Invoice Archive

Owned by Vesa Koskinen
Last updated: Oct 10, 2024
3 min read

Archive is a long-term storage for purchase and sales invoices. Invoices are archived according to the local tax legislation. The archived invoices can be accessed as read only and available for download.

After invoice processing is completed, either delivered to the recipient or rejected, the invoices are automatically transferred to a secure file and event storage. The archiving process starts immediately after the invoice is processing has been finished. Invoices that are in error, cancelled or in processing status will not be archived.

Archive solution is separately configured for OpusCapita customers and requires a service contract. 

When the archive is taken into use, an archive-admin user is added into the system. This key user can then add additional users with archive access rights.

Archive storage and content

Invoice data is archived in a scalable and secure cloud storage provided by Microsoft Azure Blob Storage (Datacenter region: Azure West Europe).

The storage does not have physical limit in terms of file size or document amount, but the storage is automatically increased when customer data volumes grow during the retention period.

Disaster recovery is as well based on the capabilities of Azure Blob Storage, ensuring that data backups are always up to date.

The invoice retention period, ie. how long the invoices are kept in the archive, can be anything from 12 months up to 20 years. Retention period is primarily dictated by the local legislation. Because the archive is divided in containers for each business entity, multinational customers can configure retention periods for each region or country.

Based on customer configuration, following content categories can be archived:

  • Inbound document: invoice data file sent by the seller

  • Inbound attachments: invoice image or attachments generated by the seller

  • Canonical: OpusCapita intermediate data format

  • Outbound document: invoice data file sent to the buyer/recipient

  • Outbound attachments: invoice image generated by the seller or by buyer/recipient. Attachment stored in its original seller format.

Each archived invoice also contains a metadata file, which is maintained outside of archive storage. This metadata file ensures effective searching and reporting in the archive user interface and archive API. Metadata carries information such as invoice header data, transaction processing events and timestamps and used channel (electronic/email/paper) information.

Access and data integrity

Invoice data files are archived immediately after the processing in Business Network has finished (completed or rejected status). Invoice data is accessible in Archive application by all customer users, based on role and company rights.

Files are downloadable and invoice images exportable (multi-export) at anytime from the user interface and when using Relayed Archive API. In addition, when contract period is ending the whole archive content can be exported by the customer using dedicated AzCopy tool provided by Microsoft Azure Blob Storage.

Archived files are not editable by customer users nor OpusCapita admins. UI or API does not allow any data tampering or uploading any new data to the archive storage. In some cases, customer may request removal of unnecessary files. This can be done OpusCapita Admin on separate request, however this action does not permanently delete data, but moves files to a dedicated container in the Blob storage.