As well as improving the daily storing, modifying and sharing of documents, records management also establishes policies and standards so various types of records can be maintained:
- Identifying what records exist by maintaining a records inventory
- Applying required retention periods to stored items
- Disposing of documents
- Applying legal holds to records when necessary
- Identifying the owner of each records series
- Determining that a chain of custody and a proper audit trail both exist
- Developing and administering defined records policy and procedures, regardless of whether the records are paper or electronic
- Maintaining records throughout their life cycle
As a company grows, it gets more difficult to keep an overview of where documents are stored, whether they’re up-to-date, or if you even still have them.
The aim of records management is, therefore, to help a company to make documents accessible for both business operations and audits. Spreadsheets are a great way to track where records are stored and many small or medium-sized businesses use this method, but for larger businesses, records management software suites are more suitable and often have accounting software included.