Virtually every company knows that keeping its books is important. But did you know that the following applies under the Bookkeeping Act (BFL)? That's why it's important to know where the information is stored on different cloud services. If you use Storegate's services, you don't have to worry about this, you and your company can be sure that the records are stored in Sweden.
This is in accordance with the Accounting Act and the recommendations of the Accounting Board:
- Accounting information must be kept for seven years (BFL 7 chap. 2§).
- The original is considered to be the format in which the information is received and must be stored in that format (BFL 7 chap. 1§). For example, if you receive a PDF invoice by email, the PDF is the original and must be saved in that format.
- Accounting information may be transferred from one format (e.g. paper) to another (e.g. a machine-readable medium). It is therefore possible to transfer accounting information received in paper form to electronic form by photography or scanning. However, the document received (the paper document) may only be destroyed as from the fourth year following the end of the calendar year in which the accounting year ended (BFL, Chapter 7, Section 6).
- Accounting information stored on a machine-readable medium and still used in the day-to-day accounting work must be backed up. The same applies to accounting information that is no longer used for day-to-day accounting operations but is stored on a storage medium on which data is added or updated. (BFNAR 2013:2 paragraph 8.2).
- All accounting information must be kept in Sweden. If it is to be stored abroad, it must be notified (or in some cases applied for) to the Swedish Tax Agency (BFL 7 chap. 2-3§).
More info Accounting Board: http://bfn.se/sv/fragor-och-svar/arkivering
Swedish Tax Agency: https://www4.skatteverket.se/rattsligvagledning/edition/2018.2/324687.html
Bookkeeping Act (Chapter 7 Filing): https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/bokforingslag-19991078_sfs-1999-1078
