Archiving E-Delivery Notes: 10-Year Legal Retention Requirement and How to Comply
The law requires keeping e-delivery notes for at least 10 years (public sector: permanently). Here's how to organize archiving and be inspection-ready.
How Long Must You Keep E-Delivery Notes?
| Entity Type | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Public sector | Permanently |
| Private sector | Minimum 10 years from date of issue |
What Exactly Must You Keep?
- E-delivery notes: all sent and received
- E-receipt notes: all confirmations
- Paper versions with hologram: if used during outages
- Audit trail: who created, modified, confirmed
- Attachments: photos, CMR, quality certificates
Where Are E-Delivery Notes Stored?
1. Central System (Portal)
The portal stores all notes centrally, but relying solely on it is risky: the law places responsibility on YOU.
2. Your Own System (Mandatory)
You must have your own copy. Options: DMS (recommended), ERP archive, or file system.
Why DMS for Archiving?
- Automatic classification: by recipient, date, goods type
- Guaranteed retention: prevents accidental deletion
- Document integrity: hash values, digital signatures, audit trail
- Cross-linking: connects delivery notes with invoices, receipt notes, contracts
What Inspectors Look For
- Do you have all delivery notes?
- Are they searchable?
- Are they unmodified?
- Do you have an audit trail?
- Do you have backups?
Archiving Checklist
- DMS or ERP with long-term archiving
- Auto-sync with the e-delivery notes portal
- Off-site backup (cloud or physical)
- Retention periods configured (10 years / permanent)
- Deletion protection (retention lock)
- Search by recipient, date, goods type
- Audit trail enabled
- Linked with e-invoices and receipt notes
Conclusion
Archiving e-delivery notes isn't optional: it's a legal requirement for 10 years. Don't rely solely on the government portal.
Arhivix automatically archives all e-delivery notes for 10+ years, with full search, audit trail, and deletion protection. Always inspection-ready.
