Archiving and retention periods

Czech law requires you to keep accounting and tax documents, payroll records and client identification records for several years. DOXIO works out how long each document must be kept, stops it from being deleted too early by mistake and reminds the owners once a month what may now be disposed of. You find the overview in Documents → Archive & retention (owners and admins).

Retention classes and periods#

A few details:

• Tax documents — the VAT Act counts 10 years from the end of the tax period (a month or a quarter). DOXIO counts more cautiously from the end of the whole calendar year, so it keeps the document a few months longer at most, never shorter.
• Payroll sheets have to be kept for 45 years since 1 January 2023 (30 years before). For recipients of an old-age pension the law allows 10 years, but DOXIO does not know who is a pensioner and keeps the longer period. Records of how an employment started and ended belong here too.
• Contracts — the general limitation period is 3 years, the objective one 10 years, 15 years for damage caused intentionally. If a longer period applies to you, lengthen it in the settings.
• AML applies only to obliged entities under the anti-money-laundering act (e.g. accountants, tax advisors, lawyers, real estate agents).
• When a document serves several purposes, the longest period applies (§ 32 Accounting Act).

How DOXIO sets the class#

The class is set automatically and you can change it at any time:

1. 1
   Document data — an invoice or cash document with its data filled in is a tax document for a VAT payer and an accounting record otherwise. The VAT payer switch in the accounting settings decides. The period counts from the date of the taxable supply, else the issue date, else the upload date.
2. 2
   Workspace — a document on the board of a payroll or employee onboarding workspace is a payroll record automatically. For other templates we only recommend a class (legal and real estate → contract, client onboarding → AML identification, accounting → accounting record); it applies once you pick it for the section in Archive & retention → Settings. Otherwise every draft or mistaken upload in such a workspace would have to be kept.
3. 3
   Manually — on the document's History → Archive & retention tab, or in bulk: select documents in the Documents list (or in the Archive) and choose Retention class.

A manual class never shortens the period. If you mark an invoice as "Other", the 10 years of a tax document still apply.

The "Keep until" date#

"Keep until" is the last day you still have to have the document. From the next day on you may dispose of it.

• For contracts and AML identification the period runs from a date you enter (Contract end date, End of the business relationship). Until you fill it in, the document is kept and its status is Period not started yet.
• Keep at least until only lengthens the period — e.g. while a receivable is unpaid or a warranty claim is open (§ 32(3) Accounting Act). An earlier date has no effect.
• A period in years ends on the day with the same number. If that day does not exist in the month (29 February), it ends on the month's last day (§ 605 Civil Code).
• For accounting, tax and payroll documents, financial statements and AML identification, a date you enter only lengthens the period. It counts from the later of the document's date (tax point date, issue date or upload date) and the date you enter.

Who can shorten a period#

Only the organization owner can make a change that would shorten a period. This covers changing the class to a shorter one, an earlier contract or relationship end date (also entering the first end date of a contract whose period has not started yet), removing "Keep at least until", a section's default class, the accounting year end, turning off VAT payer, and removing the document details or changing them to an earlier date. An admin sees a message that the owner has to make the change. Admins can still lengthen a period.

Legal hold#

A hold blocks every deletion of the document — even after the period ends and even for the owner. Use it for a dispute, a tax audit or court proceedings.

1. 1
   Open the document, the History tab and the Archive & retention section.
2. 2
   Click Block deletion and write the reason.

An owner or admin can place a hold; only the owner can release it. Both are written to the organization's activity log.

Deleting a document before its period ends#

A document within its period can be deleted only by exception — a duplicate uploaded by mistake, for example:

• Only the organization owner can delete it, and has to write a reason (at least 10 characters). The reason, the class and the "Keep until" date go to the activity log.
• An admin sees the warning and cannot finish the deletion.
• Bulk delete always skips documents within their period or on hold and only counts them.

Disposal proposal#

Archive & retention → Disposal proposal lists the documents whose period has ended. Documents on hold are not listed, nor are signed documents — DOXIO never deletes those.

1. 1
   Review the proposal. You can download it as CSV and have it approved.
2. 2
   Select the documents you want to dispose of and click Dispose of selected.
3. 3
   Optionally add a note (e.g. the disposal reference) and confirm.

DOXIO checks each document again before deleting it. It writes a disposal record with the list of deleted documents and your note to the activity log. Nothing is ever deleted automatically.

Monthly notice#

Once a month DOXIO recomputes the periods and notifies the organization owners (in the app and by e-mail) how many documents newly reached the end of their period. You can turn it off in Archive & retention → Settings, and the e-mail alone in the notification settings.

Settings#

In Archive & retention → Settings (owner or admin):

• End of the accounting period — December for a calendar year, otherwise the month your fiscal year ends with.
• Retention periods — you can lengthen each class's period. Shorter than the statutory one is not possible. You can give "Other" a period of your own (counted from the end of the upload year).
• Default classes in workspaces — the class for documents in each workspace section.

In the Archive you filter documents by class and status (e.g. Due this year) and download the list as CSV.

Deleting the organization#

Deleting the organization is your request to erase its data. DOXIO carries it out even for documents you still have to keep — the duty to keep them stays with you. That is why the organization deletion form tells you how many such documents you have and offers the data export. Download it before you delete the organization.