FILERO

Failing to comply with the new legal and regulatory compliance laws can lead to serious consequences - and major fines.

FILERO has been designed from the very beginning to meet the new and changing legal and regulatory compliance laws, for example the German fiscal compliance laws and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These regulations set very strict archiving requirements for organizations, as all ‘compliance content’ must be not only archived, but auditable for all changes, which requires extensive tracking of all actions, by time, date and person.

Since January 2009, companies not conforming to the guidelines set out in the German fiscal law GDPdU (principles for data access and verifiability of digital documents) can be fined anywhere between €2,500 and €250,000. In the USA, failure to comply with Section 802 of the Sarbanes-Oxley act can lead to major fines or up to 20 years imprisonment. Rulings in the German courts in 2007 set more stringent precedents for the interpretation of existing legislation. Companies and decision-makers are now having to take the consequences of non-compliance very seriously.

It's not just the threat of fines which worries some companies, but the general mismanagement of data. If a financial auditor assesses the electronic filing of a company as failing to comply with the law, the consequences can be severe. In view of strict regulations such as the Basel II Accord, companies could even be refused credit. The best way for a company to protect itself from such consequences is to implement a professional and integrated IT solution.

Find out more about how FILERO can help your organization conform to the latest legal requirements.

The laws are extensive and complex, but there are broad similarities between different countries’ legislation. The European Union has issued numerous guidelines relating to compliance which it expects member states to codify into law. As a result, most European legislation is very similar. The general principles of the following German and American legislation are common in many other countries:

• GDPdU ("Principles for data access and verifiability of digital documents". 2002, Germany. Regulates the provision of information for tax audit purposes.)
• GoBS ("Principles of adequate and orderly accounting". 1995, Germany. Governs the management of data retained for a minimum period.)
• Sarbanes-Oxley (2002, America. Legislation covering new standards of corporate governance - data management is an integral part of the act.)
• E-Discovery (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 2006, America. Governs the management and retention of electronically stored information.) 

The risks and costs involved with implementing a solution may seem daunting, but that need not be the case. Compliance is a continual process rather than an expensive one-off project. Implementing systems purely for the purpose of compliance can be a costly and counter-productive process. If properly integrated into the business process, compliance with legal requirements can lead to increased transparency, efficiency and vastly improved business practice, as our strategic partner FibuNet can attest.

Protecting against costly legal consequences is also of utmost importance. Compliance simply cannot afford to be ignored. Many of the existing solutions implemented by businesses fail to meet today's complex and stringent regulations. Find out more about the different aspects of compliance and how FILERO can help solve the problems:

• Verifiability of data
• Focus on GDPdU: tax-relevant data
• Electronic correspondence
• Good business practice
• How does FILERO help companies comply with the latest regulations?