FAQ

When you search on our pages, you are in a so-called "session" for security reasons. This is valid for 30 minutes if you do not make any further entries. This also applies to a bookmark that you place on a publication you have found. If you would like to send information to third parties, please use the corresponding PDF document.

You can print search results or documents via your browser. When printing accounting documents, it is recommended to set the page layout to landscape format in the print menu.

An HTML print function is available as well as, as a rule, a PDF document (with the exception of ESEF/XHTML documents and register notices).

To purchase deposited financial statement documents, registration and login to the platform is required. You can select the desired payment method during the payment process: Both payment by credit card and SEPA direct debit are available. You can view the invoice in the menu "My Data - Orders & Retrievals - Retrievals Company Register".

Your document cart will be saved for 5 days. Any documents that you have not retrieved and saved by then will no longer be available to you.

If you have retrieved the documents and you are a registered user, you will find an overview of your retrieved documents in the menu "My Data- Orders & Retrievals- Retrievals Company Register". Here you can have an view of what documents you retrieved at what time. Furthermore, an electronic receipt (as a PDF file) will be made available to you.

In principle you do not need not register to use the Company Register.

Your once-off registration is only required should you want to

• retrieve stored balances,
• apply for certification of an annual financial statement,
• save your document cart beyond the end of the session,
• have unlimited access to your retrieved data,
• if you wish to submit an order to the Company Register and/or the Federal Gazette (if your company is registered with the Register Court, please have your Commercial Register data - Register Court, Register Type and Register Number - ready).

Further information on the topic of "Registration" can be found on the publication platform under "Useful information - How it works - Register / Identify".

The publication platform at www.publikations-plattform.de is available for this purpose. There you will find all the necessary information in the "Useful information" section under "How it works".

At the Company Register we offer the possibility of authenticating published annual financial statements either electronically (as a digitally-signed PDF document) or in paper format.

You must complete a one-time registration for this. Once you have logged on to the platform, select the desired year-end account from the Company Register. Go to the individual publications and choose whether you want an electronic or paper authentication. The document will be put into your document cart. For more information about your document cart, see "How does the document cart work?"

For certifications of deposited balance sheets proceed as follows: put the deposited balance sheets in the document basket, access the document basket and then go to the document in question and either select the link "Add certification" if you want a paper certification or if you want an electronic certification click on the "Add e-certification" link.

After completing the payment process, the order is forwarded to the body keeping the Company Register and processed. For electronic authentication, a digitally signed PDF document will be made available to you in the menu "My Data". Hard copies of authentication will be sent by mail. The costs for an authentication can be found in the Justizverwaltungskostengesetz (Justice Administration Costs Act).

If the year-end account is not saved in the Company Register, please send an e-mail to support@unternehmensregister.de (companyregister.com) with all information pertaining to the desired year-end account and your contact information including your receipt information.

Apostille:

If you require an authenticated annual financial statement, such as for use in foreign commercial transactions, an apostille is in many cases also required.

An apostille is a simplified form of legalisation (a confirmation that a signature is indeed that of the issuing person) for an authenticated document. Published annual financial statements can be seen as documents.

For annual financial statements the “issuing person” is the Company Register, as it performs the authentication.

How to apply for an apostille for an annual financial statement:

First have the published or filed annual financial statement in the Company Register certified in paper format and then forward the certified version to the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs (Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten, BfAA), Apostille and Claims Management Division (Referat Apostillen und Forderungsmanagement). There the authenticity of the signature of the Company Register will be checked and in case of confirmation the apostille will be issued. Please note the information on "Apostilles and Final Certifications" on the website of the BfAA.