Administration in order: the 7 documents that should always be within reach

The statutory retention period for administration is seven years (ten years for real-estate-related data). But an administration is more than an obligation: it is the memory of your business and the first thing a bank, investor or buyer wants to see.

These seven documents should always be current and easy to find:

• The annual statements of recent years, including filing at the Chamber of Commerce

• All purchase and sales invoices, stored digitally and searchable

• Bank statements linked to your bookkeeping

• The VAT returns and payroll filings per period

• Employment contracts and personnel files (GDPR-proof)

• Current contracts with customers, suppliers and rent

• Proof of ownership of business assets and insurance policies

A common mistake: the administration "will get done" at year-end. Then you discover afterwards that invoices are missing, receipts are gone and the VAT does not add up. In practice the opposite approach is much cheaper: updating it every month. With a linked bank and digital invoice processing that takes less than an hour a month.

We offer full management of your administration or help you get it in order yourself — including digitisation via Exact. The result: any document findable within a minute, and a year-end closing without surprises.