Companies have the option of keeping their financial-accounting document archives not only in physical form (on paper), but also in electronic format, provided they can be printed at any time, whether needed by the entity itself or requested by control authorities.
These aspects were introduced by Order of the Minister of Public Finance (MFP) no. 2634/2015 on financial-accounting documents, a regulatory act published in the Official Gazette (Part I) no. 910 dated December 9, 2015, applicable from January 1, 2016.
Thus, Annex no. 1 (General Rules on the Preparation and Use of Financial-Accounting Documents) of OMFP 2634/2015 provides that supporting documents, accounting registers, and other financial-accounting documents are kept, as applicable, at the registered fiscal address, registered office, or secondary offices, either on paper or in electronic format.
Where accounting records are maintained using IT programs, financial-accounting documents may be stored on technical media for the duration of the retention periods provided by current legislation, provided they can be printed at any time, based on the entity’s needs or at the request of control authorities.
At the same time, current legislation provides that financial-accounting documents may also be kept under service contracts by economic operators authorized to provide archiving services.
Responsibility for keeping financial-accounting documents lies with the administrator, authorizing officer, or other person responsible for managing the beneficiary entity.
During inspections conducted by authorized authorities, entities must present the requested documents upon request.
The retention period for payroll records is 50 years, and the retention period for accounting registers and other financial-accounting documents is 10 years, starting from the date of closing the financial year in which they were prepared, with the exception of the documents listed below.
Attention! Financial-accounting documents attesting the origin of assets with a useful life of more than 5 years are retained for a period corresponding to the useful life of those assets.
When a company’s activity ceases, financial-accounting documents are retained in accordance with the provisions of Companies Law no. 31/1990, as republished and subsequently amended, or transferred to the State Archives in accordance with the applicable legal provisions, as the case may be.
Archiving of financial-accounting documents in paper format is done in accordance with legal provisions and observing the following general rules:
- Documents are grouped into files, numbered and bound;
- Documents are grouped into files chronologically and systematically, within each financial year to which they relate. Files archived in this manner are kept in spaces fitted for this purpose, protected against deterioration, destruction, or theft, and equipped with fire prevention equipment.
The records of documents in the archive are maintained using an Evidence Register, pursuant to National Archives Law no. 16/1996, as republished, in which the files and documents entered in the archive and their movement over time are recorded.
The removal from the entity’s archive of financial-accounting documents whose retention period under these rules has expired is carried out by a commission established in accordance with the entity’s own procedures.
In this situation, a protocol is drawn up and the removal of the eliminated documents from the archive Evidence Register is noted.