An archive built specifically for regulatory retention — not just storage. Immutable, hash-signed, audit-logged, regulator-export-ready. SOX 7y, German HGB 10y, BaFin sector-specific, FDA full-lifecycle, GDPR-aligned masking. At 5–15% of the cost of keeping S/4HANA alive for retention alone.
The difference between 'we have a backup somewhere' and 'we can produce data on demand to a tax authority' is the difference between exposure and defence.
Generic data archives — flat-file dumps, S3 buckets full of CSVs, ADK files in archive directories — solve the storage problem but not the compliance problem. When the German Finanzamt arrives for an HGB audit and asks for the BSEG journal-line detail for fiscal year 2018 in IDEA-compatible format, a generic archive forces a multi-week scramble: locate the right backup, restore it, reload it somewhere it can be queried, format the output, prove it hasn't been tampered with. The audit response window often closes before the response is ready.
A compliance archive is built around exactly these audit-response scenarios. Data is captured with cryptographic hash signatures and stored on immutable (WORM-locked or version-locked) object storage so no post-capture modification is possible. Every read access is logged immutably for chain-of-custody. Retention policies are enforced per data domain so SOX, German HGB, BaFin, FDA, and HIPAA requirements are simultaneously satisfied without manual policing. Pre-built exporters produce the exact regulator-required formats: IDEA for Finanzamt under GoBD, HMRC formats, IRS Audit File, FDA Part 11-compatible records, BaFin sector exports.
When the audit arrives, response time drops from weeks to hours. The auditor receives an export pack with cryptographic proof of integrity, full chain-of-custody log, and data in their preferred format. The audit closes faster, the company's defence position is stronger, and the data-protection officer can demonstrate GDPR Article 25 alignment alongside the retention compliance.
Each S/4HANA data domain (FI, CO, MM, SD, PP, EAM, HCM where present) carries its own retention rules. The archive applies them per domain, not as a one-size-fits-all blanket.
10-year retention for accounting records, invoices, tax-relevant documents. WORM-locked archive, GoBD-compliant immutability proof, IDEA-format export for Finanzamt audits. Strictest mainstream commercial regime — covered fully.
7-year US retention for financial records and supporting documentation. SOX 404 control evidence preserved (security-model snapshot, change-control history). Sample-able for audit testing via direct SQL access.
6-year UK retention for accounting records and tax-relevant documentation. HMRC-format extracts pre-built. Companies House filings traceable back to source SAP documents.
Sector-specific retention often 10 years for transaction records, customer-due-diligence records, regulator-mandated reporting. Role-partitioned access for regulator queries with mandatory audit log.
Pharma manufacturing batch records (MCHB), equipment qualifications (EQUI), deviation history (QMEL), electronic signatures — full product lifecycle plus statute of limitations, often 20–30 years.
Data-protection-by-design: PII masked by default per Article 25; configurable Article 17 (erasure) workflows that respect HGB-mandated retention via pseudonymisation. Per-record consent and lawful-basis tracking supported.
A repeatable workflow that delivers audit-defensible retention without the operational overhead of kept-alive S/4HANA.
Per-domain retention requirements documented with compliance, finance, HR, regulatory affairs, and DPO sign-off. SOX, HGB, BaFin, FDA, HIPAA, GDPR mapped to specific data domains and per-domain retention/masking rules.
Pre-built HANA extractors pull every in-scope SAP table. Each row hash-signed at extraction. Parquet output written to WORM-locked or version-locked object storage. Extraction itself audit-logged.
Pre-built exporters configured: IDEA-format for German Finanzamt under GoBD, HMRC format for UK, IRS Audit File for US states, FDA Part 11-compatible record export for pharma. Validated against sample regulator requests.
Role profiles defined per consumer population (finance ops, audit, tax, regulator-response). Sensitive-field masking applied per GDPR Article 25. Unmask-with-audit workflows configured for tax-authority response scenarios.
Sample audit scenarios run end-to-end: Finanzamt-style request, HMRC enquiry, FDA inspection extract, BaFin sector report. Response time, format accuracy, and chain-of-custody integrity validated. Sign-off pack issued.
Compliance archive enters production. Per-domain retention enforced automatically. New data domains added as additional source systems decommission. Annual policy review with compliance and DPO.
Beyond storage and query — the workflows that make the difference during an actual audit or regulator enquiry.
Place a hold on a defined data subset (vendor, customer, time range, company code). Held data cannot be deleted even after retention expiry. Hold itself logged immutably. Required for active litigation and regulator-frozen periods.
Query archive via SQL or REST for litigation discovery. Results exportable in EDRM-aligned XML, JSON, or Parquet with provenance metadata. Cross-domain queries (SAP + other source systems) supported in multi-source archives.
Pre-built workflow for Finanzamt, HMRC, IRS, BaFin, FDA requests. Select period and domain, generate signed export pack, deliver with chain-of-custody certificate. Response time drops from weeks to hours.
Unmask operations require explicit role permission and trigger audit log entry. Used for tax-authority response where unmasked data is legitimately required. Periodic review by DPO.
At end-of-retention, supports secure deletion with deletion-proof certificate, transfer to long-term cold tier, or DPO-approved extension. Bulk disposition possible per domain or per record class.
Same archive can hold SAP S/4HANA alongside Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, Maximo, Dynamics 365, Concur. Per-source retention and access policies. Cross-source queries where schema relationships are defined.
A SAP S/4HANA compliance archive is an archive designed specifically to satisfy regulatory retention requirements — not just to hold data cheaply. Compliance-grade differs from generic archival in five ways: (1) immutability — data is WORM-locked or cryptographically hash-signed so it can't be modified after capture; (2) audit log — every read access is logged with user, timestamp, query text; (3) export-format compatibility — the archive can produce data in the exact formats regulators require (IDEA for German Finanzamt under GoBD, HMRC formats, IRS Audit File, FDA Part 11-compatible records); (4) retention-policy enforcement — data domains carry per-domain retention rules (SOX 7y, German HGB 10y, FDA full-lifecycle) enforced by policy; (5) sensitive-data handling — PII masking with GDPR Article 25 alignment, role-controlled unmask with mandatory logging.
Multiple, configurably per data domain. Financial: SOX (7 years US), IRS (7 years US), HMRC (6 years UK), German HGB §257 / AO §147 (10 years — strictest mainstream commercial regime), IFRS (varies by jurisdiction, typically 7–10 years for supporting documentation), MiFID II (5–7 years for investment-services transaction records). Sector-specific: BaFin (German banking, sector-specific retention often 10 years), FCA (UK financial services, varies), FDA 21 CFR Part 11 (US pharma manufacturing — full product lifecycle plus statute of limitations, often 20+ years), MHRA (UK pharma manufacturing, similar), EMA (EU medicines), HIPAA (US healthcare — 6 years minimum where SAP holds patient-related billing or supply data). Cross-cutting: GDPR (Article 5 retention limits balanced against HGB/SOX retention requirements via configurable masking and erasure workflows).
GDPR Article 17 ('right to erasure') and German HGB §257 (10-year retention) are not mutually exclusive — GDPR Article 17(3)(b) explicitly permits retention where required for compliance with a legal obligation. The Syntra ETL compliance archive implements this through layered controls: (1) sensitive personal data (employee PII in PA0001/PA0002, individual customer details in KNA1 personal-data fields) is masked by default at the archive layer; (2) the unmasked data is retained in encrypted form per HGB/SOX retention; (3) Article 17 erasure requests for non-essential personal data trigger pseudonymisation while preserving the legally-required financial record; (4) every masking and unmask operation is logged. This satisfies both regimes simultaneously — exactly what data-protection officers in German-regulated organisations need.
Yes, in the jurisdictions where customers have tested it. Admissibility hinges on three factors: data integrity (the archive must demonstrably hold the same data as the original S/4HANA system), continuity of custody (the archive must show no unauthorised modification since capture), and format conformance (the archive must produce data in formats the authority can ingest). Syntra ETL's compliance archive addresses all three: extraction is hash-signed at row level so source-to-archive integrity is provable; WORM-lock or cryptographic immutability proves no post-archive modification; pre-built exporters produce the exact formats Finanzamt, HMRC, IRS, FDA and similar authorities accept. Multiple Syntra customers have successfully relied on the archive in German Finanzamt audits, HMRC enquiries, and US state-level tax audits.
Retention is configurable per data domain, with no upper bound. Typical configurations: financial GL/AP/AR data 10 years (German HGB) or 7 years (SOX/IRS); payroll and W-2/T4 data 7 years (IRS) with optional indefinite for individual employee inquiry; FDA-regulated pharma manufacturing batch records and equipment qualifications full product lifecycle plus statute of limitations (often 20–30 years); BaFin-regulated financial-services transaction data 10+ years per sector rules; HCM employee records 7+ years post-termination (varies by state and jurisdiction). At end-of-retention, the archive supports configurable disposition: secure deletion with deletion-proof certificate, transfer to long-term cold tier, or extension by data-protection officer override.
Yes. Legal-hold operations are first-class: a hold can be placed on a defined data subset (a vendor, a customer, a time range, a company code, a sales org) by an authorised role; once placed, the affected data cannot be deleted even if its scheduled retention expires; the hold itself is logged immutably for chain-of-custody. eDiscovery queries are executed through the same SQL/REST interface as other archive access, with the legal team's role granted appropriate scope. Results are exportable in eDiscovery-friendly formats (CSV, JSON, Parquet, or formal litigation-support formats like EDRM-aligned XML where required) with full provenance metadata attached.
Compliance archive is typically 5–15% of the cost of keeping S/4HANA running for retention reasons alone. A mid-large customer kept-alive S/4HANA-for-retention costs £800K–£3M/year (HANA licence, RISE subscription, infrastructure, Basis support, patch cycles). Compliance archive for the same dataset typically £80K–£300K/year (cloud object storage at pennies per GB-month, query engine compute, access management, exporters). Pricing scales by archived data volume and query throughput — not by SAP licence metrics. Customers commonly fund the compliance archive multi-year out of the year-one savings from S/4HANA decommissioning.
Yes. The Syntra ETL compliance archive supports multi-source ingestion — SAP S/4HANA alongside Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, IBM Maximo, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Concur, Salesforce, and others — with per-source retention policies, per-source access roles, and per-source export formats. Organisations that have migrated multiple legacy systems over the years often consolidate retention into a single compliance archive, simplifying audit defence, reducing per-system operational overhead, and presenting tax authorities and regulators with one consistent interface. Cross-source queries (joining SAP vendor data with Concur expense data, for example) are supported where the schema relationship is defined.
30-minute call. We'll walk through your regulatory regimes (SOX, German HGB, BaFin, FDA, GDPR), data domains, and audit-response scenarios — and design the compliance archive that satisfies every retention requirement at 5–15% of kept-alive S/4HANA cost.