Reviewing your records once a year
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 5 min
In short
Records are at their most accurate the day you write them and drift from then on. Pick one day a year to check the wallet inventory, the exported history, and where the backups actually are. That review is what keeps records usable.
Key points
- Three checks: is the inventory accurate, is any history missing, are the backups where you think
- Use it as the moment to close accounts and wallets you no longer use
- Verify backups by looking at them, not by assuming they exist
- Take the opportunity to confirm tax-related material is in place too
Definition
An annual habit of checking the inventory of what you hold, the state of your exported history, and the location of your backups.
Records go bad through neglect. You add a wallet, close an exchange account, move a hardware device to a different place — and in principle you update the inventory each time, and in practice you do not. A few years on, the list bears little relation to reality. An annual review is where that drift gets corrected in one pass.
Check three things. First, whether the inventory of wallets and accounts matches reality: additions, closures, moved devices. Second, whether any history is missing: did you export the CSVs from the venue you used briefly in the spring, and from the service you stopped using? Third, whether the backups are physically where you believe they are.
Do the third one with your eyes, not your memory. Is the hardware wallet in the drawer? Is the key backup still in the place you left it? Does the external drive still read? Does a file actually download from the cloud? Discovering that something you assumed was there is not only happens when you look, and an annual look means you find out shortly after it happened rather than years later.
Use the same session to tidy up: the exchange account you barely use, the wallet holding dust, the service you already cancelled. Fewer things means less to manage and less to record. Just remember to export the history before closing anything.
It is also a good moment to confirm that tax-related material is where it should be. Which documents must be kept, and for how long, is set by rules that get amended — confirm the current position with the National Tax Agency's guidance and a tax professional.
Watch out for
- · Verify backups physically — memory is not verification
- · Always export history before closing an account or retiring a wallet
- · Required documents and retention periods are set by the rules — check with the National Tax Agency and a tax professional
Frequently asked questions
When is the best time to do this?
Around the turn of the year, or once annual statements are available, so it overlaps with tax preparation. Fixing a specific date makes it far more likely to happen.