Paper vs. Digital Records: Why Smart Businesses Use Both (and How to Manage Them)

While a paperless or paper-free office is a great goal to have if you value sustainability and want to implement eco-friendly practices, it isn’t 100% practical for all businesses. Completely eliminating all paper from the office can create confusion or open you up to liability. Instead, utilizing a hybrid model is smarter and safer. Hybrid record management involves strategic use of both hard copies and digital documents for enhanced security, efficiency, and speed. Citizens Business Archives can help you institute the ideal plan for records management in Tucson, AZ with document storage, indexing, and shredding services. Here is our guide to digital vs paper records.

Why Paper Records are Still Necessary

Here are some of the situations in which retaining paper copies of documents or records might be necessary:

  • Contracts, deeds, notarized documents, and other documents that have original signatures should be kept for legal compliance
  • Valuable or vital physical files should be retained to protect them from cyber-attacks or security breaches
  • Financial and corporate documents should be retained for auditing purposes 
  • Microfilm, photographs, and other archival documents may have higher quality in physical form than a digital scan could achieve

Why You Should Also Digitize Records 

Here are some reasons why it’s also a great idea to digitize or scan and save records:

  • Documents are protected from fire, flood, and theft
  • They can be found instantly using keywords
  • Teams have global access from anywhere with an internet connection
  • You can implement automated workflows for document sorting, routing, review, tracking, archiving, and deadlines or reminders
  • You’ll save space and money on storage

How to Implement and Manage a Hybrid Document Management System

While each company is different, you can follow these basic steps for implementing and managing a hybrid document management system:

  • Scan documents as soon as they come in to prevent missed deadlines, information gaps, and backlogs
  • Use OCR software to make scanned text searchable
  • Maintain high quality images to ensure legibility
  • Create a unified indexing system that matches physical filing categories to digital counterparts
  • Use consistent naming conventions between digital and hard copies
  • Tag digital documents with keywords for easy searches
  • Attach barcodes or QR codes to file folders and storage boxes for tracking
  • Restrict access to the physical file room with a lock, keycards, or pin pad
  • Create digital permissions for scanned files so that employees can only see relevant documents
  • Create a unified indexing system that matches physical filing categories to digital counterparts
  • Use consistent naming conventions, and tag documents with keywords for easy searches
  • Create a universal retention schedule that corresponds to each document type’s lifespan
  • Set up automated digital alerts warning you it’s time to schedule document shredding
  • Use a certified document destruction company

Call Citizens Business Archives for Document Storage Solutions

Citizens Business Archives offers highly secure, scalable, and fully managed offsite document storage solutions in Arizona. Let us help you eliminate clutter, minimize cost, and reduce labor by storing documents in our secure facility, indexing them for tracking and retrieval, and shredding them at the end of their lifespan. We guarantee disaster protection through specialized storage for sensitive materials like digital media, x-rays, and blueprints. Our optional state-of-the-art indexing processes ensure efficient tracking and retrieval, with opportunities for deep data customization. Our document destruction processes maintain full compliance with HIPAA and chain of custody protocols. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online.  

What Happens to Your Documents After Shredding? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Secure Document Destruction

If you work in an industry that requires secure destruction of documents that have reached the end of their retention period, it’s crucial to understand the ins and outs of the process. That will help you maintain compliance with laws and regulations, avoid penalties and fees, maintain the security of confidential information, and protect your reputation. Understanding the end-to-end destruction process also allows you to make an informed decision about what company you partner with for certified shredding in Tucson, AZ. At Citizens Business Archives, we take every precaution and adhere to every regulation and ensure your documents are protected every step of the way. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at our secure shredding process. 

Secure Pick-Up and Transportation in Locked Vehicles

Our trained, vetted drivers will come to your business according to a pre-determined schedule, or when you call us to schedule shredding pickup services. We will collect all materials from your locked shred bins and transfer them to the locked bins in our vehicles. We will scan the container’s unique barcode at the time of pickup to trigger tracking protocols necessary for chain of custody documentation. Our vehicles are GPS-monitored, access-controlled, and can only be entered by authorized personnel who have undergone rigorous background checks and training. They will transport your documents back to our secure shredding facility.

Storage in Access-Controlled Bins 

Documents will then be placed inside heavy-duty, locked bins in our facility. No one has access to these bins other than our certified document destruction technicians. The documents will remain in these locked bins at our high-security facility until it is time to shred them. 

Careful Adherence to Chain of Custody and Privacy Regulations

We guarantee meticulous adherence to chain of custody protocols and privacy and security regulations. Our team is trained and certified in HIPAA, GLBA, and FACTA compliance and regulations. We maintain the strictest confidentiality measures to protect proprietary, sensitive, and confidential records and data. No one has access to our facility other than those who have been carefully vetted, and documents are always contained in locked, secure bins. We keep detailed records of all document pickups, transportation, and shredding for chain of custody purposes. 

Secure, Certified Document Destruction 

We use heavy-duty, industrial-grade cross-cut shredding equipment. This is different from commercial paper shredders used in office environments. Our equipment cuts documents into tiny pieces of confetti using alternating horizontal and vertical cuts. These pieces are completely unreadable. Your shredded items will be immediately blended with paper confetti from other clients, making reconstruction impossible. 

Clear Verification and Audit Trail

Once documents are shredded, we will issue you a formal, legally binding certificate of destruction. This details the pickup and shredding date and time, shredding method, and volume. It is audit-proof and guarantees legal compliance with HIPAA, FACTA, and GLBA requirements. 

Bailing and Transport to a Recycling Facility

Mixed shredding is then fed into our industrial baler, where it is compressed into tight, multi-ton bricks. These are put on secure transport trucks and taken to a recycling facility.

Pulping, De-Inking, and Recycling

At the recycling facility, the shredded materials are put in a chemical bath, or a hydrapulper. This breaks the paper down into raw fibers and completely eliminates any information that was once contained on the documents. The chemical wash removes inks, dyes, toners, and adhesives and leaves behind clean, blank paper pulp. This pulp is then used to make new goods like shipping boxes, office paper, paper towels, napkins, and more.

Call Now to Get a Quote for Secure Document Destruction

Citizens Business Archives offers secure, full-managed document destruction services for companies of all sizes, across industries. Our fortified warehouse is secure, fenced, and access-controlled to ensure the security of your documents as they await shredding. Our team is certified and trained to comply with chain of custody protocols, privacy and confidentiality requirements, and HIPAA, FACTA, and GLBA regulations. We are certified to handle protected healthcare, financial, and legal documents. We offer highly customizable, turnkey document destruction services, including secure shred bins that can be placed around your office to collect documents prior to shredding. We then provide regular, scheduled shredding pickup services as well as on-demand pick-ups and records purge services. We have more than 100 years of experience in the industry, and guarantee compliance with regulatory, industry, and corporate terms. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online to get a quote for secure document destruction in Tucson, AZ.  

How Professional Document Storage Saves Businesses Time, Money, and Office Space

Paper documents take up a lot of space, require regular oversight and auditing, and must be protected from pests, fire, flood, and theft. This level of maintenance can be draining, especially for small businesses with limited time, space, and staff. When you move files to an offsite records storage facility in Tucson, AZ, like Citizens Business Archives’ state-of-the-art storage facility, you’ll be able to take advantage of professional indexing, archiving, management, and destruction services that will save you time, money, and office space. 

Meticulous Organization and Instant Retrieval

Rather than having a dedicated team of employees who are tasked with scanning or filing, indexing, organizing, and managing business records in-house, we’ll take care of the most important elements of document management for you. We use a precise barcoded tracking system to catalog every box, folder, file, and electronic media item. This ensures you always know where everything is so that it can be instantly retrieved when needed. We also offer on-demand pick-up and delivery of files. This saves you time on general records management and will streamline quarterly or annual audits and purges. 

Reduced Labor Cost and Guaranteed Compliance

Keeping documents in your office will limit your usable space, which can prevent you from expanding or taking on new employees. A crowded, cluttered office makes items harder to find, which means employees will waste time looking for documents, which can affect client satisfaction or your company’s reputation. Storing files offsite frees up space in your office at a fraction of the price needed for maintaining commercial office space. You’ll reduce labor costs by eliminating the need for employees to sort, file, and search through paperwork. You’ll also ensure compliance with HIPAA, OSHA, FACTA, and IRS guidelines for records retention and management. This will help you avoid penalties and fees. 

Secure, Access-Controlled Offsite Storage

Our offsite storage services help you free up massive amounts of space in your office. You can convert those areas into usable space for new employees, client meetings, retail inventory storage, or collaborative projects. By decluttering your office, the environment will be more organized, safer, and more comfortable, which will boost employee morale and client impressions. Your storage capacity will be scalable as well, because you will only pay for the amount of storage you need, rather than paying a premium on extra office space that is only being used for boxes of records.  

Call Now to Get a Quote for Our Document Storage Services

Citizens Business Archives offers highly secure, scalable, and fully managed offsite document storage. We will assess your needs and help you choose the optimal level of services to free up office space, maintain compliance with laws and regulations, and reduce labor time and costs. Our 18,000 square foot facility is access-controlled and fire, pest, and flood protected, and we also offer a climate-controlled vault for storage of electronic media. We use precise barcode indexing processes to ensure you always know where records are, and same-day pick-up and drop-off of files. Our HIPAA trained personnel also provide certified document destruction services when records have reached the end of their retention period. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online and we’ll assess your needs and give you a personalized quote for business document storage in Tucson, AZ. 

Secure Document Storage in Tucson: How Businesses Can Protect Records During Extreme Summer Heat

Arizona’s extreme summer heat can present major challenges when storing important business records. Partnering with a qualified, experienced record storage specialist, like Citizens Business Archives, will ensure your documents are protected from heat, dust, water, and pests. Our standard warehouse offers off-floor rack storage to protect boxes and records from damage, and we also offer a temperature- and humidity-controlled storage vault for more fragile items like electronic storage devices. Our team can help you determine where and how each type of document should be stored so that you won’t need to worry about heat damage. Here is our guide to proper secure document storage in Tucson during the summer, and how to protect records from extreme heat. 

Properly Categorize Each Type of Record

Before sending any records to storage, start by categorizing it. In order to determine where and how it should be stored, you’ll want to note the document type, age, media, and projected lifespan. Paper records and cardboard boxes will be stored differently than electronic media, photographs, plastic binders, and other materials. Critical files should be digitized or backed up before they are sent to an offsite storage facility.

Ensure Humidity and Temperature Control

Next, determine what the ideal temperature and humidity range is for the type of document. For paper records, the ideal temperature range for your business records storage facility is below 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity levels should fall within 30-50%. High heat and increased moisture or humidity can lead to mold growth and deterioration of paper records. Water and moisture can damage electronic records and photographs beyond repair. Cardboard boxes and electronic media storage devices also require proper airflow. Our rack storage is ideal to prevent hot pockets of stale air from damaging your business documents.

Use the Proper Storage Containers

You’ll also want to ensure you’re using the proper storage containers for the type of records and storage location. Cardboard or banker’s boxes are fine for standard business documents with a shorter retention period, such as three to five years, as long as they are stored off the ground. For fragile documents or long-term storage, consider using heavy-duty plastic bins that block heat, light, water, and pests. 

Consider Storage Container Placement

All containers should be elevated at least six inches off the ground to protect them from flooding and pests. They should not be placed against walls that conduct heat, or on top shelves, as heat rises. Fragile or important documents should be stored in a cool, dark place protected from light to prevent UV and thermal fading. 

Citizens Business Archives offers personalized document storage solutions for all industries.  Our 18,000 square foot facility is protected from fire and pests, and we offer off-ground rack storage and specialized climate-controlled vault storage. We also offer records inventory management and indexing services to streamline the archiving process. To learn more, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online to request a quote for document storage in Tucson, AZ.

Mid-Year Records Cleanup: A Step-by-Step Guide to Document Sorting and Indexing for Better Efficiency

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.  

Document Shredding Services Explained: When, Why, and How Often Tucson Businesses Should Shred Records

Small businesses and ones that are virtually paperless can get away with handling their own document shredding using an onsite paper shredder. However, large, high-volume, or busy offices and ones that operate in the financial, legal, healthcare, or government sectors must invest in regularly scheduled, professional document destruction services. Citizens Business Archives offers secure shredding in Tucson, AZ for businesses of all sizes. Here is our guide to understanding the overall purpose of document destruction, when and how often your business should be shredding documents, and the potential risks of neglecting or delaying destruction. 

Why Businesses Need Business Document Destruction Services

Routinely shredding critical, sensitive, or private documents protects your company, employees, and clients. You can significantly reduce your risk of data breaches, legal penalties, compliance failures, and identify theft. We recommend professional shredding services to:

  • Ensure legal compliance with federal laws like HIPAA, FACTA, and GLBA
  • Reduce the risk of data loss or theft, identity theft, extortion or hacking attempts, and reputational damage
  • Protect proprietary information and trade secrets
  • Save space by purging documents from storage areas 

Understanding Document Retention Timelines and When to Shred Documents

Record retention periods are governed by industry and regulatory standards. Your company should have a comprehensive record retention policy that outlines the specific lifecycle of each type of document or record you receive, generate, or share. As soon as a document is received or generated, it should trigger a workflow that tracks its lifecycle and schedules a date of destruction. Documents are typically shredded when:

  • They are no longer useful or necessary 
  • The legally- or company-mandated retention period has expired
  • An audit has concluded
  • The office is going paperless and digitizing hard copies of files
  • An employee has been offboarded

You should set up a shredding schedule based on your record retention policy, daily paper volume, available storage space, and risk tolerance. Employees should place daily shredding materials into locked bins that will be picked up when needed. We offer weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and on-demand shredding pickup services. 

Risks of Neglecting Proper Document Disposal

Delaying or neglecting to properly dispose of business documents can have major financial, legal, and reputational consequences. Some of the biggest risks are:

  • Failed audits or compliance checks
  • Heavy statutory fines and penalties
  • Class-action lawsuits
  • High litigation or mitigation costs
  • Loss of licenses or business
  • Identity theft, privacy violations, or data breaches
  • Employee impropriety
  • Targeted hacking, phishing, or extortion scams
  • Intellectual theft or loss of trade secrets
  • Erosion of trust in the industry
  • Negative media exposure
  • Decline in stock value
  • Higher employee turnover and difficulty finding new talent

Citizens Business Archives provides flexible local shredding services on your schedule. We offer scheduled recurring pick-ups and on-demand services, allowing you to scale services based on need and budget. Our HIPAA-trained personnel maintain strict confidentiality and regulatory compliance and a highly secure chain of custody protocol for all documents. Call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online to schedule document shredding services in Tucson, AZ.  

When Should Tucson Businesses Transition from On-Site Filing to Professional Document Storage?

While onsite record storage offers convenient, immediate access to documents, it also takes up valuable space and necessitates dedicated oversight from employees to maintain organization and prevent theft, loss, or damage. Many businesses quickly outgrow this method of document retention or realize it’s just not cost-effective to commit to in-house records management. When that happens, Citizens Business Archives can ease the transition from onsite to offsite storage. Here is a guide to understanding when it’s time to make the switch to secure document storage services in Tucson, AZ. 

Space Constraints

One of the biggest signs that you’re no longer able to house your company’s records onsite is a lack of space. Record storage takes up a lot of valuable real estate, from bulky filing cabinets or storage shelves to boxes and expanding files. If your office looks crowded, messy, or disorganized, or you need extra space for your daily business operations, you should consider moving files to an outside storage facility.

Frequently Misplaced Documents

Unless you have a dedicated team of employees who are committed to keeping records in pristine condition, you may end up misplacing or losing crucial documents. From the time paperwork arrives in your office to the time it’s filed, there are countless steps in between where something may end up hidden, buried, or put in the wrong place. This can result in costly delays, damage to your reputation, compliance issues, and inefficiencies. We can provide indexing services along with secure storage so that you always know where each and every piece of paper is located. 

Risk of Theft or Damage

If your office is in a high-crime area or you have already been the victim of a break-in, it may not be safe to store confidential records or private, personal data onsite. Likewise, if you don’t store records in fire- and flood-safe cabinets, they could be at risk. Our storage facility is access-controlled, alarmed, and fully protected. You can rest assured that critical financial and identifying information will remain confidential and immune to theft. Paper and electronic records are also protected from fire, flood, dust, and pests. 

Compliance Issues

Some industries require very strict adherence to protocols regarding the storage and maintenance of personal and financial records. If your office cannot commit to the necessary infrastructure and security required, you may need to outsource your records storage and management.

Staff Should Be Focusing on Other Duties

When records are stored onsite, you will need to designate specific employees that are responsible for maintaining the records. This means handling the entire lifecycle of the document, from creation or receipt to review, dissemination and distribution, filing, organizing, retrieval, auditing, and document destruction. If you would rather your staff be focusing on other duties or just don’t have a big enough team to justify this added responsibility, our record storage company can help.

Call Citizens Business Archives for a Quote for Business Document Storage 

Citizens Business Archives has over 50 years of experience providing secure, confidential, and compliant record storage and document shredding services in Tucson, AZ. We work with companies of all sizes in all industries to create tailored, cost-effective alternatives to onsite storage. If you have been Googling, “secure document storage near me in Arizona,” call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online to get a quote. 

How Shredding Works: Why the Cost is the Same Regardless of Confidentiality 

Citizens Business Archives provides cost-effective, secure document shredding services in Tucson, AZ. We are committed to keeping our prices transparent and affordable, which is why we charge a flat-rate fee for commercial shredding services. This allows you to stick to a budget while still complying with industry and federal regulations regarding records retention and destruction. Our pricing model is based on logistics, volume, and method of destruction rather than the information contained in your documents. Our team works just as hard whether we’re shredding confidential or non-confidential documents. Here is a closer look at how shredding works, and why we charge the same price regardless of the type of documents we’re destroying.

How Does Shredding Work?

We specialize in high-volume document destruction for clients in industries that require strict compliance with records retention regulations. This includes financial, legal, medical, and education industries. When you partner with us, we will provide secure shred bins that you can place in strategic locations around your office or facility. Your employees will place documents inside that need to be shredded, and you can contact us to schedule shredding pickup services when the bins are full. You can also schedule regular, ongoing weekly or monthly pick-ups. We’ll take your bins and replace them with empty ones, transporting the full ones to our facility where they will be weighed and double-shredded. We’ll then give you a certificate of destruction for your records. 

How Can You Charge a Flat Rate for Shredding Services?

Our company provides shredding services by weight, or per pound. We charge a flat-rate fee for each pound of paper to be destroyed. This price is determined by the cost of labor, transportation, facility and staff overhead, and machine maintenance, not the type of documents that are being destroyed. The cost of doing business is the same whether we are shredding financial and personnel records or junk mail.

Why You Won’t Need to Pay More to Guarantee Confidential, Secure Shredding

The cost for us to transport and shred your records is the same regardless of what information the records contain, so there is no need for us to adjust our pricing based on whether the records are confidential or personal. We also take great measures to maintain a secure, access-controlled shredding facility, and all staff are trained in confidentiality requirements and protocols as well as HIPAA regulations. All the materials we receive are treated as confidential, and we use locked, secure containers and vehicles for storage and transport. We apply the same secure chain of custody processes to all materials we receive, so there is no extra cost to you regardless of the value of the information being destroyed. 

Call Now to Get a Quote for Secure Shredding Services

Citizens Business Archives has 50 years of experience providing secure shredding services to Tucson, AZ businesses. Our certified document destruction prices are charged at a flat-rate, per-pound price that is consistent regardless of the materials we are destroying. We do everything possible to keep our pricing cost-effective and competitive. To request a quote, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online.  

From Storage to Shredding: Understanding the Full Lifecycle of Business Records

Understanding each stage of the journey of business records, from use and distribution to storage and shredding, will help you develop an effective record retention strategy and manage space and storage needs. Citizens Business Archives can help you maintain compliance with relevant record storage and document destruction regulations and industry standards. Read on to learn more about the full lifecycle of your business documents and then call us to get a quote for secure document storage or shredding services in Tucson, AZ. 

Use, Dissemination, and Distribution 

Once the purpose of the document is established and understood, someone in your company will decide what to do with it. Some documents go through many steps in this process, and may be accessed frequently, either electronically or as a hard copy. Some of the most common ways that documents are used throughout this stage are:

  • Routing the document to the appropriate party or parties, either in-office or externally
  • Uploading the document to a secure, cloud-based storage system
  • Filing a hard copy of the document in a paper file
  • Labeling or marking the document for use as an exhibit, evidence, or addendum to another document
  • Photocopying the document for distribution
  • Recycling or throwing away the document if it is not necessary (i.e. junk mail)
  • Shredding the document if it is irrelevant but contains personal or private information (i.e. a printed email containing proprietary company information that does not need to be stored anywhere as a hard copy)

Records Indexing, Storage, and Maintenance

If a document is not needed on a daily basis but can’t yet be destroyed, it enters an inactive or archival phase. During this phase, it can be stored in the office or at an external storage facility. Here is a closer look at that process:

  • Indexing – Before a document is stored, it should be cataloged. This process records vital information such as the date of creation and/or receipt of the document, its title and purpose, relevant tags such as the associated client or project, who has reviewed or received it, and its retention period. This information should be stored in an electronic archive that is searchable by key words so that you and other authorized parties can always easily determine where specific records are located. Ideally, it should be given a unique identifying number that corresponds to your internal filing or document management system. Each document, file folder, and storage box should contain that number. 
  • Storage – All documents should then be stored in a secure, access-controlled cabinet or room in your office or in an off-site facility. They should be protected from unauthorized access, loss, and theft as well as dust, moisture, fire, extreme temperatures, and pests. Citizens Business Archives operates a clean, secure storage facility and can provide pick-up, indexing, and storage services for you. 
  • Audits and Maintenance – When a document is in a storage phase, it still requires regular auditing and maintenance. Most business records can be destroyed after a specific period of time, which will ensure compliance with regulations and free up space in storage facilities. A designated team at your company should regularly review and reconcile all records in storage and perform necessary purges of documents that are outside the required retention period. 

Document Destruction or Shredding

When a document is no longer needed or relevant, it should be destroyed or shredded according to industry standards, internal company policies, and/or federal regulations. Citizens Business Archives offers secure shredding services in our facility and can schedule weekly or monthly pick-up of documents that are ready for destruction. For records in our facility, we will arrange for their retrieval and destruction. We will then provide you with a certificate of destruction for your records. 

Call Citizens Business Archives for Record Storage and Shredding

Citizens Business Archives maintains an 18,000 square foot facility that offers secure, access-controlled records storage as well as commercial document shredding. We provide convenient, cost-effective pick-up and delivery services for records storage, and will design a tailored record management strategy based on your needs and industry. Our storage facility is alarmed, fire-protected, and free from dust, moisture, and pests. We can also provide locked shred bins for your staff to use to collect documents to be shredded. We are proud of our long-standing reputation for providing reliable and safe storage of crucial business documents. If you have been Googling, “secure document storage near me in Tucson, AZ,” call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online.  

Common Record Storage Mistakes Southern Arizona Businesses Make as They Scale

One area that is often overlooked as companies scale up is records storage. Citizens Business Archives can help you streamline the retention, storage, and destruction of business documents so that you and your team won’t have to spend so much time and energy on the process. Instead, you’ll be free to focus on your changing responsibilities as your business grows and evolves, knowing that your important or sensitive business documents are secure and organized. Give us a call if you recognize any of these common record storage mistakes that Southern Arizona businesses often make as they scale up their business. 

Using an Outdated or Confusing Record Retention Policy

Your company should have a concise, clearly outlined procedure for the intake, review, distribution, storage, and destruction of each document that comes into the office. Every employee should know and understand the policy, and be aware of what needs to be retained, what can be shredded, and what should be stored on or off-site. There should be a team of employees tasked with conducting annual audits of stored documents to determine what can be shredded. 

Failing to Use Secure Document Destruction Methods

Your company’s record retention plan should include clear policies for how long certain documents are stored, where they are kept, who can access them, who is responsible for auditing them, and when and how they are destroyed. Your document destruction schedule should be determined by industry standards, federal regulations, and the type of documents you generate or receive. When it’s time to destroy certain documents, they should be placed in a locked shred bin or secure storage area and then picked up by a document shredding company like ours. 

Over-Retention of Documents

One of the biggest issues we see with growing businesses is an over-retention of documents. This happens when companies don’t know what to keep or for how long. Records are hoarded on-site, taking up space and making the office less organized or accessible. This makes important records harder to find, and takes up staff time to file and relocate records to try to make space.

Overlooking Digital Storage Solutions

You can free up a lot of space and make room for new growth if you digitize certain documents. It may take time to scan and organize existing documents, but once your system is up and running, it will actually make workflows more efficient and your employees more productive. Digitized records can be secured via encryption and password-protection so they are less vulnerable to data breaches, and can be shared and accessed easily with designated clients and staff inside and outside the office. 

If your company is growing quickly and you haven’t had time to reassess your document retention, storage, and shredding policies, Citizens Business Archives can help. We offer secure shredding services and business document storage for companies of all sizes, in all industries. In addition to picking up, indexing, and storing documents at our secure facility, we also offer shredding pickup and records delivery services. To get a quote for document storage in Tucson, AZ, call us today at (520) 882-4434 or contact us online.