Howlongtokeepinvoices

The retention period is longer than most people assume, and the records people lose are almost never the invoices themselves.

5 minute read · Updated

Short answer

Under GST, records and documents must generally be retained until seventy-two months from the due date of the annual return for the relevant financial year — six years — and longer where an appeal or investigation is pending, in which case the period runs beyond the conclusion of those proceedings. Other statutes impose their own periods, so the practical rule most accountants give is to keep everything for eight years. Store the PDFs somewhere that is not a single laptop.

The periods

GST records

Generally seventy-two months from the due date of the annual return for that financial year. Where an appeal, revision or investigation is pending, retention extends beyond the conclusion of those proceedings.

Company books

The Companies Act sets its own minimum for books of account, which for most companies is eight financial years.

Income tax

Records supporting a return should survive the window in which that return can be reopened.

Bank and FIRC evidence

Keep for as long as the underlying supply's records, since a refund claim can be examined well after the fact.

These periods interact, they have exceptions, and the pending-proceedings extension can push any of them out indefinitely. The safe operating rule is eight years for everything — but confirm your own position with your accountant rather than treating this page as the answer.

What people actually lose

Not the invoices. Invoices are emailed, so a copy exists in a sent folder somewhere. What goes missing is the surrounding evidence, which never had a natural home:

  • Proformas and quotations that were superseded and quietly deleted.
  • Credit notes, which are issued rarely and filed inconsistently.
  • FIRCs and bank advices for foreign receipts — needed for refund claims, and issued by a bank portal that ages out.
  • Delivery challans, which feel like logistics paperwork rather than accounting records.
  • The written acceptance of a quotation, which is usually one email that resolves a dispute two years later.

A filing system that survives

  1. 01One folder per financial year, named 2026-27 so it sorts correctly.
  2. 02Subfolders by document type: invoices, credit notes, proformas, receipts, bank.
  3. 03Name every file by type, number and client — “Invoice - INV-202608-001 - Northline Retail.pdf”.
  4. 04Put the folder somewhere synced, not on one machine. A laptop failure should be an inconvenience, not an event.
  5. 05Once a year, open a file at random from three years ago. If you cannot, the system has already failed and you have time to fix it.

The naming convention is the part that matters most and the part most often skipped. A folder of four hundred files called invoice.pdf, invoice-1.pdf and invoice-final.pdf is technically retained and practically lost.

A note on browser-stored drafts

This is worth stating plainly since our own tool works this way. A draft saved in your browser is a convenience, not a record. It lives in one browser on one machine, and clearing site data removes it.

The PDF is the record. Download it, file it, and treat anything held in a browser — ours or anyone else's — as scratch paper.

The reference

Invoice number format

What GST requires of an invoice number, a series format that sorts correctly and never collides, and how to handle gaps, restarts and multiple series.

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Questions people ask

Under GST, generally seventy-two months from the due date of the annual return for the relevant financial year, and longer where an appeal or investigation is pending. Other statutes impose their own periods, so most accountants advise keeping everything for eight years. Confirm your specific position with yours, since the periods interact.

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