Electronic Archiving of Accounting Documents
As of January 1st, 2016, accounting documents can be kept not only on paper, but also in electronic format, pursuant to the Order of the Minister of Public Finance no. 2634/2015 (published in Official Journal no. 910 of December 9, 2015). Furthermore, the said Order also contains provisions regarding the conditions that have to be complied with by accounting software. All these changes are presented to you below.
Conditions Applicable to Electronic Archiving
Even if electronic keeping and archiving of accounting documents were already provided by the law, it was not clear whether electronically archived documents also had to be kept on paper. Consequently, a significant number of companies were archiving their accounting documents on paper.
Pursuant to Order no. 2634/2015 (point no. 36 of Appendix 1), accounting documents have to be archived by companies on paper on in electronic format. If the accounting books are kept via accounting software, accounting documents can be archived in electronic format for the whole duration imposed by the law, provided that the said documents can be printed at any time, if requested by the inspection authorities or if printing is needed due to the economic operator’s activities.
Furthermore, archiving of accounting documents can also be entrusted to companies specialized in document archiving. These companies must be authorized to supply archiving services.
Moreover, in accordance with the abovementioned Order, accounting documents can be kept not only at the economic operator’s tax residence or secondary offices, but also at its registered office (which can differ from the tax residence).
Conditions Applicable to Accounting Software
Accounting software used by economic operators in order to keep their accounting documents must comply with certain conditions:
– Ensure strict compliance of the electronic data processing results with the applicable regulations in force;
– Each piece of information recorded in the accounting books must also figure in an accounting document;
– Ensure data preservation for a period of time, in compliance with Law no. 82/1991 on accounting;
– Guarantee data confidentiality and protection (by passwords, identity codes for access to information, ensure software and data backup);
– Allow printing of financial statements and synthetic documents necessary for the entity’s operational management;
– Comply with the regulations in force applicable to data security and data processing reliability.
GRUIA DUFAUT Law Office
Lawyers (Paris & Bucharest)
Note: The information herein does not represent legal counselling. Please note that is article provides general information only, based on the legislation applicable on the day of its publishing (17/12/2015). Any decision to initiate an action or not should not be based on this information, but on specific legal counselling.