How long to keep your business records — and how

Updated 10 October 2026 · 3 min read

Seven years, under both the Companies Act and the Income Tax Act — and what makes records worth keeping.

Two Malaysian laws set the period, and both say seven years:

• Companies Act 2016, section 245: a company keeps its accounting records for seven years after the completion of the transactions they record.
• Income Tax Act 1967, section 82A: anyone who has to furnish a return keeps sufficient records for seven years from the end of that year of assessment.

What counts as a record

Your books — invoices, bills, receipts, payment vouchers, journals — and the documents behind them: supplier invoices, bank statements, contracts, payroll records.

Records worth keeping

Keeping a file for seven years is easy. Keeping one that still proves something after seven years is the point:

• Nothing quietly changed. In TechnoCount a posted entry can't be edited or deleted; a correction is a new, dated entry, and both stay on record.
• A name on every change. The audit trail records who did what, and when.
• Closed months stay closed, so figures you reported don't move afterwards.
• Your own copy. Import & Export › Export everything downloads your whole company in one Excel workbook, whenever you like.