Cheap & Best Exchange Hosting with Optional Archiving in UK

Hosted Exchange - also suitable for GoBD archiving?

The business world is undergoing constant change. More and more work is being done remotely, outside of office locations. Reliable digital communication platforms are essential for smooth business operations. To ensure this, Hosted Exchange services have become established. They are based on Microsoft Exchange servers and offer not only a convincing email solution but also many other advantages for medium-sized and large companies. Among other things, Exchange can be integrated with a solution for archiving according to GoBD.

What is Hosted Exchange?

Hosted Exchange is a service offered by many IT companies and web hosting providers. It is an email solution based on Microsoft Exchange. It allows for managing emails, calendars, contacts, or tasks within a team.

Hosted Exchange enables customers to operate an Exchange server without having to administer the IT infrastructure themselves. They benefit from the following features:

• Email Communication: Exchange enables sending, receiving, and managing emails. It also offers encryption and archiving options, as well as client integration.
• Calendar Functions: Users can create personal calendars and share them with team members. They can also send invitations to events and organize meetings.
• Contact Management: Contacts can be managed within Exchange in personal or shared address books.
• Tasks and Reminders: Users can create, manage, and delegate tasks. Exchange provides reminder functions to alert team members about pending tasks and deadlines.
• Group Functions: Exchange allows for creating and managing groups and distribution lists to simplify communication within teams.
• Integration with Other Services: Exchange can be seamlessly integrated with other Microsoft products such as Skype or SharePoint.

Furthermore, with Hosted Exchange, companies can ensure GoBD archiving. This refers to the principles for proper storage of documents in electronic form and data access, first announced by the Federal Ministry of Finance in November 2014.

They contain guidelines on how companies must archive their tax-relevant documents so that they can be audited by the tax authorities.
Accordingly, archiving according to GoBD is relevant for any company that is liable for tax in Germany.

Important principles of GoBD include:

• Traceability: All business transactions must be traceable, logged, and documented.
• Immutability: Data or documents must not be altered. If they have been edited, previous versions and the editing steps must be traceable.
• Security: Archiving according to GoBD also requires security measures to protect the data from unauthorized access.
• Availability: The tax authorities must be able to access the archived data.

How can archiving according to GoBD be implemented with Exchange?

With a Hosted Exchange package, companies can already archive their emails in a GDPR-compliant manner. However, the product does not offer general document archiving.

For this purpose, interested customers can book an additional tool, Microsoft's Exchange Online Archiving. This is fully compatible with the email platform and allows for important documents to be stored and archived in accordance with the requirements of the German tax authorities.

Alternatives to Hosted Exchange

Microsoft Exchange is optimized for communication within teams. Companies needing more comprehensive solutions can find a further development of Exchange in Microsoft 365. In addition to email services, the product offers office applications and collaboration tools such as Teams or Yammer. Furthermore, Microsoft's Office solution includes cloud storage, simplifying archiving according to GoBD.

Also, with Google Workspace and the integrated Google Vault, data can be archived quickly and securely. Google Vault can capture user activities, facilitating documentation according to GoBD quickly and effectively.