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How long must I keep accounting data — and what does that mean for the software?

Ten years — and your subscription cancels in a month. From that mismatch follows the one question that precedes every software purchase.

Published
Data as of
August 2026
Reading time
4 minutes

The essentials

  1. Books of account, accounting vouchers and the annual report must be kept for ten years, counted from the end of the financial year. Article 958f of the Code of Obligations governs.
  2. Digital filing is permitted. The ordinance on books of account requires two things for it: the documents must be filed unalterably and stay legible for the whole period.
  3. Unalterable does not mean undeletable but traceable: every change has to be logged. That is a requirement on the software, not on your folder structure.
  4. Practical consequence: the retention duty survives any cancellation. So ask about the export format before you sign, and try the export in the trial account — not after cancelling.
Rather filter for yourself? All 28 solutions with 19 criteria in one table Filter by profile and features, set a budget, read the columns side by side. This article gives the bearings — the table is the tool. To the comparison table

What exactly has to be kept for ten years

Article 958f of the Code of Obligations names three things: the books of account, the accounting vouchers, and the annual report together with the audit report. The period does not start on the document date but at the end of the financial year — a document from January 2026 must therefore, with a calendar financial year, be kept until the end of 2036.

The annual report and the audit report must be kept in written and signed form. For everything else the law expressly permits electronic form, on the conditions of the ordinance on books of account.

Four conditions for digital filing

They follow from the ordinance on books of account and are the reason why «we save the documents» is not enough of an answer.

  1. Filed unalterably

    Not undeletable but traceable: every change has to be logged with time and author. A directory in which someone can replace a file without anyone seeing it does not meet this.

  2. Legible for the whole period

    Ten years is two to three software generations. A format only your own solution opens is a risk — which is why export is not a convenience but part of the duty.

  3. Available at any time

    On the tax authority’s request within a reasonable period. An archive only the cancelled software can open is not available.

  4. Complete and ordered

    The document must stay assignable to the entry. An export of the entries without the documents is a list, not a set of accounts.

Why this is a software criterion and not a filing question

The ten-year period stands against a subscription cancellable monthly. Whoever leaves a solution takes the duty with them and not the data — unless they checked beforehand in what form they get it out.

Checking here means trying. Demand a complete export in the trial account: entries, chart of accounts, documents as files, and the link between entry and document. Whoever can only export a spreadsheet has not met the fourth point above.

Where the data sits is not prescribed. The law demands availability and legibility, not a location. The data location appears in the comparison table as a row of its own — with the three recorded cases Switzerland, Switzerland/EU and EU.

Frequently asked questions

Does the period also apply to a sole proprietorship keeping simplified accounts?

Yes. The retention duty does not depend on the type of bookkeeping. Whoever keeps only a statement of receipts, payments and net assets keeps that statement and its documents for ten years too.

Is a PDF export enough?

For the documents as a rule yes, for the entries no: a PDF is legible but not further processable, and an audit requires document and entry to be linked. Demand both — the documents as files and the entries in a format that can be read back in.

Does the software have to be hosted in Switzerland?

It is not prescribed. The Code of Obligations requires availability and legibility over ten years and says nothing about location. Of the 28 accounting solutions compared, 24 come from vendors based in Switzerland; the data location is a separately recorded detail.

What happens if I cancel the software?

The duty stays with you. Hence the rule: export before cancelling, and check the export rather than filing it away. An archive nobody has opened is not an archive.

Where the information comes from

Legal information
Code of Obligations, Article 957 on the duty to keep accounts and Article 958f on retention, plus the ordinance on books of account. This post is orientation, not legal advice.
Figures on the survey
Own survey, as of July 2026. Every figure in the text is calculated at build time from the verified data.

Which of the 28 accounting solutions keeps its data where is a row of its own in the comparison table.

All 28 providers in the comparison table: Accounting

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