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Business: Electronic Record Storage - Quick Tips

Written by: Chad William Koplien

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Business

Posted over 3 years ago. 44 helpful votes, 0 comments

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Record Retention Period

A business document may be stored electronically, but it must be stored for the same period or length of time applicable to the paper record.

Security and Integrity

The electronic recording system must have controls to ensure the integrity, accuracy, retrievability, and reliability of the business document. This means that the entire document in its complete, legible, original and unaltered form must be re-producable from its electronic form.

System Documentation in Policy

The recording system and protocol should be documented into a Business Policy, including specific description of the system, its use, format and directions on use so that all documents recorded within it are done consistently and in a uniform fashion.

Retention of Documents evidencing or transferring title, wealth or a financial instrument

You should retain the original document such as wills, deed, financial instrument, stock, or other document transfering wealth, title or financial instrument. Examples of other important documents that you should retain in original form include birth certificates, social security cards, or professional licenses. Do not throw away these originals!

Accessibility

The system must be maintained to be organized, safe and accessible in such a manner as it would allow an immediate inspection by authorities to ensure proper indexing, retention, retrieval and reproduction into a legible hard copy.