Tips for Implementing a Document Retention Strategy
                      
Tips for Implementing a Document 
Retention Strategy 
A document retention policy describes how a company must manage both 
electronic and physical data from creation to destruction of the documents that 
contain it. There are many reasons why a business should implement 
a document retention policy. The three main advantages it offers are 
efficiency, security against possible requests for documentation by official 
bodies, and confidence that we comply with current regulations. 
 
Interestingly, there are differences between the various sectors regarding the 
time that the law requires them to retain certain documents. There are even 
some documents that are considered permanent and that therefore companies 
must keep in perpetuity. Most of those permanent documents are tax and 
accounting records and some issues related to labor matters. 
 
How it would be very difficult to try to locate and summarize all the document 
retention rules for all the particular cases of the different sectors, we are going 
to see some general tips that should be used in any company. 
 
 
 
Designate a person responsible for document retention 
 
The likelihood of developing an effective document retention policy best 
practices without someone being directly responsible for it is very low. 
Consider appointing someone to manage this process, or better yet, create an 
oversight committee to direct the work. It can be made up of representatives 
from different departments including employees from the IT department. 
 
When in doubt, it is better to exercise caution 
 
Sometimes it is not clear which category in particular certain documents fall 
into. In some cases, the documents may actually fall into multiple categories. If 
a document can be considered of more than one type, there may be various rules 
governing its retention methods and it is always a good decision to protect the 
document. For example, if an accounting document, according to accounting 
types, has a retention period of 3 years and tax regulations speak of 4 years, it is 
better to exercise caution and keep the document for the longest period of time. 
 
The longer the better 
 
Expanding on what was said in the previous point a bit, the best option is to 
keep all the documents of the company digitized and in a safe place and in an 
organized way for as long as possible. This can be accomplished quite easily by 
creating a centralized repository. With the creation of this centralized 
repository, companies can keep digitized documents for as long as necessary. 
And perhaps more importantly, company leaders can rest assured that 
information will not be accidentally lost, damaged, stolen, or destroyed. 
 
Cloud storage is the best option 
 
Obviously, there are different ways to establish a centralized repository, but 
utilizing cloud storage is the best way to go. In addition to offering a large 
amount of space for huge amounts of data, the cloud offers us efficiency and 
reliability. If a company changes its offices, there is no hardware that it needs to 
transport to get its documents to the new offices. There are no potentially 
dangerous networks to deal with. And if the company network receives an 
attack, be it from a remote hacker or malicious internal employee or even a fire 
or an explosion, the documents stored in the cloud will be kept safe from 
danger. 
 
Establish guidelines for the destruction of expired or useless documents 
 
Once a document expires, the document retention policy should include details 
of what to do with those documents. The procedure for disposing of the 
documents must be specified once their retention period has been exceeded. The 
routine process of expiring expired documents will help manage an ever-
increasing amount of data. 
 
Periodic review of the document retention policy 
 
As new technologies emerge, you should consider covering these new tools in 
your document retention policy. Risk management needs to be managed by 
using legal counsel at regular intervals to ensure that the legal document 
review process complies with regulations and jurisprudence. 
 
Source Url: 
https://sites.google.com/view/proteusdiscoverygroup/document-
review/document-retention-strategy