Custom software for the tax retention obligation and auditable record-keeping
The retention obligation sounds like an archiving question, but it is not. You may not keep digital files exclusively in printed form, and the Tax Authority must be able to access your programmes and files during an audit. Retention therefore becomes a requirement of the system in which your records are created.
What the retention obligation requires of your system
The core rule is set out in the General State Taxes Act: taxpayers must retain their records for seven years. Data relating to immovable property must be kept for ten years. Basic records always fall under this: the debtor and creditor ledgers, the purchase and sales ledgers, and the general ledger.
More important for software is the form. You must keep data in its original form, whether digital or paper. Files originally created digitally may not be kept solely as printouts; during an audit, the Tax Authority must be able to access your programmes and files. A printout of a general ledger is therefore no substitute for the general ledger itself.
Conversely, you are permitted to digitise paper records. Scanning is allowed provided it produces a correct and complete representation of the original; if you meet the conditions, you do not need to keep the paper document. That digital archive then falls under the seven- or ten-year retention period itself and must be retrievable within a reasonable timeframe.
This is where the practical challenge lies. A system that works perfectly today must, seven years from now, still be able to show data from a version that has long since been replaced, in a form an auditor can follow. Those who only consider this during a migration or a change of software discover that the old data is still there but can no longer be queried.
How we build this
The key issue is not storage but retrieval. A file that exists but cannot be opened or searched does not meet the requirement that it must be verifiable within a reasonable timeframe.
For each type of data at its point of origin: which retention period applies and in what form it must be kept.
Digital documents remain digital, together with the metadata needed to read them later.
Searching by period, relationship, amount or document number, including for years in which the system has since been replaced.
An export that allows an auditor to work independently, without anyone needing to operate the system.
What the software actually does
The durability of your data depends on the whole setup. What else you need depends on your size and on the number of systems in which financial records are created.
Retention period by type of data
Seven years for basic records, ten for immovable property, with the applicable rule specified for each type.
Digital remains digital
Files are kept as they were created, not as printouts, because a printout does not satisfy an audit.
Scanning with checks
Anyone digitising paper wants to be certain the representation is correct and complete before the original can be discarded.
Retrieval without the system
An export by period or by relationship that is also readable by someone unfamiliar with your software.
Readable across versions
An entry from an older system version must still be viewable now, including the context in which it was made.
Immutable records
What has been booked stays in place; a correction is added alongside it, not written over it.
Who we build for
Who faces this varies by organisation. Four situations.
Accountants and controllers
They receive the auditor's questions and only discover then whether the system can answer them.
Accountancy firms
They manage the records of many clients and do not want a different search process for each one.
Businesses with their own software
If you have had a system built that generates invoices or orders, the retention obligation applies within that system too.
Organisations changing systems
During a migration, the question of what happens to the old data arises, and that is precisely the difficult moment.
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Retention periods are stable but systems are not. Retention periods, data types and export formats should be configurable rather than hard-coded.
Why Appfront
A printout is not a file
Whatever was created digitally must remain digital. We build the storage so that the original is kept, not merely a representation of it.
Keeping records is easier than finding them
The requirement is that data must be verifiable within a reasonable timeframe. That is a search question, not a storage question.
Your current system won't last seven years
Assume you will migrate at least once during that period. That is a design requirement, not a future concern.
We don't keep your books
The tax judgement remains with you and your accountant. We build the system in which your records stay sustainable.
Security and privacy
An administration holds data on your turnover, your margins and your relationships, and sometimes personal data on customers and employees. We set access by role, give an accountant access to the period they are working on without the rest, and record every access. Integrations connect securely to your existing software.
For this subject, the reliability of each record is what matters. An entry changed afterwards without a trace undermines exactly what an audit tests. We record mutations immutably with timestamp and person, and treat a correction as a visible correction alongside the original line. How we handle security ourselves is set out in our information security policy.
Frequently asked questions about the tax retention obligation
Seven years, and ten years for data relating to property. The core records are always covered: the debtor and creditor ledgers, the purchase and sales ledgers, and the general ledger.
No. You keep records in their original form, and what was created digitally stays digital. During an audit the Tax Authority must be able to access your programmes and files; keeping files only in printed form is not sufficient.
Yes, provided the scan is a correct and complete representation of the original. If you meet the conditions, you do not need to keep the paper document. The digital record then falls under the retention period itself and must remain accessible within a reasonable timeframe.
It means an auditor must be able to inspect and follow your data without it taking weeks. In practice that is a search question: can you locate a period, a relation or a document, including in years for which the system has since been replaced?
This is the most difficult moment, because the data moves but the way of querying it often does not. Before a migration, decide how you will continue to access the older years; it often turns out afterwards that the files are still there but no longer usable.
No. This concerns your own records and the retention obligation that applies to them. Filing VAT on behalf of foreign clients is a different subject; for that we have a separate page on software for fiscal representatives.
Can you still show a booking from six years ago?
Pick an invoice number from a previous financial year and try to find it in the form in which it was created. If you can only retrieve it via a printout, you do not meet the requirement. We build this as a standalone application, or as part of a wider custom software development project.