The end of the quarter looks the same in most accounting departments: calls to counterparties asking to "please send the original act", piles of envelopes, lost delivery notes, and closing the period on the last night. Electronic document management (EDM) removes this pain at the root: primary documents get signed in minutes, statuses are visible in real time, and the archive is always at hand. Let's see how it works in practice.
A familiar pain: hunting for originals
Paper-based primary documents create work for accountants that should not exist at all:
- Weeks of waiting. The act was sent by post — and it is "on its way" somewhere. Without the original you cannot properly close the period.
- Lost documents. Some originals get lost in transit or at the counterparty's office, and the whole cycle starts over.
- Manual tracking. Who has signed, who has not, whom to remind — all of it lives in someone's head or a spreadsheet.
- Costs. Printing, couriers, postage — small amounts that add up to a noticeable budget over a year.
How EDM changes work with primary documents
With electronic document management, primary documents — acts, delivery notes, invoices — complete their full cycle in minutes rather than weeks:
- You create or upload a document and send it to the counterparty.
- The counterparty signs it with their qualified electronic signature — in eObig this works even without registering an account.
- Both parties immediately receive the signed original, which automatically lands in the electronic archive.
The status of every document is visible in real time: sent, viewed, signed. Instead of calling to ask "so, what about that act?", you just glance at the screen. And which key carrier to use — Diia.Signature, a file key, or a token — is up to each party: the legal force is the same.
Reconciliations with counterparties without mail and scans
Quarterly and annual reconciliations are another process EDM speeds up dramatically. A reconciliation statement is generated, sent, and signed through the same route as any other document. If there are discrepancies, the counterparty rejects the document with a comment, and you see the reason immediately — not after a second letter in the post. We covered how exchanging documents with counterparties online works in a separate article.
Tax audits with electronic documents
The most common objection sounds like this: "What if the tax office refuses to accept them?" It accepts them. An electronic document with a QES is legally the original — you do not need to print it for an audit, and a paper copy is precisely what is not the original. More on this in our article on the legal force of electronic signatures.
In practice, during an audit you can:
- export the requested documents from the archive in bulk — together with the signatures and the data needed to verify them;
- grant access to specific documents in the system without emailing anything at all.
Search in the electronic archive turns audit preparation into a matter of hours, not weeks: documents by counterparty or period are found in seconds. The key is to respect the retention periods for electronic documents, which are the same as for paper ones.
Integration with your accounting system
To keep EDM from becoming "yet another program to type data into", it is connected to the accounting system. Via API and webhooks, eObig exchanges data with your accounting environment: documents are generated from accounting data, and signing statuses flow back automatically. The accountant keeps working in the familiar system while the document flow happens behind the scenes. AI features help too — for example, recognising document details from a photo when a counterparty still sends paper.
Answers to typical objections
- "The tax office will not accept it." It will: an e-document with a QES is the original by law, and audits involving electronic primary documents have long been routine.
- "Our counterparties are not ready." To sign in eObig, a counterparty does not need a paid account — a link and their own QES are enough.
- "It is expensive and complicated." Signing happens in the browser without plugins, and billing is pay-as-you-go, with no subscription fees for "thin air".
- "What about court?" An electronic original with a verifiable signature is full-fledged evidence; the only requirement is proper storage.
Key Takeaways
- The accountant's biggest pain — collecting paper originals — disappears with EDM: documents are signed in minutes and statuses are visible online.
- Reconciliations with counterparties run through the same electronic route, with comments attached to discrepancies.
- Tax audits with e-documents are lawful and convenient: export a bundle from the archive or grant access in the system.
- API integration eliminates double data entry: the accounting system and the document flow work as one.
Try closing your next period without a single paper act: start for free at portal.eobig.com or book a demo — we will walk you through the full primary-document cycle using your own examples.