Tax Archive
The Tax Archive feature in Zoho Books lets you generate a downloadable ZIP file of your transaction records for a specific period. It helps you comply with data retention and audit requirements by preserving a secure, verifiable copy of your records.
The tax archive includes transaction details from invoices and credit notes, along with their digital signatures, activity logs and period closure summaries.
Every invoice and credit note in Zoho Books has a digital signature which is a unique code generated from the transaction’s key details when it is marked as open. This signature helps verify that the transaction data has not been changed after it was issued. The tax archive includes this signature alongside each transaction record. Each signature also links to the previous transaction’s signature, preserving a complete chain that makes it easy to verify the integrity of the entire sequence.
On the invoice or credit note PDF, selected characters of the digital signature are displayed alongside a compliance marker and the software version. The full signature is available in the tax archive file and can be used to verify the document.
For more details on how digital signatures work and how they appear on the invoice or credit note PDF, refer to the Digital Signatures section of the ISCA compliance guide.
The tax archive ZIP file contains the following files:
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Tax Archive file | A CSV file containing transaction data for all invoices and credit notes within the selected period, along with their digital signatures. Zoho Books permanently saves the transaction’s details when it is marked as Open, from which the archive is generated. |
| Reference guide | A TXT file that explains the structure and fields included in the archive. |
| Activity Logs | A CSV file with a signed log of system actions performed during the selected period, aligned with regulatory compliance requirements. Each action is individually signed, making the log tamper-proof and providing an auditable trail of operations. The data is secured using hashing and chaining mechanisms to prevent tampering and ensure traceability over time. |
| Period Closure details | A CSV file with daily, monthly and yearly closure summaries that record aggregated sales totals for each day within the selected period. Once a closure is created, its totals are frozen and cannot be altered. |
Each file within the ZIP is individually signed to ensure its content cannot be altered without detection. This makes the entire archive tamper-proof and compliant with regulatory expectations for data preservation and integrity.
Points to Remember:
The tax archive includes transactions based on the date they were marked as Open and not the date the transaction was created. So when selecting a date range for tax archive generation, make sure it covers the dates your transactions were marked as Open.
For imported transactions, the tax archive uses the date the transaction was marked as Open in Zoho Books. If the transaction was imported directly as Open, this is the import date. If it was imported as a draft and marked as Open later, the later date is used.
Note:
You cannot delete your organisation in Zoho Books unless you have generated and downloaded the tax archive for all transactions up to the most recent one. This ensures that all compliance-related records are preserved for reference even after the organisation is deleted.
Generate Tax Archive
To generate a tax archive for a specific date range:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Data Management under Developer Data.
- Navigate to the Tax Archives tab.
- Click New in the top right corner.
- In the Generate Tax Archive popup, enter the From Date and To Date to specify the range of transactions to include in the archive.
- Click Generate.
A tax archive for the selected date range will be generated, and its status will change to In-Progress while the file is being generated.
Download Tax Archive
Once the status changes to Completed, you can download it as a ZIP file.
Here’s how:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Data Management under Developer Data.
- Navigate to the Tax Archives tab and click Download next to the tax archive you want to download.
The tax archive will be downloaded as a ZIP file to your device.
Note:
To verify the authenticity and integrity of a generated tax archive, contact our support team.
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