Custom software for sustainable accessibility and DUTO
Storing is not the same as keeping something accessible. A file that sits on a drive for eight years but can no longer be opened, or where nobody knows which case it belonged to, does not comply. The new Archives Act makes that distinction sharper and also halves the period within which you must transfer records.
What changes in 2027
The new Archives Act was adopted in May 2026 and takes effect on 1 January 2027. The most concrete change is the transfer period, which goes from twenty to ten years. An important detail for planning is that the shorter period applies to information created after the Act takes effect; the period for your older files does not change with it.
In addition, a government body must appoint an archivist. This is not a symbolic role: it gives that person a position in decisions about what is kept and what is destroyed. In many organisations the role exists on paper, but nobody has the information needed to carry it out.
The most difficult part is long-term accessibility. The DUTO framework exists for this, describing what information must meet to remain findable, readable, interpretable and reliable over years. That concerns metadata, file formats and the context in which something was created. It is not a storage question but a design question, and it must be set up at the moment the information is created.
How we build this
Accessibility is created at the point of capture, not at the point of transfer. Whoever tries to fix it afterwards is missing the context that was there at the time.
Which category, which retention period, which legal basis. As long as this is a document, nothing can monitor a deadline.
Who, when, about what and in which case. These four cannot be reconstructed later, and without them a file is not an archival record but just a file.
A format that is common today will be a problem in ten years. We make visible what is held in which format and what needs converting.
Ten years sounds long until it arrives. We build it as an ongoing flow with a check up front, not as a project afterwards.
What the software actually does
The register of categories with their retention periods underpins everything. What else you need depends on your size and on how many systems produce information.
Selection list as a working tool
Categories with retention periods and legal bases, applied to what comes in. A selection list in a PDF monitors nothing.
Metadata checked at creation
Missing or incomplete metadata is flagged at the moment it can still be fixed, rather than at transfer.
Formats mapped with their risk
Which format holds what, and what of it will still be openable in ten years. It is the question nobody asks until it can no longer be answered.
Deadlines that run themselves
Keeping, destroying and transferring each have a moment of their own. When the period moves from twenty years to ten, your entire plan shifts with it.
Documented destruction
What was destroyed, when, on what legal basis and with whose approval. Destruction without that trail is indefensible when you are asked to account for it.
Connecting to your source systems
Information is created in case management systems, document management and email. We retrieve it through integrations, because an archive that is filled by hand is incomplete by definition.
Who we build for
The task differs considerably between organisations. Four situations.
Municipalities and provinces
Many different processes, many systems and an archivist who needs to keep track of everything. See also software for municipalities.
Implementing bodies
Large volumes of files with long retention periods. Here the gain is mainly automated: retention periods that run out on their own, rather than an annual clean-up.
Organisations with a public duty
You sometimes fall under the Act and sometimes do not, depending on the task. You want that boundary recorded rather than discussed case by case.
Advisers and archive services
You guide several organisations through the same process. One environment per client saves mapping everything out again each time.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
Selection lists, formats and the accessibility framework are being revised. All of it should be configurable and kept with its history.
Why Appfront
Accessibility is established at the point of recording
We validate metadata at the moment information comes in. Afterwards the context is gone, and repairing it then is guesswork.
Twenty years becomes ten
We build retention periods as configuration, so a change in the law is a setting rather than a migration project.
A format becomes obsolete silently
We make visible what sits in which format. That is the only way to plan a migration before it becomes urgent.
The archivist needs the data
We build the role around the information that goes with it, rather than a function with no view of what comes in.
Security and privacy
An archive almost invariably contains personal data and often decisions about individuals. Access to it is itself a matter of accountability. We set access by category and by role, separate viewing from editing, and record every consultation.
For this subject, the immutability of the archival record is the whole point. A document that can still be altered after archiving is not an archival record but a working file. We therefore record archival items with their original content and metadata, keep a migrated copy in another format alongside the original rather than over it, and record destruction with its legal basis and approval. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy; reports from outside come through our vulnerability disclosure policy.
Frequently asked questions about the Archiving Act
The new Archiving Act was adopted on 12 May 2026 and comes into force on 1 January 2027. The main practical change is the transfer period, which moves from twenty to ten years. Check the precise transitional provisions for your situation, as they determine what applies to your existing files.
No. The ten-year period applies to information created after the new rules take effect. For what already exists, the old period continues to apply. That means you will have two regimes running side by side for a while, and that is precisely the sort of thing you want to capture in the system rather than in a work instruction.
A framework for the sustainable accessibility of government information. It sets out what information must meet in order to remain findable, readable, interpretable and reliable for years to come. In practice, this means requirements for metadata, for file formats, and for recording the context in which the information was created.
No, for two reasons. Keeping everything without metadata gives you a mountain of files that no one can locate or make sense of, which means it is not accessible. And keeping things for too long is a problem in itself: anything that should have been destroyed under the selection list ought no longer to exist. Keeping everything is therefore not a safe choice.
The app concerns information created outside the office, with a supervisor or a field officer, and recording it properly there and then. This page is about what happens afterwards: selection, accessibility, formats and transfer.
The law requires government bodies to designate an archivist. Whether that is a member of your own staff or a shared role, and which powers come with it, depends on your organisation. What is essential in any case is that this person has the information they need to carry out the role.
Usually yes, and it is the only workable route. Information is created in case systems, document management and email; an archive that is filled manually is by definition incomplete. See also custom document management.
That depends on the number of source systems, the size of your collection and whether a retention schedule is already in place. The retention schedule with tracking is usually quick to put to use and immediately shows where the gaps are; format migration and integrations take more time. We give you a reasoned estimate after the discovery phase.
Wondering whether your archive will still be readable in ten years?
Take a file from eight years ago and try to establish which case it belonged to, who created it and whether you can still open it. What you are missing there, you will also be missing at transfer. We build this as a standalone application and as part of a broader custom software project.