12 Best Practices To Support Your Document Archiving Services

1. Know that consistency is central to all good document archiving systems. If you utilise our cataloguing and indexation services at Total Records Management, we are happy to instruct you in how to maintain the same system for your on-site records that may eventually need to be added to your stored documents. Details will eventually be far less important than consistent application.
2. If you have done your own organisation, ensure that the system used is very well documented and communicated  to everybody that files any paper.
3. Create a records retention schedule. Not every piece of paper should be kept in secure archiving services forever. TRM can help you develop your records retention schedule, or you can do this in-house.
4. Match your in-house paper filing system to your electronic document storage system.
5. In creating your records retention schedule for in-house records, you should:
   - Identify major groups of records
   - Classify them according to a universal scheme
   - Legally research the retention time for each
   - Overlay the retention requirements for your day-to-day operations
6. Re-examine your records retention schedule at least every 2 years, to account for legal updates and changed operational document archiving requirements.
7. Know the difference between official records and convenience copy records. 'Convenience copy' records are typically related to a time-limited transaction, and are often the sort of thing you retain 'just in case'. These should be cleared from your document archiving system every 30 days.
8. Have an off-site media backup also. If you haven't set up a cloud-based storage facility for your computer records, you may want to utilise TRM's media vault facilities, which are completely fire-proof, flood-proof and burglar proof.
9. Know the place of secure archiving services and your document archiving procedures in your business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
10. Emails are an often relied-upon but also often-forgotten part of the document archiving policy. Know that you'll need to develop procedures for dealing with emails as well as paper records.
11. Include compliance with document archiving and records retention procedures as a KPI in employee performance evaluations.
12. Know your secure archiving service partner. TRM is compliant with the strict standards of ISO9001, has various industry memberships and accreditations and has staff that undergo constant skills updating. So should any company you choose to deal with for document archiving services.

The staff at Total Records Management are always happy to advise you on managing your internal document retention and organisation systems to make like easier at the archiving end of the cycle. Contact us today to find out more!