How to start a new era of efficient management? You should learn about electronic accounting archives!

In the past two years, China has vigorously promoted electronic invoices. Using electronic invoices can reduce enterprise costs, make it easier for consumers to keep records, and help tax authorities standardize management. It is a good thing that benefits the country and the people, but in the specific implementation process, it has encountered much criticism:

①Units that have established an electronic archives management system

An accounting information system has been implemented, and accounting vouchers, reimbursement vouchers, and other items related to electronic invoices have all been fully digitalized (excluding paper voucher scanning, belowsame), electronic invoices and related electronic accounting vouchers such as bookkeeping vouchers and reimbursement vouchers can be organized, archived, and kept for the long term through an archiving interface or manual import into an electronic archives management system. For archiving methods, refer to the Guidelines for Enterprise Electronic Document Archiving and Electronic Archives Management (Dang Ban Fa[2015] No. 4);

If accounting vouchers, reimbursement vouchers, and other documents related to electronic invoices have not been digitalized, the electronic invoices may be separately organized, archived, and preserved for the long term through an archiving interface or by manually importing them into an electronic archives management system. For the methods of organization, archiving, and long-term preservation, refer to the Guidelines for Electronic Records Archiving and Electronic Archives Management in Enterprises (Dang Ban Fa [2015] No. 4).

That is to say, after an enterprise becomes electronic, it no longer needs to print vouchers and account books.

②Units without an electronic archives management system

If an accounting information system is implemented and the bookkeeping vouchers, reimbursement vouchers, etc. related to electronic invoices have all been digitized, the electronic invoices and related bookkeeping vouchers, reimbursement vouchers, etc. can be handed over to accounting archives management personnel for preservation, with archive numbers compiled. The storage structure is recommended to adopt the method shown in the figure below:

At the same time, establish an electronic accounting archive ledger or catalog. The recommended structure of the ledger or catalog is as follows:

If an accounting information system has not been implemented, and the bookkeeping vouchers and reimbursement vouchers related to e-invoices have not been digitized, the e-invoices are transferred in electronic form to the accounting archives management personnel for storage. The storage structure is recommended to adopt the method shown in the figure below:

At the same time, establish an electronic invoice ledger or catalog. The recommended structure of the ledger or catalog is as follows:

Note: When saving electronic invoices, methods such as multiple backups and regular testing should be used to ensure that electronic invoice archives will not be lost and can be read within the specified retention period.

If an accounting information system has not been implemented, the enterprise archives and preserves according to national regulations, and the procedures are very cumbersome, time-consuming, and labor-intensive.

Electronic accounting archivesDigitalization isAn inevitable trend

In terms of preserving electronic invoice data, the Ministry of Finance points out that where paper printouts of e-invoices are used as the basis for reimbursement, bookkeeping, and archiving, the e-invoice of that paper printout shall also be preserved at the same time, and a retrieval relationship between electronic accounting vouchers and related accounting archives shall be established.

However, if an enterprise has not established an archive management system, implementation is very difficult. Electronic invoices themselves are scattered among each reimbursement applicant in the company. Others reimburse using printouts, but finance requires electronic documents to be submitted at the same time as reimbursement, which is also troublesome. On the one hand, collecting and organizing these electronic documents by reimbursement voucher number is time-consuming and labor-intensive; on the other hand, building indexes is an enormous workload. Therefore, the current situation is that very few enterprises achieve full standardization.

To fundamentally solve these problems, the only way is to strengthen the unit's informatization construction, upgrade the accounting system in a timely manner, implement and improve electronic archive management, and ensure that the unit's use and custody of electronic accounting vouchers comply with relevant laws and administrative regulations.

Interpretation of 4 Major Points of Electronic Accounting Archives Policy

Electronic invoices are only one type of document for reimbursement and booking of electronic accounting vouchers. As early as March 23, 2020, the Ministry of Finance pointed out that when paper printouts of electronic accounting vouchers are used as the basis for reimbursement, booking, and archiving, the electronic accounting vouchers from which the paper copies were printed must also be preserved, and emphasized the receipt, reading, use, and management of metadata.

① Key archiving points of the electronic accounting archives management system

Electronic accounting vouchers are verified to be legal and authentic

Verification is completed by the expense control reimbursement system/accounting system; after archiving to the electronic archives management system, ensure its lifecycle status is archived and cannot be modified.

The transmission and storage of electronic accounting vouchers are secure and reliable, and any tampering with electronic accounting vouchers can be discovered in a timely manner

Expense control and reimbursement system/accounting system/electronic archives management system must all achieve this. In the electronic archives management system, the security of electronic accounting vouchers after archiving must be ensured, and any modification to electronic accounting vouchers must be logged for tracking and auditing.

The format of electronic accounting vouchers output by the accounting system should be PDF, PDF/A, or OFD[See GB/T 18894-2016 "Specification for Electronic Document Archiving and Electronic Archives Management"]

②The importance of electronic archive metadata management

Particular emphasis is placed on the metadata of electronic accounting vouchers. Metadata management is crucial to the authenticity, integrity, security and audit trail of electronic accounting vouchers, so metadata specifications for electronic accounting archives must be established.

③ Electronic accounting voucher archiving requirements

Archive scope: including but not limited to business documents, electronic invoices/fiscal electronic receipts/e-tickets/e-itineraries/electronic customs special payment statements/bank electronic receipts, etc.

Archive format: electronic accounting vouchers must obtain the PDF or OFD original of the invoice; paper printouts/scanned copies do not meet regulatory requirements.

Where stored: during the financial bookkeeping process, electronic accounting vouchers can be saved to the file storage link corresponding to the reimbursement document or bookkeeping voucher in the financial system; however, if they are uniformly settled and archived to form electronic archives, they should be supported by an electronic archive management system independent of the financial accounting system.

④Archiving scope and retention period

The archiving scope includes internal documents and external documents.

Internally generated documents: accounting vouchers, business documents, accounting books, financial reports, business contracts, other accounting materials, etc.

External documents: fully digitalized e-invoices, fiscal electronic receipts, e-tickets, e-itineraries, electronic customs special payment statements, bank electronic receipts, etc.

For periodic retention periods (10 years and 30 years), electronic accounting vouchers may be archived in electronic form only, with no need to retain paper copies.

Kailing Technology Electronic Accounting Archives System

At this point,Many enterprises wonder: what about my system? Can it be upgraded on the existing system? Does the system have to be completely rebuilt? Based on cloud technology, Kailing Technology enables enterprises to fully digitize invoices, vouchers, and account books on their existing IT architecture.

Kailing Technology's electronic accounting archives management system can provide customers with full lifecycle management from paper archives to electronic archives, realizing full-process management of electronic archives collection, generation, archiving, borrowing, statistics, utilization, appraisal, and destruction.

Electronic accounting archive solutions to end the high cost, inconvenient access, and easy loss of traditional archive management. After digitizing data, the archive data chain is improved to facilitate financial sharing and solve issues such as centralized sharing of physical invoices and documents in financial sharing.

Core Process of Kailing Technology Electronic Accounting Archives

①Collection of Accounting Materials：Supports collection of full archive data via local upload, scanning, interface transmission, and other methods（Bookkeeping vouchers, original vouchers：Such as reimbursement documents, electronic invoices, electronic receipts, and image files、Account book materials, report materials, etc.）, through integration with business systems, realize archive-related dataofautomatic association between them, enabling 100% archiving of enterprise archive data.

②Accounting Archive Organization：Perform data processing on collected accounting materials, classify and assemble archive metadata and their attachment files, encrypt data information, perform layout file format conversion, and complete file assembly and archiving. Through flexible definition of archive categories, custom settings can be made by multiple dimensions such as year, type, fonds, and project number, and fonds volumes can be established according to national standards.

③Utilization of accounting archives：For massive data, the archive management system provides multiple retrieval methods, including full-text search, conditional search, and metadata search to locate target documents. Employees can search in the borrowing list, select the files they need to borrow and add them to the borrowing process. They can also initiate a renewal application during the borrowing period to extend the borrowing cycle.

④Appraisal of Accounting Archives：Appraisal types in the archive system are generally divided into four categories，Opening Appraisal, Retention Period Appraisal, Dense Appraisal, Destruction Appraisal, etc. The System Can Automatically Remind When Archives Expire According to Pre-set Processing Rules, and Archivists Can Select a Batch of Archives Needing Appraisal for Batch Processing.

⑤Destruction of Accounting Archives：After the appraisal process ends, the system automatically places archives appraised as valueless into the pending destruction repository. Archive administrators periodically execute destruction actions. Destroyed archives can be deleted directly or enter the recycle bin according to preset rules, thereby avoiding the mistaken handling of some archives at that time，Ensure the security of users' archive information resources to the maximum extent.

Kailing Technology Electronic Accounting ArchivesSolution core application value

1.Reduce paper printing and lower consumable and storage costs

①Adapt to the national electronic trend, electronic booking and archiving requirements，Reduce paper printing and consumable usage。

②Expected to reduce paper consumption by 80%, save energy and reduce emissions, and be green and environmentally friendly，Help enterprises save production costs.

③Under the trend of thinner paper archive preservation or paperless operations，Expected to save 60% of warehouse space and 80% of hardware facility investment.

2.Reduce manual mechanical work and free up manpower

①Most vouchers do not need to be printed on paper, greatly saving the time and manpower required for voucher sorting, matching, binding, and cataloging, and helping enterprises reduce repetitive and mechanical work.

②Expected to reduce voucher matching and binding work by more than 90%, freeing manpower from tedious work and investing it in high-value work.

3.Meet long-term archive custody and tamper-proof requirements

①Ensure permanent and effective data storage through data backup, disaster recovery technology, and extended storage technology.

②Use electronic signature technology to achieve tamper resistance, connect with third-party notary offices for evidence preservation, and form a complete evidence chain, including full data preservation and document authenticity preservation.

4.Meet compliance and risk control requirements, avoiding risks

①Meet the national standards for archive management and the industry standards and specifications for accounting archive management, making enterprises' electronic accounting archive management legal and compliant.

②It provides the best destination for archiving electronic accounting vouchers such as electronic invoices, avoiding policy risks and accounting archives management risks.

Some text and images are from the internet

Beijing Kailing Technology Co., Ltd.——an enterprise business-finance-tax digitalization solution service provider.

Kailing Technology provides solutions for sales management systems, procurement management systems, output invoicing systems, input invoice collection systems, imaging management systems, financial posting systems, electronic accounting archives and other businesses according to enterprise needs, professionally and efficiently helping enterprises transform and upgrade their business-finance-tax digital management.

If you have any business-finance-tax digital transformation needs, welcome to contact us. Beijing Kailing Technology will serve you wholeheartedly.