2Accounting records

The rules governing the accounting records that have to be kept by companies are contained in the Commercial Code, which requires all traders to keep orderly books of account that are suitable for their business and to keep a book of inventories and balance sheets and another journal, without prejudice to the records required under laws or special provisions.

Companies are also required to keep a book or books of minutes containing, at least, all the resolutions adopted by the shareholders at the Annual General or Special General Meetings and by the companies’ other collective bodies.

As regards the formal requirements applicable to the accounting records, the Commercial Code provides that companies must present their mandatory books of account to the Mercantile Registry of the place in which they have their registered office in order that they be officially certified and stamped before they start to be used; the declaration identifying the beneficial owner of the company must be added to this information.

Entries and notes may be made by any suitable procedure on separate sheets that must subsequently be bound sequentially to form part of the mandatory books of account, which must be legalized within four months from the end of the related reporting period.

These formal requirements also apply to the share registers of corporations, partnerships limited by shares and limited liability companies, which may be kept on electronic files.