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Archival storage of documents and files is the responsibility of every organization
The obligation to store documents in the organization’s archives and storage periods are provided for by various laws.
Thus, the storage period for tax purposes is determined by the Tax Code. For accounting documents, the deadline is fixed by the Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ. How long to store documents on personnel is indicated by the Law “On Archival Affairs” dated October 22, 2004 No. 125-FZ. A set of storage periods can also be found in the order of the Federal Archive of Russia dated December 20, 2019 No. 236.
Attention! Order of the Ministry of Culture No. 558 dated August 25, 2010, which regulated storage periods until 2021, became invalid as of February 18, 2020. See here for details.
Read about the nuances of applying Order No. 236 in the article “List of document storage periods approved by Rosarkhiv” .
As of March 17, 2021, amendments have been made to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, according to which tax and accounting data must be stored for at least 5 years. Previously, the term was 4 years. For details, see this material.
To make it easier for you to understand the storage periods for documents in the archive, we have compiled a consolidated table of the main documentation that arises in the course of work of any organization.
Office documents: how long will they have to be stored?
The nomenclature of the office contained a list of a wide variety of files, the storage periods of which were strikingly different from each other. For example, a retention period of only 1 year applies to internal labor regulations (after replacement with new ones), and the collective agreement is required to be kept permanently.
The nomenclature of the office affairs was as follows (abbreviated):
| Case index | Case title | Number of storage units | Shelf life and article numbers according to the list | Note |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 01. Office | ||||
| 01-01 | Charter of Virage LLC | Constantly Art. 28 | ||
| 01-02 | Collective agreement of Virage LLC | Constantly Art. 386 | Sent for information - until the need has passed | |
| 01-03 | Internal labor regulations of Virage LLC | 1 year Art. 381 | After replacing with new ones | |
| 01-04 | Orders of the director of Virage LLC on core activities | Constantly Art. 19 | ||
| 01-05 | Orders of the director of Virage LLC on administrative and economic activities | 5 years Art. 19 | ||
| 01-06 | Minutes of meetings with the manager | Constantly Art. 18 "e" | Minutes of operational meetings - 5 years | |
| 01-07 | Nomenclature of cases | Constantly Art. 157 | Structural divisions - 3 years | |
| — | — | — | — | — |
| Reserve | ||||
| Reserve | ||||
While filling out column 4 of the nomenclature, Maria drew attention to the last 2 lines in column 2 “Case title”. As it turned out, it is customary to leave several reserve lines in the nomenclature of any division of the company in case headings of cases appear that were not previously provided for in the nomenclature. Retention periods in these lines will be entered only after the reserve lines are filled with the names of cases - while Maria left them empty.
After entering the storage periods for documents reflected in the office nomenclature, Maria began documenting the personnel department.
Storage periods for documents in the organization’s archive: table
| Document type | Shelf life, years (minimum) |
| Personnel | |
| Personnel documents: | |
| 75 |
| 50 |
These deadlines apply in particular to:
| |
| Other HR documents (time sheets, lists, travel documents). | 10 |
| Find out in ConsultantPlus which personnel documents inspectors will definitely check during an inspection. If you do not have access to the system, get a trial demo access and proceed to the HR Guide. It's free. | |
| For more information about this, see the article “What is the storage period for personnel documents in an organization?” . | |
| Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) | |
| Lists and time sheets of workers in special working conditions (harmful, dangerous, difficult) | 75 |
| Acts on occupational diseases, investigation materials | 75 |
| Documentation of accidents (acts, registration logs, investigation materials) | 45 |
| Logs of preventive work and training on TB | 10 |
| Statements for issuing special clothing and special food | 1 |
| See the article “What are the storage periods for occupational safety documents?” . | |
| Accounting and taxes | |
| Annual accounting | 5 years |
| Reporting to the Social Insurance Fund: | |
| 50/75 |
| 50/75 |
| Reporting to the Pension Fund: | |
| 50/75 |
| 75 |
| Information about the income of individuals | 5 |
| Tax returns and registers | 5 |
| Accounting policies, including appendices thereto | 5 |
| documents on settlements with personnel for wages (if there are personal accounts). These are pay slips, salary documents, documents on payment of benefits, financial assistance | 6 |
| cards for individual accounting of the amounts of accrued payments, remunerations and insurance premiums accrued from them (if there are personal accounts or payroll statements) | 6 |
| Primary accounting and registers | 5 |
| Cash documents | 5 |
| For more details, see the material “What is the shelf life of cash documents?” . | |
| Invoices | 5 |
| For them, read the publication “What is the shelf life of invoices?” . | |
In this table we have given only the most basic shelf life. If you have access to ConsultantPlus, you can always find the storage period for any document you need. If you don’t have access, you can get trial access for free and look at the storage period directory, as well as find any information that interests you.
Planning and statistical documentation: how long to store it
The next section of the nomenclature was small in volume. It consisted mainly of plans and statistical reporting. All forecast and planning papers as a whole according to the list were ordered to be kept permanently. Only individual employee plans and reporting did not require such a long retention period - the period of time during which they cannot be disposed of is only 1 year.
| Case index | Case title | Number of storage units | Shelf life and article numbers according to the list | Note |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 07. Planning, statistics and finance | ||||
| 07-01 | Economic and social development plans of Virage LLC | Constantly Art. 196 | ||
| 07-02 | Business plans of Virage LLC, documents (feasibility studies, conclusions, certificates, calculations) to them | Constantly Art. 197 | ||
| 07-03 | Annual plans of Virage LLC for main areas of activity | Constantly Art. 198 | ||
| 07-04 | Operational plans (quarterly, monthly) for all areas of activity | Until the need disappears Art. 201 | ||
| 07-05 | Individual employee plans | 1 year Art. 203 | ||
| 07-06 | Documents (tables, certificates, calculations) of summary statistical reports | Until the need passes Art. 338 | ||
| 07-07 | Individual employee reports | 1 year Art. 216 | ||
| — | — | — | — | — |
| Reserve | ||||
| Reserve | ||||
Nuances of calculating shelf life
The first thing you should pay attention to when “bookmarking” a document in the archive is the moment from which the storage period begins to be calculated. Thus, for some personnel documents it starts immediately from the date of preparation, and for primary accounting documents - at the end of the reporting year.
For tax purposes, the storage period begins after the reporting period in which the document was last used to calculate taxes and participated in the generation of reporting.
About the storage periods for documents on depreciable property, read the material “From when should the storage period for primary assets be calculated?” .
The second important nuance is that the retention period established for one document by different legal acts may vary. If this is the case, you need to choose the maximum one.
Let us explain both nuances with an example.
An example of determining the storage period for a work acceptance certificate
Let’s say the act was drawn up on March 29, 2017. Let's determine its shelf life:
- As a primary accounting document confirming the accounting of expenses, it must be stored for 5 years from the end of the reporting year 2021, i.e. from 01/01/2018 to 12/31/2022.
- As a document confirming the fact of acceptance of the results of work for VAT purposes - 5 years from the end of the first quarter of 2021 (VAT tax period), i.e. from 04/01/2017 to 03/31/2022.
- As documentary evidence of income tax expenses - 5 years from the end of the “profitable” tax period of 2021, i.e. from 01/01/2018 to 12/31/2022.
We choose the latest date - 12/31/2022. After this, the document can be destroyed.
For information on how to do this in accordance with all the rules, read the article “Destruction of documents with expired storage periods (act)” .
Drawing up inventories
This also implies double leading. Archival inventories are compiled in 3 copies. After completion of all stages of office work, they are transferred to the organization’s storage facility after a year.
The algorithm for compiling inventories includes the most important points:
- A common numbering is applied to all inventories of the enterprise.
- For permanent storage cases, a summary inventory for the year is generated in 4 copies.
- For temporary storage cases for the same period - in 2.
As with any inventory, quantitative data with serial numbers are entered at the end.
All forms that are needed to prepare cases have established forms. There are special fields for filling them out electronically in 1C. In the program system, you can organize the “Internal Documents” directory. This allows you to bring order to a huge volume of cases electronically. It also allows for the establishment of access levels so that only authorized employees can work with certain documents.
Results
When organizing an archive in a company, you should remember that the storage periods for one document serving in different capacities can be established by different legal acts and therefore vary. In this case, the period should be calculated to the maximum. Until its expiration, the document must be kept in the company's archives and cannot be destroyed.
Sources:
- Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ
- Order of Rosarkhiv dated December 20, 2019 No. 236
- Order of the Ministry of Culture of Russia dated August 25, 2010 No. 558
You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.
How to switch to a new nomenclature: step-by-step instructions
To organize the current paperwork process and the subsequent transfer of documents for storage, you need a nomenclature of cases. This is a systematized list of the titles of cases entered into office work during the year, indicating the periods of their storage. Such a list is necessary for the correct formation of documents, organization of their recording and safety, as well as quick search.
We must strive to ensure that the nomenclature of cases reflects all the functions and areas of work of the organization or individual entrepreneur. Otherwise, during the paperwork process, documents will inevitably appear that are not included in the nomenclature, which can lead to a violation of the storage order and even loss of documents.
Based on the form of case nomenclature approved by Order of the Ministry of Culture dated March 31, 2015 No. 526, we can recommend the following procedure for transition to the new nomenclature. First, you need to enter the numbering of the organization's structural divisions. These numbers will be required to create a case index, since it includes the serial number of the case, as well as the number of the structural unit.
REFERENCE
With a multi-level internal structure of an organization, you can enter complex indices consisting of groups of numbers separated from each other by a hyphen.
For example, separate numbers can be assigned to departments, divisions within a department, and work groups within a department. The second step when transitioning to a new nomenclature is to develop rules for forming case headings. In this case, one must proceed from the fact that the title in a clear but generalized form should reflect the main content and composition of the case documentation. Therefore, you cannot simply indicate “documents” or “correspondence”. It is necessary to specify “hiring documents” or “correspondence with the Federal Tax Service”.
ATTENTION
You cannot use non-specific wording in the title of the case: “Miscellaneous”, “General correspondence”, “Incoming documents”, etc.
The third stage involves the distribution of all cases by storage period, and the introduction of an appropriate paperwork procedure, in which documents are immediately generated by case, based on the storage period. If, when creating documentation, it is difficult to accurately distribute according to storage periods, then a binary system is introduced: initially, all documents relate to cases of either permanent or temporary storage. And the division of temporary storage cases into specific periods is carried out at the next stage by specialists responsible for managing affairs in the organization.
IMPORTANT
Is it necessary to include electronic documents in the nomenclature?
Clause 96 GOST R 7.0.8-2013 “SIBID. Record keeping and archiving. Terms and definitions" defines an electronic file as an electronic document or a set of electronic documents and metadata for them, formed in accordance with the nomenclature of files. Therefore, electronic files are included in the nomenclature common to paper files. When adding electronic documents to the general nomenclature, you must be guided by the same rules that apply to “paper” documentation. Connect to the Diadoc system for electronic document management with counterparties
