What the law says
The Swiss Code of Obligations requires the accounting records, the vouchers, the annual report and the audit report to be kept for ten years. The period starts at the end of the financial year (art. 958f CO).
The annual report and the audit report must be kept in writing and signed. Everything else may be kept in electronic form, as long as the data stays intact, readable and accessible for the whole period. The Accounting Records Ordinance (GeBüV) sets out the details.
Online software
- You can reach it from anywhere, with nothing to install.
- The provider takes care of updates and backups.
- The subscription is paid every year, with no end date.
- Your data lives with the provider: if the subscription stops or the company shuts down, you need to have exported it in time in a readable format.
- Hosting and subcontractors are not always in Switzerland.
Installed software
- Your data stays on your computer: nobody else can access it.
- It works offline.
- Most of the time there is no subscription.
- Backups are up to you: a drive that fails with no copy means lost accounts.
- Several people working on several computers need more organisation.
The right questions to ask
- 01In what format can I export all my data? Will it still be readable in ten years?
- 02Where is my data hosted and by whom?
- 03What happens if I stop paying?
- 04Who can technically read my figures?
- 05How are backups made? Have I ever restored one to check it works?
Our choice for Qompta
We built Qompta as installed software: no account, no server, a database encrypted with AES-256 on your computer. It is a choice made for confidentiality: your figures pass through no one. The trade-off is backups. They are your responsibility and must be stored away from the computer.
Neither approach is better in absolute terms. What matters is knowing where your data is and being able to read it again in ten years.