In addition to benefits like lower storage costs and improved efficiency, it’s often legally required to keep certain business records for a set period of time. While regulations like GDPR instruct that “data should only be retained for as long as is required to achieve the purpose for which data were collected and are being processed”, individual countries and municipalities often set forth more specific guidelines.
If you operate a business in the Netherlands, for example, you are legally obliged to retain business records for a specific period of time. Below, we outline details about the regulation, and how having an automated data archiving solution can help simplify compliance.
Understanding the 'Obligation to Keep Records' Regulation
To whom does the regulation apply?
The regulation applies to anyone who operates a business in the Netherlands. Even if you stop running your company, you are still required to keep your basic records for the set length of time.
What types of records must be retained?
You must retain all “business records”, which include, but are not limited to stock records, general accounts, payroll accounts, purchase and sales records, credit and debit accounts, and data that are relevant to the taxation of third parties.
The retention period applies to both printed and digital files.
How long must business records be retained?
You must keep your business records for at least seven years. This is the retention period. You must keep data related to immovable property for at least 10 years. You must also keep your records for 10 years if you make use of the Union scheme, housed in the One Stop Shop.
How Own can help simplify compliance within Salesforce
If you store business records in Salesforce that fall under the retention requirement, Own can help you simplify compliance.
With Own Archive, you can define, automate and manage custom data retention policies that include specific data to be archived, how frequently data archiving activities occur, and how long archived data is retained. Once policies are configured, Archive removes specified records and attachments from production and securely stores immutable replicas to the cloud without changing the integrity of data relationships.
Archive will also allow you to transfer unused data to an external server, freeing up resources and space in your Salesforce production environment. To learn more about how Own can help, check out our customer story from Workwear Outfitters.
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