Source: Diário do Grande ABC (SP), 21/06/2009

With the end of the deadline for the delivery of tax books in digital version to the Federal Revenue Service, large businessmen do not hide their concern. The adaptation to the new form, called Sped (Public Digital Bookkeeping System) has required a lot of research and a game of accountants.

Not only a digitalization of the entire cash and stock movement of companies, adapting to Sped implies the collection of various information that, until then, had been available separately in the companies' databases.

Lucky for the businessman who uses as his accounting software some tool with the profiles similar to the orders in the new system of the Revenue. “This adaptation is very complicated”, laments Gislaine Perez, owner of an accounting office in São Caetano. “The deadline was too short. We only had six months for this complex change. We have never had to detail our systems so much. ”

According to Wanny Arantes Bongiovani di Giorgi, coordinator of the accounting course at UniABC, the main difficulty faced is precisely the limitation of the systems used so far. "They were not so improved to adapt so quickly to Sped", he justifies. "The Revenue now starts to offer data formatting."

Although it favors organization within the company, Sped's main objective is to reinforce inspection. “With the new tool, the government will apply an x-ray to the company to find out about its suppliers, inventories, sales and purchase volumes, etc.”, comments Wanny. "The company's entire network of relationships will be mapped by the government, which will constitute a kind of invisible partner."

Vagner Jaime Rodrigues, partner at Trevisan Outsourcing, does not believe that accounting software manufacturers have had difficulties in creating platforms similar to Sped. “Sped has been talked about for over a year. The developers were already working on this ”, he says. "More important than the software itself, it is essential that the company's database is ready to receive the data and meet the tax authorities efficiently."

However, Rodrigues understands that the adoption of Sped not only simplifies the operation but already prepares the environment for tax reform. For him, the main bottleneck of the new system is in information security. This excess of strategic content in the hands of the government can generate threats to free market competition.

“Right now, my biggest issue has to do with security. The government will map suppliers, trade policies, product formulas, potential customers, among other aspects. Who guarantees that this information will not be leaked to undue people? ”, He points out.