Definition of Document Retention

[VickyMilza]

Hello Guys,

Significance: Running a business, even a small business, requires keeping track of a number of documents. There are documents relating to just about every area of business, from personnel to accounting and shipping and receiving, and often there are city, state and federal guidelines surrounding these documents and their retention. Not maintaining proper document records is a frequent cause of problems with licensing and regulatory authorities, especially in larger businesses.

Forms: Today, documents are no longer just paper. In fact, over the last couple of decades the growth of electronic documents has been exponential, and now the large majority of documents worldwide are stored in electronic, rather than written, format. This is not to say that these documents exist solely as electronic files, many, of course, also exist as printed copies as well.

Policies: Every business should have a document retention policy that lays out what documents are being retained and the reason and duration of the retention. Document retention policies of course vary greatly from business to business and by industry. The documents retained by smaller businesses tend to focus more on personnel and accounting, whereas large international businesses must retain a larger variety of documents relating to all aspects of their operations.

Considerations: There are numerous legal and practical consequences to not retaining the proper documents. Legal consequences can range from simple fines to product recalls or even to jail time for the responsible executives in the most extreme of cases. The practical consequences to not keeping proper records can range from poor product quality to a low accounts receivable rate.

Potential: Just as document retention has evolved from the filing cabinet to the hard disk, there is another evolution just around the corner: cloud computing. Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, ie storing electronic media such as document files on the Internet rather than on local servers. Cloud computing offers the major advantage of scalability, that is, only paying for the storage resources you actually use and not having to maintain internal redundancy etc. According to the Cloud Computing Journal, cloud computing is poised to overtake traditional-server based storage within the decade.

Thank You
Vicky Milza

[TonyMccallum]

Hello Members,

Document retention means the preservation of documents and data, including hard copy and electronic documents, databases and e-mails, that are created, sent and received in an organization's ordinary course of business. The documents retained by smaller businesses tend to focus more on personnel and accounting, whereas large international businesses must retain a larger variety of documents relating to all aspects of their operations. The practical consequences to not keeping proper records can range from poor product quality to a low accounts receivable rate.

Best Regards,
Tony Mccallum