Which documents should a company keep, and which should it delete?

Companies have to manage a considerable amount of information, and the volume keeps growing. While there are various ways of keeping data, digital archiving is today the best way to guard against loss and deterioration. Storing documents properly is not only a matter of growth and competitiveness for your organisation. It is also a legal requirement: companies are obliged to keep certain records. They can also dispose of other kinds of information. Do you know which business documents you have to keep and which you can erase? Here is everything on the subject.

Documents to keep in a company

The law requires professionals to keep their records for a certain period. That retention period varies with the category the file belongs to, and depends on how sensitive the information is. Here are the categories of documents you have to keep, preferably in digital form:

• Civil and commercial instruments;
• Human resources documents;
• Accounting records;
• Tax records;
• Corporate documents.

Civil and commercial documents

Companies use a great many civil and commercial instruments in the course of their business: contracts for the sale or purchase of land and property, contracts between traders considered non-commercial, and so on.

Banking records (bank statements, cheque stubs and the like), customs declarations and documents relating to the transport of goods and to intellectual property also count as civil and commercial documents. Commercial correspondence (purchase orders, delivery notes and so on), contracts concluded electronically, insurance contracts and supplier and client invoices fall into this category too.

Documents relating to staff

Data relating to staff should not be overlooked in a company. The records in this category that have to be kept are: the single staff register, payslips (in electronic form), documents relating to pay, bonuses, final settlements and pension schemes, and more. There are also employment contracts, workplace accident reports and the records of each employee's working hours.

This category also covers formal notices from the labour inspectorate, evidence of checks and inspections by the health and safety committee, and documents relating to social security contributions and payroll taxes.

An electronic version of each of these files has to be available and archived digitally. Like civil instruments, your HR files have to be kept in a secure space.

NetExplorer, a specialist in secure cloud data storage, offers you a tailored way of storing your data online. Far more than a way of keeping documents, it is a collaborative working platform that makes managing digital files easier.

Accounting records

Accounting records cover everything that makes the entries recorded in the accounts during a financial year traceable. They fall into two subcategories: commercial books and registers, and supporting documents.

The journal, the general ledger, the inventory book, the annual trial balance, balance sheets and profit and loss accounts are some examples from the first subcategory. In the second you will find purchase orders, invoices, delivery notes, and client and supplier invoices.

Tax records

Every company has to meet certain tax obligations, particularly around paying tax. It is therefore very important to have to hand, and up to date, every document that makes the work and the checks of the tax authorities easier.

That means evidence of tax returns. Evidence relating to industrial and commercial profits, to agricultural profits under the actual regime and to non-commercial profits is also covered. Tax records likewise include documents concerning local direct taxes, business property contributions and turnover taxes.

Corporate documents (for commercial companies)

Here are the corporate documents you absolutely have to hold:

• Your company's articles of association;
• Amendments to the articles;
• Merger agreements and any instrument relating to how the company operates;
• Annual accounts;
• Registers of minutes, registered securities, board meetings and share transfers and so on.

Auditors' reports, attendance sheets and proxies, along with the reports of the board or the managing director, are included too.

Given how important these documents are, make sure you always keep them safe in suitable storage. The file hosting we offer is optimised for what companies need. Not only does it keep your documents completely secure, you can also reach them at any moment and manage what is in them (editing, updating and so on) as you see fit.

For how long?

The table below sums up how long company documents have to be kept, according to their nature:

Type of document

Retention period

Records of employees' working hours and on-call hours

1 year

Insurance contracts (after termination); guarantees on goods and services supplied

2 years

Customs declarations; attendance sheets and proxies; auditors' reports; reports of the board or the managing director; documents relating to social security contributions and payroll taxes; evidence of the working days recorded for employees on fixed-day contracts

3 years

Banking records; documents relating to the transport of goods and to intellectual property; lawyers' files; the company's articles of association and any amendments; merger agreements; registers of minutes, registered securities, board meetings and share transfers; transfer orders; payslips, documents relating to pay, bonuses, final settlements and pension schemes; employment contracts; formal notices from the labour inspectorate; evidence of checks and inspections by the health and safety committee; workplace accident reports

5 years

All tax records

6 years

Accounting records; accounting supporting documents; annual accounts; contracts concluded electronically (where the transaction is worth 120 euros or more),

10 years

Contracts for the sale or purchase of land and property

30 years

Note: for tax records, the period rises to 10 years in cases of tax fraud or unlawful activity.

There is no point keeping the data and records you work with indefinitely. Once their legal retention period has expired, you can destroy them.

Documents you have to delete

If your line of work involves documents holding your clients' personal data, you have to follow what the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) says on the subject. None of a citizen's personal information may be kept by your company once the purpose for which it was obtained has been met. A client can also exercise their right to be forgotten by asking you to destroy all of the personal data you hold about them. In that case, you are obliged to comply as quickly as possible.

What to take away? Your company is obliged to keep the data it uses for a period that varies. Since the nature of these documents varies too, and their number is generally very high, a cloud solution is the way to keep them safe. NetExplorer's private cloud will suit you perfectly, whatever your needs.

Source: https://www.service-public.fr/professionnels-entreprises/vosdroits/F10029