Archiving E-Delivery Notes: 10-Year Legal Retention Requirement and How to Comply

Archiving E-Delivery Notes: 10-Year Legal Retention Requirement and How to Comply

How Long Must You Keep E-Delivery Notes?

Entity TypeRetention Period
Public sectorPermanently
Private sectorMinimum 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

  1. Do you have all delivery notes?
  2. Are they searchable?
  3. Are they unmodified?
  4. Do you have an audit trail?
  5. 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.