How long should business records be kept?
I was wondering the other day whether to keep my old records with me or not, some of them being had been used 8 to 9 years back. Can anyone tell me how many months or years should different types of documents be preserved?
scan them, keep them forever, ditch the paper and never think about the documents again unless you need, and you'll be happy that you saved them.
You could probably go down to the fedex store and scan in bulk if you have an excessive amount, or, there are many companies which will do this for you for a fee.
7 years says the CFA overlords
+1.
7 Years tends to be the maximum statute of limitations on most things, including a tax audit, and the quoted rule of thumb. But there are exceptions.
If all your records get destroyed in a natural disaster or the like, I think you can get a Statutory Declaration signed if needed.
In terms of electronic records, in Australia, I've heard can be contested as evidence in State courts as they are not original documents but non-certified copies of original documents. In Federal Court, I believe the legislation is more clearly drafted to get rid of this issue, but individual milage may vary, so see an attorney or two.
Funny that you ask, literally just learned that it is 7 years today in class
Double post
Digitize and keep forever. Though there are various legal reasons to keep records for seven years (tax statutes, for example), there are a dozen exceptions to each rule, so don't take the chance.
+1
everything 7 years, anything incriminating, 1 day.
You're required to keep hard copies on site for 5 years I believe and then store them with access for 2 years on top of it. So 7 years total. Certain industries have longer waiting periods though. My personal rule is digital copies and then 10 years total of retaining the physical records.
Since many of you are recommending digital copies, do you have any suggestions/info about how to best secure said documents?
these are valuable data that you can go back and analyze even 20~30 years later. Keep them.
Someone more technical could probably give you detailed options, but either store it in mass storage, back up servers etc...
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