Digital archiving refers to the electronic retention of business documents and data over the prescribed period. In the process, information subject to retention requirements must be kept organised, accessible and traceable.
What does digital archiving mean?
With digital archiving, documents subject to retention requirements are not stored exclusively in paper form, but are saved electronically and kept available for the respective retention period.
This may include, for example, booking slips, invoices, business letters or other tax-relevant electronic documents.
What requirements apply to digital archiving?
Electronically stored documents must remain available and legible throughout the prescribed retention period in particular. For electronic accounting and recording systems, the requirements of GoBD to be taken into account.
The essential requirements include, in particular:
- organised and traceable storage
- Completeness of the information subject to retention periods
- permanent availability and readability
- Protection against unauthorised or inexplicable modifications
- possibility of the required data access and evaluation
Connection with the Aufbewahrungsfrists
How long a document must be digitally archived depends on the respective legal Retention period. The duration depends on the type of document or record.
Therefore, the digital format fundamentally changes nothing about the fact that documents subject to retention requirements must be kept available for the legally prescribed period.
Digital archiving and file storage – what is the difference?
Simply saving a file is not automatically equivalent to proper digital archiving.
During archiving, the requirements for retention, traceability, availability and, where applicable, data access that apply to the respective document must also be met.
