Answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Here you can find a list of all the procedures that you can take care of online using the Point of Single Contact Berlin:

• Our online procedures

The service provided by the Point of Single Contact Berlin is free of charge.

Regular administrative fees are charged for certain administrative services. A business registration, for instance costs EUR 26.

In some cases, costs can be reduced when the request is handled online. For example, a business registration requested online costs only EUR 15.

Yes, the Point of Single Contact will inform you of the competent authority(ies) for your request and will forward your documents directly on request.

The Point of Single Contact coordinates procedures with the competent authorities in the request submitted by you (for instance, in the case of a business registration for a craft with the Public Order Office and the Berlin Chamber of Skilled Trades).

However, the Point of Single Contact has no influence on the content of the decision.

You can use our online portal for certain administrative services online. You no longer have to go to different administrations in person in order to settle formalities relating to your profession or company.

• Our online procedures

You can immediately find out online which forms and documents have to be submitted in your case. In addition, you can fill out forms directly online on the platform and submit them to the administration with one click.

Simple business registration:

If you have a credit card AND you wish to make a simple[1] business registration, you do not have to register and can get started right away.

• Go to the online portal

All other cases:

Do you already have a BundID account? Then log in here:

• Log in with BundID.

To submit a new request, you must click on “Start new case” and then select your request via the wizard.

Don’t have a BundID account yet? Then register under:

• Create BundID account (Register)

¹ “Simple” means that the business is not to be registered together with another service (e.g. entry in the Register of Crafts or registration for statutory accident insurance).

Detailed information can be found under the following link: https://id.bund.de/de/faq

The processing times for the two online processing options offered differ.

• If you have chosen the procedure with the immediate transfer of the administrative fee, processing will be carried out by the respective Public Order Office as soon as possible after your documents have been received.

• In all other cases, the respective Public Order Office will first provide you with information on how you can pay the administrative fee.

If you have any questions about the procedure, you can contact the Point of Single Contact by e-mail at ea@senweb.berlin.de or contact your local Public Order Office directly.

• Public Order Offices in Berlin

• If you need help or have questions about the BundID (for account creation or your existing account), please address them to the relevant office using the following form.

Simple business registration:

In the case of a simple[1] business registration or business re-registration, you can pay online. At the moment, you can pay by visa card. Work is underway to provide other online payment options.

All other cases (with creation of a BundID account):

You will receive a document with the necessary information for a bank transfer (bank details, fee amount, etc.) from your local Public Order Office.

¹ “Simple” means that the business is not to be registered together with another service (e.g. entry in the Register of Crafts or registration for statutory accident insurance).

We secure our payment transactions for our online procedures with 3D Secure. This is a procedure that makes payment transactions on the Internet safer and protects your credit card from unauthorised use by third parties.

You must first sign up to use the procedure with your card-issuing bank.

In the case of Mastercard, this solution was previously called “Mastercard Secure Code” and since 2019 is now called “Mastercard Identity Check”.

Visa calls this solution “Verified by Visa”.

During the payment process, your card-issuing bank checks the payment. In some cases, the bank will ask for further information on the payment process via a separate input page. You will then be asked to check it and (if it matches) confirm the credit card payment with your agreed security feature (PIN; SMS TAN, fingerprint…). After that, please complete your business registration process.

Please note:
Due to changes at Mastercard in April 2019, there may be problems with authentication. In this case, please contact your card-issuing bank.

It is currently not possible to offer payment methods other than credit card payment; for legal reasons, the Giropay payment method had to be discontinued.
By calling up the payment process, you leave the application procedure and switch to the payment service provider. Sometimes this results in a payment being cancelled. Payment cancellations can have many causes.

The reason why you then have to enter the application data again is that this data is not saved when the application data is entered. Only after successful payment is the data you have entered transferred to the specialised procedure together with the payment data record.

To restart the process, it is necessary to actively select “Cancel”, confirm this once again and then re-enter the registration data and complete the payment process using a credit card. Alternatively, the cache must be deleted so that the so-called session in the browser is deleted. Or you can restart the process completely in a different browser.

Alternatively, there is another option for submitting the business registration online via the link below. In this case, a user account (user name/password) must be set up in advance via BundID.

If you use this online service, you will only receive a notification of fees or a request for payment from the responsible public order office once you have submitted your application. You then transfer the ordered fee. You will receive confirmation of your notification once the authority has registered receipt of payment.

• Link to the portal

Two e-mails are sent for each completed process.

The first e-mail contains a download link to a secure system where you will find your trade licence.

The second e-mail contains an 8-digit PIN which must be entered on the download page.

If you only receive one e-mail, first check your spam folder where e-mails often “hide”.

If the e-mail is not there, you can send us a message, stating your date of birth, and we will send you the confirmation. For data protection reasons, we will send this confirmation by post. If you would like to receive the document immediately by e-mail, please state so separately in your e-mail.

No, a separate invoice will not be issued.

You will find a “payment receipt” at the end of the business registration documents sent in the download procedure.

In addition, the confirmation of business registration also contains a note stating:
“Certificate issued in the EA procedure pursuant to sec. 15 (1) GewO. Fee EUR 15.00 [. ..]”.

Is the request you are interested in not listed here?

• Your request
• Our online procedures

Then please use our contact form and let us know your request.

• Contact form

Simple business registration (without creating a BundID account):

After processing has been completed, you will receive two e-mails from the Public Order Office. The first e-mail contains a download link to a secure system where you will find your trade licence. The second e-mail contains an 8-digit PIN which must be entered on the download page. As soon as the correct PIN has been entered, you will be able to download your confirmation.

The download link remains valid for 168 days.

All other cases (with creation of a BundID account):

The authorities in charge will upload the notices intended for you to the online portal once the procedures have been completed. You will also be informed by e-mail.

Log in with your BundID account into the online portal via the “Login” menu item (top right of the website to the left of the language selection button), open the case you have created and then download your notice under the menu item “How to proceed, who is responsible?” by clicking the documents.

The notice can be downloaded within 180 days.

Please do not forget to print it out or save it in your personal files, as closed cases are completely deleted from the system after 180 days.

• Online portal login

The certificate that you receive via our online portal is generated automatically and is valid even without a signature and official seal.

This is a so-called certificate of receipt. The certificate of receipt pursuant to sec. 15 (1) of the Trade Regulation Act [GewO] has no substantive or legal effect.

If you need to prove to third parties that you are currently operating a business, please use the eAuskunft service (free of charge for simple information).

• eAuskunft – the online business information service

You can get a copy from the Public Order Office where your business is registered (subject to a fee).

• Public Order Offices in Berlin

In this case, please contact the office responsible for you directly. E.G: To confirm your business registration, please contact your local Public Order Office.

• Public Order Offices in Berlin

Only relevant if you have registered with the BundID account and submitted a case:

You can only change your personal data via BundID.
You can view or change all other details that you have entered in connection with the online application in our online portal under the menu item “My account”.

Please log in to the online portal of the Point of Single Contact via your BundID account.

• Click here to log in

The case list will then open with the case you have already created. Open it by clicking on it.
You will then find the message from the responsible administrative office under the menu item “Your mailbox for the case”.

Only relevant if you have logged in with the BundID account and submitted a case:

Cases that have not been submitted and for which the retention period (180 days) has expired are automatically removed from the system. You will receive an e-mail in good time informing you that your case is to be deleted. Please start a new case!

If you encounter technical problems, you can help us to remedy this situation. Please report any problems in as much detail as possible (for instance, using screenshots) to our technical support service.

• Technical support

Only relevant if you have logged in with the BundID account and submitted a case:

If you have forgotten your user name, you can also enter the e-mail address that you have stored in your account as your user name.
Alternatively, you can use the “Forgot username” or “Forgot password” function when logging in. You can then request your user name by e-mail or reset your password using an e-mail link.

Please note: If you have entered your access data incorrectly 9 times, your “Username & password” access will become temporarily invalid and you will have to reset your password. Alternatively, you can log in with a different account (if you have another one stored in your BundID account).

Adobe Reader verification mechanisms are sometimes not sufficient for verifying qualified electronic signatures. The signature of the administrative office employee is however valid and can be verified using the online verification tools of the respective trust centre.

Try switching off the automatic form filling function of your browser (e.g. Microsoft Edge), then the street search function in the online form should work.