Going paperless does not cancel your obligation to retain documents — only the form of the archive changes. How long should you keep electronic acts, contracts, and HR records in Ukraine, how do you make sure a signature remains valid years later, and why is a digital archive actually more reliable than a cabinet full of paper? Let's break it down.
The core principle: the same periods as for paper
Ukrainian legislation does not set separate, "lighter" retention periods for electronic documents. A simple principle applies: the retention period is determined by the content of a document, not by its form. An electronic act of completed works must be kept exactly as long as its paper counterpart would be.
The approximate framework looks like this (always verify the exact period against the current list of typical documents and your own records schedule):
- Primary accounting documents — roughly three years as a general rule, with one important caveat: documents must remain available until tax audits covering the relevant period are completed, so in practice the period can stretch.
- Contracts — at least for the duration of the contract plus several years after settlements are closed and potential disputes expire.
- HR documents — considerably longer: certain records of employment and service are kept for decades, and for some categories up to 75 years.
So an archive is not about "last quarter" — it is about a horizon of years and decades. And this is exactly where the electronic form shows its strengths.
What "retaining" an electronic document really means
For an electronic document, simply "not deleting the file" is not enough. For the document to keep its evidentiary value, three requirements must hold throughout the entire retention period:
- Integrity — the document has not been altered since signing, and this can be verified.
- Readability — the document can be opened and read even years later, after software and formats have changed.
- Signature preservation — the electronic signatures and the data needed to verify them are stored together with the document.
These requirements follow from the legislation on electronic documents and electronic trust services: the legal force of an electronic document survives only as long as its signature can be verified.
Long-term signature validity: the part everyone forgets
A QES certificate is valid for a limited time — usually one or two years. What happens to the signature on a contract five years later, when the certificate has long expired? The signature itself does not "disappear", but verifying it becomes harder.
The solution is qualified electronic timestamps. A timestamp proves that the signature existed at a specific moment — when the certificate was still valid. Thanks to this, the signature can be verified even ten years later. Modern document management systems add timestamps automatically at the moment of signing, so users never have to think about it. One more consideration for the long run is the evolution of cryptographic algorithms, such as the transition to Ukraine's new signature standard "Kupyna": long retention periods mean your archive must outlive changes of standards too.
Why an electronic archive is more reliable than paper
A paper archive feels "eternal" but is actually fragile: fire, flooding, a misplaced folder, thermal-paper receipts fading to blank. An electronic archive removes these risks systematically:
- Backups. Documents are stored in multiple copies, so losing one medium does not mean losing the archive.
- Search in seconds. Finding a three-year-old act by counterparty, amount, or date takes seconds — not an hour in the archive room.
- Access log. You can see who viewed or downloaded what and when — a level of control a paper cabinet can never offer.
- Immutability. A signed document is protected cryptographically: any change invalidates the signature and is immediately visible.
Read more about how such storage is organised in our article on the electronic document archive, and about the technical side of protection on the eObig security page.
How to organise retention in practice
- Define your records schedule. Fix the document categories and the retention period for each — together with your accountant and, where needed, a lawyer.
- Store the document together with its signatures. Archive the signed original itself, not a printout or a scan.
- Take care of timestamps. Make sure your system adds them at the moment of signing.
- Segregate access. HR and financial documents should be visible only to those who genuinely need them.
- Do not delete early. Before cleaning up the archive, double-check the periods — especially for primary documents that an unfinished audit may still cover.
In eObig, signed documents automatically land in an electronic archive with search, and access to them is controlled at the level of accounts and roles.
Key Takeaways
- Retention periods for electronic documents are the same as for paper: primary documents — roughly three years, factoring in tax audits; HR records — up to decades.
- Retaining means guaranteeing integrity, readability, and signature verifiability for the whole period.
- Timestamps keep a signature verifiable even after the certificate expires.
- An electronic archive beats paper on reliability: backups, search, an access log, and cryptographic protection against tampering.
Want your archive to work exactly like this? Start for free at portal.eobig.com or book a demo — we will show how eObig keeps documents safe for years without a single paper cabinet.