Undergoing a mid-year records cleanup allows you to reclaim space and enhance office efficiency, reassess record storage needs and costs, prepare for year-end audits, and ensure regulatory compliance. The best time to begin is early to mid-June. The process involves an in-depth audit, purging and shredding records outside the retention period, document sorting and indexing, and reorganizing archives. Citizens Business Archives can assist by providing tailored records management solutions in Tucson, AZ, including document storage, shredding services, and inventory and records management services, including computerized indexing. Here is our step-by-step guide to your mid-year records audit, purge, and archiving process.
Audit and Review of Record Retention Policy
You’ll start by conducting an audit of your existing files. You will want to fully review all hard copy files, electronic records, and documents that are currently active, including ones that are loose, on desks, and in filing cabinets and boxes. You will also need to audit inactive files and records that are stored or archived on or off-site. Review your company’s record retention policy to determine which records are still within the retention period, and which should be purged and destroyed.
Records Purge and Shredding
Documents that are outside of the retention period should be indexed or archived electronically so that you can track the purge. They should then be isolated and placed in secure shred bins. When the bins are full, call us to pick them up and shred them. We will provide you with a certificate of destruction that confirms the date, time, and method of destruction for your records. This is crucial for regulatory compliance.
Business Document Organization and Sorting
Next, you will need to categorize and organize all records that will be retained and those that will be sent to an off-site storage facility. To properly sort the documents, you should:
- Group all records by department, such as finance, HR, legal, and operations
- Sort the documents by type, such as personnel, financial statements, accounts payable and receivable, company policies, client files, etc.
- Sort each document type by date, placing them in chronological order
- File documents in file folders, using standardized file names for ease of organization, and consider color-coding categories
- Place active file folders into expanding files, filing cabinets, or storage drawers based on the file names
- Place inactive files into storage boxes or bins for transport to your record storage facility
Digitizing and Indexing
When possible, records should be digitized. This protects them from damage, loss, and theft and ensures you comply with your company’s data backup and disaster recovery plan. Create a centralized master spreadsheet that records every active and inactive/archived file your company owns. Use the same standardized file names along with a unique alphanumeric code that corresponds to the type of document. Log the exact location of each document and its future disposal date or retention period. Scan in documents that can be easily digitized, filing them electronically in your document management system and recording their location on your spreadsheet.
Storage and Maintenance
Documents that will be going to storage should be labeled with your company name, the file name, alphanumeric code, retention period, archive date, and ‘Box one of __.’ When your boxes are packed, update your master spreadsheet to indicate that those records have been sent to storage, and then call us to schedule a records pick-up. We will transport the documents to our secure, access-controlled warehouse where they will be protected from fire, flood, dust, heat, and pests. Should you need to access them again, we would be happy to deliver them to your office, or you can stop by during normal hours to pick them up. When the records retention period expires, we provide secure document destitution services.
Schedule the Next Records Review
Finally, you’ll want to schedule your company’s next records audit. Ideally, this should happen every six months for low-risk industries, and quarterly for high-volume or high-risk businesses. Block out a recurring date on your calendar for your next review and purge, and regularly review documents that are nearing the end of their retention period so that you can schedule shredding services.
As you approach your next records audit and purge, Citizens Business Archives can help. We offer inventory management and document indexing services, including individual box serialization, point-to-point tracking, and comprehensive audit trails. Our high-tech computerized index allows for instant reviews and searches as well as rapid records retrieval and easy reminders for document destruction. To get assistance with business document organization in Tucson, AZ, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online.
