A&D Bound Book Requirements
What has to go in the acquisition and disposition record, and the two deadlines that are easiest to miss because they are not the same length.
By Dana Fales, licensed FFL dealer and U.S. Army veteran · Published · Updated
Acquisitions: by the close of the next business day after you receive the firearm.
Dispositions: within seven days of the transaction.
Why the asymmetry catches people out
Most dealers remember that there are deadlines. Fewer remember that the two windows are different lengths, and that is where the trouble starts. A shop that treats both as "about a week" is late on every single acquisition entry.
Here is the acquisition rule as written:
"The purchase or other acquisition of a firearm shall, except as provided in paragraphs (g) and (i) of this section, be recorded not later than the close of the next business day following the date of such purchase or acquisition."
27 CFR 478.125(e)And the disposition rule:
"The sale or other disposition of a firearm shall be recorded by the licensed dealer not later than seven days following the date of such transaction."
27 CFR 478.125(e)The acquisition deadline is qualified by "except as provided in paragraphs (g) and (i)" of the same section. Those paragraphs address situations that do not follow the ordinary next-business-day rule. If your operation involves anything out of the ordinary on the receiving side, read those paragraphs directly rather than assuming the general rule applies.
What an acquisition entry has to contain
The regulation specifies the fields. An entry that is timely but incomplete is still a deficient record:
- Date of receipt
- Name and address, or name and license number, of the person from whom received
- Name of the manufacturer and the importer, if any
- Model
- Serial number
- Type
- Caliber or gauge
Two of these get shortchanged more than the rest. Importer is frequently left blank on foreign-made firearms where it is required, and manufacturer and importer are sometimes collapsed into one field when they are genuinely different entities. The regulation asks for both.
What a disposition entry has to contain
- Date of the sale or other disposition
- Name and address of the person to whom the firearm is transferred, or the name and license number if that person is a licensee, or the Form 4473 transaction number
That last option matters operationally. Where the disposition is to a non-licensee and you have a completed Form 4473, the regulation contemplates recording the 4473 transaction number rather than rewriting the full name and address into the book. Which of these you use is a workflow decision worth making deliberately and then applying consistently, because inconsistency is itself something an investigator will notice.
Quick reference
| Event | Deadline | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Firearm received (acquisition) | Close of the next business day | 478.125(e) |
| Firearm transferred (disposition) | Within seven days | 478.125(e) |
| Record retention | Until discontinuance of business | 478.129(e) |
Keeping it electronically
A paper bound book is not your only option, but electronic recordkeeping is a conditional allowance rather than a free choice. ATF Ruling 2016-1 sets out the conditions for keeping A&D records electronically, and those conditions have to actually be satisfied. A spreadsheet on a laptop is not automatically a compliant electronic bound book.
We break down what that ruling permits, alongside the electronic Form 4473 rulings, in Key ATF Rulings, Explained.
How long you keep it
For dealers, the A&D record is retained until the business or licensed activity is discontinued, under 27 CFR 478.129(e). This changed in August 2022 and a lot of older guidance still gives the pre-2022 answer. See How Long Must an FFL Keep Form 4473s? for the detail, including why the number 20 still appears in the regulation without meaning what people assume.
Common questions
Does a firearm I take in on consignment or for repair go in the book?
What if I find an error in a past entry?
Does software make me compliant?
How FFL Command Center handles the bound book
The A&D record enforces the required fields at entry rather than accepting a partial row and leaving you to discover the gap during an inspection. Acquisition and disposition registers are generated to the structure in 478.125(e)(1) and (e)(2), and bound book output carries the current retention citation rather than the pre-2022 language still printed on many templates.
Records are retained indefinitely, which satisfies the until-discontinuance requirement without asking you to track separate clocks per record type.
Dana Fales holds an active Federal Firearms License and operates Fales Guns, a licensed dealership in Coral Springs, Florida. A U.S. Army veteran who served as a Blackhawk crew chief, with more than 30 years of firearm ownership, Dana built FFL Command Center after keeping these records by hand, and tested it in an operating gun shop before selling it to anyone else. More about Dana.
Related reading: How long must an FFL keep Form 4473s? · What to expect in an ATF compliance inspection · Key ATF rulings explained · Electronic bound book software · Best FFL software in 2026
See the Bound Book in Practice
FFL Command Center was built in an operating gun shop. If you want to see how acquisition and disposition entries actually behave day to day, ask for a walkthrough.