Can I get rid of paper receipts? Yes, but under strict legally-defined conditions.
Many organizations are planning for and thinking about their digital transition in order to optimize their customers, suppliers, and employees experience.
With regards to the employees and more specifically their expenses, choosing an efficient expense management solution has long been made difficult by the necessity of keeping written proof for six years. Such physical management entails a number of risks in the event of an audit:
- Document management is often decentralized;
- Search and access are laborious;
- Written proof deteriorates over time;
- Documents can be lost during physical or postal exchange;
- Etc.
Beyond the legal aspects, this form of management generates significant costs for organizations—back office costs in particular.
Legal evolution favouring the digitization of expenses
Digitization is clearly favoured by different organic laws that were enacted for different domains. These laws were passed to frame several activities including expense management as defined by the report of the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts (=BOFIP).
Indeed, article L102B of the BOFIP was modified by decrees issued on 22 March 2017 and on 23 May 2019 in accordance with article L. 243-16 of the Social security code. These modifications set the rules for the digitization of expenses and gave digital and physical versions the same value.
These rules are as follows:
- Document copies must be identical (no image processing or compression liable to reduce readability);
- File integrity must be preserved by digitisation (timestamp, electronic signature);
- Digital archiving must be done by a mandated third-party (traceability).
Which expense management application respects digital archiving conditions of the proof of expense?
Jenji has set up a partnership with Docaposte, a subsidiary of the La Poste group, as soon as the laws and regulations on invoice digitization changed.
Jenji Vault ensures that the written proof of expenses are scanned and processed in accordance with the regulations described above.
Proof of expenses are saved using the PDF/A format and into an EDRMS (Electronic Document and Records Management System) which respects the NF Z 42-013 certification. The environment is ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified.
Docaposte is backed by a long-established and reliable group (La Poste) and is itself a trusted third-party. It is also a Digital Trust operator and a Certification Authority recognized in France and in Europe.
This archiving solution is also FNTC-TA and FNTC-CFE certified by the FNTC (Federation of Trusted Third Parties) for third-party archiving services.
Documents are archived in France in certified and secured data centers.
Thanks to its partnership with Docaposte, Jenji Vaults thus guarantees:
- Archive durability – long-term storage is ensured using standardised, certified and non-proprietary formats that are kept up-to-date.
- Archival integrity – documents are sealed using certified technology: they are organised into signed and timestamped collections; signing and timestamping is done in accordance with the current legal regulations.
- Authentication – operations are traceable; the issuing party and all the third parties involved in the processing can be authenticated using well-defined, precise and adapted processes.
- Reversibility – any authorised user can ask at any time for the documents and indices to be returned to them. They can be returned either in standard/certified formats (and thus immediately useable), or in their original format for documents with probative value in appeal contexts.
- Interoperability – the service can be transferred to another EDRMS (Electronic Document and Records Management System).
Documents are thus archived and keep their probative value for six years.
In a nutshell, the conditions listed above allow digital documents to be considered as originals, and make it possible to go paperless.
In the event of a tax or URSSAF (French social services authority) audit, you don’t have to provide written proof of expenses any longer. You only need to give access to your digital archives using your Jenji administrator account.
As hopefully made clear in this article, current legislation paves the way for the full digitisation of expense accounts.
Jenji has seized the opportunity granted by this change in regulation to simplify and secure expense management. They have done so by creating a unique employee experience, but also by enabling financial directions to streamline internal processes while optimising performances—and so the ROI.
For more details on Jenji Vault, don’t hesitate to contact the Jenji team at sales@jenji.io. We will be glad to assist you in setting up your project.
You can also download our free mobile applications.
