Brown & Meyers

Going Paperless With Personnel Records

John Moore — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:28:17 +0000

Personnel records can account for a considerable volume of an organization’s overall information assets. State laws generally allow for personnel files in an electronic format. However, as the following article outlines there are some important considerations when scanning paper personnel records.

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Going paperless with personnel files can be extremely beneficial to cutting overhead costs, improving businesses processes and enhancing accessibility. Yet, it is important to design a conversion strategy for scanning files that fits within your current records management policies so that your business remains legally compliant.

How Long Should I Keep My Records?

John Moore — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:44:23 +0000

Ask most folks how long they have to retain their business records and they’ll reply, “7 years.” While that period of time may suffice for certain types of records, it is certainly not applicable for all business records. Sure, it’s necessary to keep documents pertaining to tax returns and statements, personnel files, payroll records, and accounts payable and receivable ledgers for example. But the retention periods for other types of records can vary greatly from industry to industry and state to state.

Service contracts for car dealerships for instance must be kept for 10 years, while general correspondence for businesses must be retained for either two or three years. OSHA requires employers to retain the medical records of employees who have been exposed to toxic and harmful agents for 30 years and of course business records such as financial audit documents, ownership deeds and shareholder agreements to name a few, should be kept permanently.

Keep in mind that retaining records for too long can create just as much liability risk as destroying records prematurely. If you are unsure how long to keep your records consult your accountant and/or attorney as they will know both State and Federal regulations regarding record retention for your business.

Ten Tips for Reducing Office Paper

John Moore — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:27:37 +0000

Trying to achieve a paperless office can seem daunting. Computers have made is easier to print paper with a simple click. As a business owner, you know that using less paper is more cost effective and is better for the environment but unfortunately old habits are hard to break. Here are ten tips that will help you reduce the amount of paper in your office.

1. Reduce the number of office printers
2. Decrease the margins when formatting documents
3. Set the default on your computer to print double sided
4. Print specific pages rather than the complete document
5. Send an internet fax
6. Request documents in PDF format
7. Set up electronic folders for active files so they are more easily shared
8. Scan and email rather than print and copy
9. Don’t print emails: let them live electronically!
10. Use a document management system to manage files electronically

Wasting Money on Valuable Office Space?

John Moore — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:52:59 +0000

How much money are you paying for your office space? Probably too much. Recent estimates show that 50 – 70% of office space is used for document storage, i.e.: filing cabinets. Unfortunately, 45% of the files in those cabinets represent duplicated information, 80% of which is never retrieved again. Wouldn’t it make more sense to convert the most active of these files to electronic documents while sending your inactive files to offsite storage? By implementing this hybrid solution you can reduce your overhead costs drastically by converting “dead” office space into billable, revenue generating space.

Missing Veterans Records

John Moore — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:54:27 +0000

Recently, abandoned burial records of military veterans were discovered in a public storage unit in Northern Virginia. The records contained Social Security numbers of deceased veterans. This highlights a problem inherent with storing records in self storage and public storage units: the lack of a software tracking system that provides the client with an audit trail of their off site inventory. Records storage professionals also tend to have Account Managers who regularly communicate with their clients. We owe it to our veterans to have a better system for protecting their information.