Electronic invoice backup

[chris ashdown]

As our friends at HMRC require us to keep records for 5 or 6 years (not sure which) and paper copies of invoices are taking up a large amount of space it go me thinking

As we go through the database every so often to clear out the very dead orders so only have about 18 months records on the database after each purge, would HMRC be happy id at the end of each year we made a snapshot and just kept that as we could reinstall the original software on a spare computer and reprint any invoices required on say a inspection

Alternatively could we just take a copy of the mdb and somehow print a copy of the invoice from that as we have Microsoft access so all the data must be on there

Would either method keep HMRC happy

Or any other suggestions to keep digital copies at time of dispatch

[fergusw]

Hi Chris,

This has the info you need: HMRC Electronic invoicing

To surmise; Yes you should be able to store it electronically in a snapshot backup file.

Controls on the storage of electronic invoices

You must:

• be able to guarantee the authenticity and the integrity of the content of your source documents throughout the storage period by either electronic or procedural means
• store all the data related to your invoices, including such evidence as is required to demonstrate that authenticity and integrity has been ensured, and
• be able to recreate the invoice data as at the time of its original transmission or receipt, and present the invoice data in a readable format. You must keep history files so that you can find the appropriate details from any particular time in the past if one of HMRC’s visiting officers asks you to do so

I'd argue that a Sellerdeck snapshot constitutes an authentic source of your order/invoice due to it's proprietary database structure and backup/restore method via licensed software. It also satisfies point 3 allowing you to recreate any order required.

6 years is also the length of time required for retaining records.

However I'm not HMRC (thankfully), so maybe best to check directly!