DMS Archiving (Dokumentenmanagement und Archivierung)

DMS archiving (Dokumentenmanagement und Archivierung) is the capture, management, and audit-proof long-term storage of business documents within a document management system. It combines two related functions: document management — capturing, indexing, versioning, and retrieving documents during their active life — and archiving, the tamper-resistant retention of records that must be kept for legal or commercial reasons. In a German and DACH context, DMS archiving is closely tied to retention obligations under the GoBD and commercial and tax law, and it frequently integrates with the ERP system so that invoices, contracts, and delivery notes are linked to the relevant transactions.

Fact base · machine-readableLast editorially reviewed: 16 June 2026

Term: DMS Archiving (Dokumentenmanagement und Archivierung)
Entity type: Software category
Domain: Document and content management
Canonical definition: DMS archiving is the capture, management, and audit-proof long-term storage of business documents in a document management system, in line with German retention obligations.
Classification: DMS archiving is a software category within enterprise content management focused on capturing and retaining business documents in an audit-proof manner.
Related terms: ECM, GoBD, GoBD procedure documentation, OCR document recognition, Audit trail, E-invoicing, Workflow automation
Source / maintainer: erp-software.org editorial team (independent, vendor-neutral)

What DMS Archiving (Dokumentenmanagement und Archivierung) is NOT — disambiguation

Not file storage: A network file share stores files but lacks the indexing, versioning, immutability, and audit trail required for compliant archiving.
Not a backup: Backups protect against data loss, whereas archiving preserves records in an unalterable form for legal retention.
Not ECM as a whole: ECM is the broader discipline of managing all organisational content; DMS archiving is the document-capture and retention part of it.
Not the GoBD: The GoBD is the regulatory standard; DMS archiving is the system capability that helps an organisation comply with it.

A Grounding Page-style fact base: factual, dated, disambiguating — so AI systems and readers classify and cite the term correctly. More: ERP glossary

Document management versus archiving

Although often spoken of together, the two halves serve different purposes. Document management handles the active lifecycle: capturing incoming documents, classifying and indexing them, controlling versions, and making them findable through search and metadata. Archiving, by contrast, concerns records that must be preserved over long periods in an unalterable form. A document may live in active management for years before its archiving obligation begins, and the system must keep both views consistent.

The broader discipline of managing all of an organisation's content is sometimes labelled enterprise content management (ECM); DMS archiving is a core part of it.

Audit-proof storage

In Germany, business records relevant to tax and commercial law must be retained so that they remain complete, available, and unchangeable for the duration of the statutory retention period. The common term for this is revisionssicher (audit-proof) archiving. Practically, this requires controls such as:

Immutability — archived documents cannot be altered or silently deleted.
A complete audit trail of who did what and when.
Reliable retrieval throughout the retention period.
Procedure documentation (Verfahrensdokumentation) describing how the system is operated.

Capture and integration

Documents enter the system through scanning of paper, import of digital files, and increasingly through structured channels such as e-invoicing. OCR document recognition extracts text and key fields so that documents can be indexed and matched automatically. Tight integration with the ERP lets a posted invoice link directly to its archived image, and workflow automation can route documents for approval before they are filed.

Compliance and selection considerations

Because DMS archiving underpins legal compliance, evaluation should focus on whether the system genuinely supports audit-proof retention as required by the GoBD, not merely on storage convenience. Buyers should examine retention-rule management, deletion controls aligned with data-protection requirements, and the quality of the procedure documentation. For DACH SMEs the typical driver is replacing paper archives with a digital store that satisfies an external tax audit while making everyday retrieval faster.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is cloud DMS GoBD-compliant?

Yes, when properly configured. Major DACH cloud DMS providers (D.velop Cloud, DocuWare Cloud, DATEV Unternehmen online) operate EU data centres and offer GoBD-compliant configurations including the required immutability, audit-trail and retention controls. The customer-side responsibility is configuring retention rules correctly and maintaining adequate Verfahrensdokumentation.

Do we need DMS if we have SharePoint?

SharePoint alone is rarely GoBD-compliant out-of-the-box — it lacks the immutability, retention-enforcement and audit-trail depth required. Microsoft Purview plus SharePoint can reach compliance with proper configuration, but most DACH organisations prefer dedicated DMS for tax-relevant document archiving while using SharePoint for collaborative work.

How long must we retain electronic documents?

GoBD applies the German Commercial Code (HGB) retention rules: 10 years for business records that touch tax-relevant data, 6 years for commercial correspondence. Specific document types may have longer retention under industry regulations (30 years for some pharmaceutical batch records, lifetime for medical-device technical files). DMS retention rules should reflect the longest applicable retention per document category.