Bookkeeping basics: KPiR, revenue register, full accounting and cash registers
Which records a JDG and an sp. z o.o. keep, when you need a cash register, why payments above PLN 15,000 must go through a bank account and how to check an account on the white list.
Updated
The kind of records you keep depends on your business form and tax form. On top of that come the rules on cash registers and on payments through a bank account.
Which records
| Who | Records |
|---|---|
| JDG on the tax scale or flat tax | the revenue and expense ledger (KPiR) |
| JDG on ryczałt | revenue register |
| JDG, civil partnership and general partnership of natural persons with net revenue for the previous year of EUR 2,500,000 or more | full accounting (accounting books) |
| Sp. z o.o., also in organisation | full accounting, always |
A business with fixed assets also keeps a register of them. An active VAT payer keeps VAT records and sends them in the JPK_V7 file.
You keep the books and documents until the tax liability is time-barred, usually 5 years from the end of the year in which the tax payment deadline passed.
Cash register
You need a cash register (kasa fiskalna) when you sell to private persons who do not run a business. Exemptions apply until the end of 2027, among others:
- the PLN 20,000 limit: sales to private persons in the previous year did not exceed PLN 20,000 net. A new business counts the limit in proportion to its period of sales in the year. Once you exceed the limit, the exemption ends 2 months after the end of the month in which you exceeded it;
- payment through a bank: a service the customer paid in full to your account, where the documents show what the payment was for. The same applies to mail-order sales of goods paid in full by transfer.
Regardless of turnover, a cash register is required among others for: restaurants and cafés with premises, hairdressers and beauticians, car repairs and tyre changes, passenger transport and taxis, legal services, tax advisers' services and doctors and dentists (unless you provide the service entirely remotely and the customer pays by transfer), and for sellers of electronics, perfume, alcohol, tobacco and fuel. The full list is in the regulation on cash register exemptions.
Payments through an account and the white list
- A payment with another business must go through a payment account if a single transaction exceeds PLN 15,000, even when paid in instalments.
- If you pay more than PLN 15,000 in cash, or to an active VAT payer's account that is not on the white list, you cannot count the expense as a tax cost. When paying to an account outside the list, you can avoid this by notifying the tax office (ZAW-NR) within 7 days of ordering the transfer.
- Before a transfer above PLN 15,000, check the supplier's account in the VAT payer register (white list) on podatki.gov.pl.
- The split payment mechanism (MPP) is mandatory when an invoice exceeds PLN 15,000 gross and covers goods or services listed in annex 15 to the VAT Act, for example electronics, fuel or construction work.
In Norman
Norman keeps the KPiR or the revenue register for a JDG and the accounting books of an sp. z o.o. See KPiR, revenue register and exchange differences, The sp. z o.o. ledger, Fixed assets and depreciation and Expenses and documents.
This is general information on the 2026 rules. Check the regulation or ask an accountant whether you need a cash register.
Sources: PIT Act, art. 22p and 24a, Lump-sum Income Tax Act, art. 15, Accounting Act, art. 2, VAT Act, art. 96b, 108a and 111, regulation on cash register exemptions, Entrepreneurs' Law, art. 19, Tax Ordinance, art. 70, 86 and 117ba, VAT payer register.