the 15 minutes are over, the points can remain on the account although the discount is on the receipt; this can then only be reconciled with support. Point expiry does not yet take running reservations into account. In addition, the cap per redemption (default 5000 points) limits each individual case. You set centrally:

Points per euro of sales (default: 1)
Euro value per point (default: €0.01 — i.e. 1 % cashback)
Expiry after months (default: 36)
Cap per redemption (default: 5000 points = €50; 0 removes the cap)

What earns points

Points are earned on the invoice amount excluding tips and excluding the purchase of vouchers — otherwise they would be awarded twice: once when buying the voucher and again when paying with it.

Clearing & franchise fee¶

If a chain voucher is redeemed at another legal entity, a clearing item arises. A refund (for example on receipt cancellation) books the opposite direction as a separate item; the original stays. The Clearing tab records them. Another branch of the same legal entity does not generate such a claim. The cash value of chain-wide points can also generate a clearing item; a general chain-wide top-up customer credit is not covered.

Example: branch A sells a voucher for €100. Branch B of a different legal entity redeems €30. The voucher then has a remaining value of €70; B has a claim of €30 against the issuer A from this redemption. With the same legal entity it remains an internal location movement.

CSV and DATEV export document the clearing. They carry out no bank transfer and no automatic payment settlement. Agree the actual settlement and the account assignment with your bookkeeping.

For a selected month you see:

Balances per pair of legal entities with direction
Individual items with date, type, from, to and amount
CSV export of the overview

Additionally, as the chain owner:

DATEV export (EXTF) of the clearing items
Start fee run (Fee-Lauf … starten) for the selected month

Franchise fee¶

For each franchise branch you enter a percentage of sales on the Mitglieder (members) tab. For another business's licence, the initial setting and an increase are shown as a proposal and only take effect after confirmation by the branch concerned. A reduction or removal applies immediately; so does a change to one of the chain owner's own licences. The monthly run writes the effective fee as a clearing item. The calculation basis, net or gross, follows the central setting.

Nothing happens on the first of the month

The previous month only counts as closed from the 2nd. Anyone checking on the 1st correctly sees no run — this is not an error.

The rate only applies to branches with the legal form Franchise; own business premises have no fee.

DATEV configuration¶

On the same tab you enter the adviser and client number, chart of accounts (SKR03/SKR04), account length and the accounts per item type (voucher, points, credit, franchise fee). With SKR03-/SKR04-Vorschlag übernehmen (apply SKR03/SKR04 proposal) you pre-fill the fields — nothing is saved until you click, and every value remains freely editable.

Reporting¶

The Reporting tab has two parts.

Instant dashboard¶

The key figures are collected continuously in the background and are therefore available immediately. You see net, VAT and gross across the chain, open and redeemed vouchers, the points balance and, per branch:

gross sales, average per day and Z closings
7-day trend compared with the previous week and a small trend curve
a box traffic light: do the figures come directly from the machine on site or from the cloud?
the time of the last collection

Take \"meldet nicht\" (not reporting) seriously

If the collection cannot reach a branch, its last state remains — nothing is overwritten. The branch is then marked with ⚠ meldet nicht (not reporting) as soon as the last state is older than the configured alert window (default 24 hours). Always check the time of the last collection: even without a warning, these are stored values and not second-accurate live information. The warning shows that the configured age limit has been exceeded.

The region filter narrows the view to one region.

Exact monthly query¶

Here you choose a month; the figures are fetched live from the branches:

Totals across all branches (net, VAT, gross)
Breakdown per branch incl. the number of end-of-day closings
Outage notice if a branch is temporarily unreachable — it is then missing from the totals, the remaining figures stay fully visible

Log¶

The Protokoll (log) tab shows the chain's logged events, newest first: for example links, invitations, removals, changes to the sync settings, customers created and fee events — each with time, actor and, where applicable, the branch concerned. To clarify a payment, also consult the POS receipt and the voucher status.

What the chain does (not yet) do¶

No bundled fiscalisation. Each branch keeps its own TSE, its own end-of-day closing, its own Kassenmeldung and its own DSFinV-K export.
No transfer of goods between branches. The central article master distributes master data, not stock.
No chain-wide staff management. Staff continue to be created per branch.
No chain-wide credit account. Customer card and points apply everywhere, a top-up credit across all branches does not.
No chain hierarchy. Regions are a grouping, not a level with its own permissions or separate conditions.

Frequently asked questions¶

Does the chain change anything about the TSE, receipts or end-of-day closings? No. Each branch continues to work fiscally independently: its own receipt numbers, its own TSE registration, its own end-of-day closing, its own DSFinV-K export. The chain is only a shared view on top.

What happens if a branch is offline? The branch's POS keeps running locally. In the instant dashboard it keeps its last state and is marked "meldet nicht" (not reporting); in the exact monthly query it appears as "nicht erreichbar" (not reachable) and is missing from the totals. All other figures remain visible.

Can a branch take full part only later? Yes. First link the branch in "Nur Reporting" (reporting only) mode and switch to "Voll" (full) later. If another business's branch changes from "Nur Reporting" to "Voll", it has to confirm the change in its own portal. Until it confirms again, the link stays "pending"; during that time the branch also does not take active part in reporting. Plan the confirmation together.

Does a franchisee see the figures of the others? No. A participating branch sees only its own locations in the member list, dashboard and monthly query. Sales and conditions of the other branches are reserved for the chain owner.

Why does our chain cost less than last month? Because a branch has joined and the chain has thus reached a new tier — the lower price then applies to all branches, not just the new one.

We assigned a card number twice. Is that possible? No, the card number is unique across the chain; a second attempt with the same number is rejected. Upper and lower case make no difference.