Safeguarding Key Business Records
By Kristi Vaughan
Fire, flood or earthquake can destroy critical business records in a flash. Because it can be difficult to keep a business going without these records, disaster planning experts recommend that back-ups be made of all critical business records and that these records be securely stored offsite.
Records to be stored
As any business owner knows, paper documents can multiply rapidly. Not all of these documents need to be safeguarded in storage space that you are leasing from someone else. Determining which documents need the higher level of storage is often a matter to be discussed among business principals.
As a general rule, these records should include duplicates of everything that is critical to business continuity. Additionally, offsite storage can be used for documents which are not frequently accessed and would otherwise consume valuable space in the business's primary location.
To maintain order to these records, a records management system should be set up. This system should indicate what is being stored, when it was stored and how long the records should be retained.
Storage locations
Keeping these records in a company-owned auxiliary building will safeguard the documents against disasters that are highly localized, such as a building fire. This method, however, will not work in the event of a larger disaster such as a flood or hurricane.
In its booklet, Open for Business: A Disaster Planning Toolkit for the Small Business Owner (pdf), the Institute for Business and Home Safety and the federal Small Business Administration recommend that such storage be:
- located at least 50 miles away from the primary business
- regularly maintained through back-ups of payroll, tax, accounting, production records and customer lists
In an article for Contingency Planning and Management, writer Cheryl Salierno additionally suggests that such storage:
- Be clean, dry, free of odors and fully insured for fire and theft
- Have 24-hour, 365-day access
- Have a state of the art security system
- Have a computerized bar-coding system and inventory control software for ease of record retrieval
- Be humidity and climate controlled. Documents that are irreplaceable should be kept in fireproof locations. Key officers of the business, or in the case of a sole proprietorship, friends or relatives, should be told where these records are, says the SBA.
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