In today's article, we will present selected legislative changes that have a major impact on the retention of accounting documentation by businesses.
In view of the increasing share of electronic accounting records in accounting practice, the legislator added and specified, for the sake of clarity, the conditions that an entity is required to comply with when processing electronic accounting records.
This amendment clarified and simplified, inter alia, the provisions on documentary and electronic form of accounting records and redefined possible ways of transforming the accounting record when changing the form of the accounting record.
Transform accounting records
The transformation of an accounting record under the provisions of this approved amendment means a change in the form of an accounting record when processing an accounting record in an entity, while the intactness of the contents of an accounting record must be preserved. Changing the form of an accounting record is a change from a paper form of an accounting record to an electronic form of an accounting record or vice versa.
From the entry into electronic form, scanning will be possible to transform the accounting record from paper form into electronic form, in addition to the guaranteed conversion, in addition to the guaranteed conversion, which will greatly simplify the process.
When transforming accounting records from paper to electronic form by scanning, each entity shall in particular ensure:
(a) completeness of the accounting record in its original form and in a new form;
(b) the content and visual conformity of the accounting record in a new form with its original form;
(c) legibility of the entire area of the accounting record in a new form;
(d) the intactness of the contents of the accounting record.
We add to the last stated obligation that the integrity of the contents of an accounting record is ensured if there is no change in the content of the facts recorded by sending or making the accounting record available or by transforming the accounting record in the entity.
At the same time, entrepreneurs will be allowed to replace the handwritten signature with an electronic signature that allows a demonstrable identification of the person who made the electronic signature record.
Keeping of documentary accounting records in the new
It also follows from the wording of the amendment to the Accounting Act that the retention of documentary accounting records will not be necessary if they have been transformed into electronic accounting records by scanning. Subject to the proposed scanning requirements, where the output of the scan (image) is stored in a raster graphical file format (e.g. an image stored in .pdf, .png, .jpg, .tiff format according to the explanatory statement), such an electronic accounting record shall be considered demonstrable and shall not be required to present the accounting record in its original paper form.
The presentation of an accounting record in its original paper form will also not be required if subsequent modifications to .pdf the electronic format (e.g. OCR and Object Character Recognition) maintain raster form.
The scan will transform all kinds of accounting documents, which are currently drawn up mostly in paper form, such as receipt and expenditure receipts, receipts.
An entity will also be able to transform electronic accounting records into paper form by guaranteed conversion, or if the electronic accounting record does not contain a qualified electronic signature or a qualified electronic seal, the entity will be able to print it on paper while maintaining the integrity and legibility of the content and may, in that form, keep and submit them in the event of a check.
Records in paper form which have undergone the process of transformation into electronic form may subsequently be stored in electronic form. However, this does not prevent the entity from copying the accounting record for internal needs or for the needs of the control bodies in paper form.
Authenticity of origin, intact content and legibility of the transformed accounting record
Entities will also be obliged to ensure the authenticity of the origin, the intactness of the content and the legibility of the transformed accounting record.
As part of the amendment, the legislator shall specify these conditions by:
- the authenticity of the origin of the accounting record is ensured if the entity which is:
(a) the contractor is able to prove that he has actually drawn up the accounting record;
(b) the beneficiary is able to demonstrate that the accounting record received is from the contractor;
- the integrity of the contents of an accounting record is ensured if the contents of the facts recorded have not been reschedule by sending or making the accounting record available or transforming the accounting record in the entity;
- the legibility of the accounting record is ensured if the contents of the accounting record are legible by the human eye. An entity is required to keep its contents intact when ensuring the legibility of an accounting record.
If an amendment to the Accounting Act signed by the President of the Slovak Republic is approved and subsequently published in the Journal of Laws, these legislative changes should enter into force on 1 January 2022.
Resources:
https://www.nrsr.sk/web/Dynamic/DocumentPreview.aspx?DocID=499290
https://www.nrsr.sk/web/Dynamic/DocumentPreview.aspx?DocID=502431
