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Check Document Retention Policy at IRCH.com

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Check Document Retention Policy at IRCH.com

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Blog 2: IRCH.com FACTORS REGARDING DOCUMENT RETENTION POLICIES There are a number of factors which revolve around document retention policies. Here are some of the most important ones that you should remember: 1. Certain documents like accounting records need to be retained for a number of years. Certain regulations like the Sarbanes Oxley Act SOX have extended the scope for record retention further by making it necessary to retain all the documents which will help in authenticating the accuracy of the published records. 2. Various other regulations seek documents so that it can be proven that the business is in compliance with the regulations. Records regarding the employees and the calculation of the pay slips need to be maintained properly. 3. Audit is another situation when the production of record evidence is necessary. The auditors can check the accuracy of the financial statements in a proper manner making sure that the company has complied with the regulatory requirements. 4. Decision support is a great factor of the records retention policy. They help in making sure that informed decisions are made through the analysis of the previous data. This will enable the company to go for higher standards by making sure that previous mistakes are not repeated. If proper records are not maintained and there is no referral methods to look at when taking important decisions it can be very hard for a company to go forward and spread its business. Document retention policy is a good way to ensure that your company has a history and a proper system through which past mistakes can be avoided.

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FACTORS REGARDING DOCUMENT RETENTION POLICIES

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Blog 2: IRCH.com FACTORS REGARDING DOCUMENT RETENTION POLICIES There are a number of factors which revolve around document retention policies. Here are some of the most important ones that you should remember: 1. Certain documents like accounting records need to be retained for a number of years.

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Visit IRCH.com for Document Retention Schedule

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Visit IRCH.com for Document Retention Schedule

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If you are looking for a trustworthy and reliable company for document retention schedule services then contact IRCH.com. They are considered as the leading global resource for retention schedule development since 1984.

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Must know factors about record retention

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Records Retention and Disposition Schedule Services by IRCH.com

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Records Retention and Disposition Schedule Services by IRCH.com

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Managing the retention of your business records to reduce risk is very important. Records retention and disposition schedule services are exclusively provided by IRCH.com. Visit their website to know more.

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WHEN DOES A DOCUMENT BECOME A RECORD.pdf

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IRCH.com Provides Records Retention Schedule

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IRCH.com Provides Records Retention Schedule

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IRCH.com provides records retention schedule. It is a simple method if you know how to go about it. This will help greatly in saving time. Make sure to visit their website for more detailed information.

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Many people have boxes of bank statements and paid bills or tax returns of which they have no clue how long they should keep. This can be a tough factor to fig...

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Document Retention Policy Template At Irch.com

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Document Retention Policy Template At Irch.com

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Contact Irch.com for getting the best document retention policy and templates. They are a reliable and renowned provider of legal records retention schedule solutions, policy and guidelines.

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Contact with IRCH for Records & Document Retention Policy |Schedule

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Contact with IRCH at (303) 721-7500 for records & document retention schedule & consulting services. Visit our website for any query related to our products & their services!

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Record Retention Schedule Development - Irch.com

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Record Retention Schedule Development - Irch.com

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Irch.com provides best-of-breed records retention schedule development and maintenance consulting services. They have developed and completed records retention project for many companies.

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Document Retention Guidelines At Irch.com

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Document Retention Guidelines At Irch.com

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Visit Irch.com to know about document retention guidelines. They also provide the most advanced retention schedule development and maintenance software.

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Records Retention & Disposition Schedule From Irch.com

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Records Retention & Disposition Schedule From Irch.com

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Irch.com has extensive experience in preparing records retention programs and researching legal requirements for records. They provide records retention and disposition schedule services and consulting solutions. Visit today!

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About IRCH

Since 1984, Information Requirements Clearinghouse (IRCH) has been the leading software and consulting resource for records retention legal research. IRCH conducts daily research for state, federal and international legal research that pertains specifically to records retention.

IRCH provides retention solutions for companies and their business record needs. This is accomplished using our software products and/or consulting services to develop a customized solution for their information governance environment.

IRCH has developed successful retention solutions for thousands of clients during the past three decades. This includes organizations ranging from non-profits to multi-national conglomerates. Our method and experience with records and legal research provides an exemplary understanding of your retention situation.

IRCH retention software products provide simple to granular control levels to create and complete a company-level retention schedule. The retention schedule and corresponding policies can be easily updated using software and database updates that are issued several times a year.

Through long-established consulting subcontracts and custom consulting projects, we provides consulting customers with custom retention schedules and specialized records risk analysis. Other consulting services are available for your retention needs and situations.

IRCH Legal Research

With more than thirty years of leadership in the records retention field, IRCH has compiled the leading legal research database on research related to:

record keeping

records retention

information governance

electronic discovery

electronic information technologies

IRCH provides market-leading products and services enabling customers to reduce costs and risks through implementing legally defensible retention and destruction practices.

Founded by Donald Skupsky in 1984, IRCH products and services have become the Standard in retention schedule development and management. IRCH does not engage in the "practice of law" but focuses on the application of law to records and information management programs.

Contact Us

Please to discuss your questions and learn how IRCH experience and resources can serve your retention needs.

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IRCH - Retention Software and Consulting Provider

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Since 1984, Information Requirements Clearinghouse (IRCH) has been the leading software and consulting resource for records retention legal research. IRCH conducts daily research for state, federal and international legal research that pertains specifically to records retention. IRCH provides retention solutions for companies and their business record needs.

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Expert document retention schedule services and consulting solutions are provided by Irch.com. They specialize in legal research and development of records retention schedules. Contact them for more details.

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Electronic Records Management (ECM) software of Irch.com provides the capability of applying records retention rules to e-records and destroying them according to procedures defined in the records retention schedule. Visit today!

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Irch.com - Business Records Retention Schedule

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Irch.com - Business Records Retention Schedule

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Retention Wizard is the latest innovation of Irch.com.With this Retention Wizard; you can develop a legally-defensible retention schedule tailored to your organization in under one hour. Visit them to know more.

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Record Retention Requirements - Irch.com

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Record Retention Requirements - Irch.com

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Visit Irch.com to know more about the record retention legal requirement. They provide the best records retention products & services. They complete more records retention schedules each year than any other consulting firm.

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Legal Requirements for Records Retention . . . The Three-Year Presumption!
By Donald S. Skupsky, JD, CRM, FAI
A large number of records managers are responsible for researching and analyzing legal requirements for records maintained by their organizations. The process of performing this legal research was discussed in an earlier article.1 This article deals with the analysis of the most difficult legal requirements related to records retention - those laws which require records to be maintained, but do not specify a retention period and those situations where no requirements are found, even after extensive research.

[The reader should note that in addition to the legal requirements (like those discussed in this article), a records retention schedule must also consider operational (user), tax/audit, and historical requirements related to records.]

There are basically four types of legal requirements for records retention which are generally encountered:

Specific Requirement Stated. Many federal and state requirements will indicate a specific retention period for records. The researcher must generally determine the scope of the statutes or regulations, the applicability of these requirements to the organization, and the specific records affected. A legally correct records retention schedule can generally be derived with sufficient time and patience.

Limitations of Action. Limitations of action are not records retention requirements; instead, they represent the period during which an organization may be involved in a legal action or litigation (either as plaintiff or defendant). Records may be useful during this period to pursue a legal course of action or to defend oneself. The appropriate records retention period for legal purposes, therefore, relates more to litigation strategy rather than to actual legal requirements.

No Retention Period Stated. A large number of statutes and regulations contain phrases such as "the following records shall be maintained . . . " Although under this type of provision, records must be maintained, the organization is not provided sufficient information to determine how long the record must be maintained - days, months, years, or permanent! Unfortunately, many attorneys and non-attorneys alike, interpret this type of requirement to mean that the record must be kept "permanently" since no permission is given for destruction. Some strategies to deal with the situations are provided in the remainder of this article

No Records Maintenance or Retention Requirements Found After Research. Even, after a reasonable research effort to locate records requirements, the researcher sometimes is unable to find anything that addresses certain records. Some have even expressed concern that an administrative agency has indicated that it is either "getting out of the records retention business" or will reduce the number of records retention requirements published. In both cases, researchers feel extremely uncomfortable and mistakenly establish long-term retention periods "in case they missed something." Some recommendations and background related to these issues are also provided below.

NO RETENTION PERIOD STATED

Records managers will often encounter statutes and regulations which state that certain records must be maintained, but fail to provide a specific retention period. This type of provision is very typical; in fact, over 50% of all federal statutes and regulations do not state specific retention periods. ²

Recordkeeping requirements are generally imposed to assist government agencies in determining whether an organization is complying with the law or how a particular federal or state program is functioning. This information collection and monitoring process often imposes substantial financial burdens on the public. In order to minimize and control the burdens associated with the collection of information by federal agencies, the United States Congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act in 1980. ³

This statute provides the framework to control the paperwork burdens that federal administrative agencies can place on the public and empowers the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Executive Office of the President, to develop regulations to implement the Act and to provide ongoing monitoring of the process. The implementing rules and regulations became effective May 2, 1983 for federal agencies under an OMB regulation entitled "Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public". ⁴

Under this regulation, all federal agencies are required to obtain OMB approval prior to imposing any paperwork burden on the public related to the collection and maintenance of any information through the use of reports, applications, questionnaires, or recordkeeping. In addition, all federal agencies were required to submit existing paperwork requirements for OMB review by December 31, 1983. No paperwork burden may be imposed upon the public until the regulation has been approved by OMB and has received an official OMB identification number.

The following excerpt from the regulation provides the guidelines that limits the discretion used by the OMB in evaluating paperwork requirements in the area of records retention:

Sec. 1320.6 General Information Collection Guidelines (5 CFR 1320.6)

Unless the agency is able to demonstrate that such collection of information is necessary to satisfy statutory requirements or other substantial need, OMB will not approve a collection of information

* * * * *

(f) requiring respondents to retain records, other than health, medical, or tax records, for more than three years; [US 205-0010-00]

* * * * *

The regulation states that the retention period may be no longer than three years unless the submitting agency demonstrates that a longer period is necessary or unless the records relate to health, medical, or tax records. Retention periods which are longer than three years can certainly be justified in certain circumstances; but, this should represent a very small number of records, perhaps less than 10% of the records maintained by most organizations.

First, even under OMB regulations, many records maintenance requirements are now law for which no retention periods have been stated. In the situation where an agency fails to state a specific retention period, we can assume that they have failed to justify the longer retention period required by the OMB regulations; otherwise, a specific retention period longer than three years would have been stated. The absence of a specific records retention period implies that the records retention period is no longer than three years and that records can safely be destroyed after that time. [Note: Legal counsel should review these conclusions prior to using the three-year retention period in actual records retention schedule. It should also be noted that the OMB regulations do not apply to federal recordkeeping statutes, although few recordkeeping requirements have been provided in federal statutes.]

Second, the argument has been made that most tax records need only be kept for three years (plus any extended audit period) under the federal Internal Revenue Code.5 Since tax records also constitute the majority of records maintained for long periods by most organizations, three years appears to be the de facto retention period for most records. It, therefore, appears reasonable in terms of reducing paperwork burdens and efficiently operating an organization to maintain most, if not all, records for the same three year retention period (with very few exceptions).

Third, seven states (Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Texas) have adopted the "Uniform Preservation of Private Business Records Act" (same as Uniform Rules of Evidence)6 or an equivalent law. Although the wording may differ slightly in these states, the essence of Section 2 of the uniform law has been preserved as follows:

UNIFORM PRESERVATION OF PRIVATE BUSINESS RECORDS ACT (UPPBRA) Sec. 2.

Period of Preservation

Unless a specific period is designated by law for their preservation, business records which persons by the laws of this state are required to keep or preserve may be destroyed after the expiration of three years from the making of such records without constituting an offense under such laws. [This section does not apply to minute books of corporations nor to records of sales or other transactions involving weapons, poisons, or other dangerous articles or substances capable of use in the commission of crimes.] [cta id='5210′]

The UPPBRA states that a three-year retention period shall apply whenever a law does not specify a retention period. Destruction under this law will not constitute an offense; destruction in less than three years, however, may subject the organization to some risks.

The section in brackets was considered optional, although all four states kept the essence of that provision. The UPPBRA also contains provisions related to microfilm which have been covered in most states by the Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records As Evidence Act. ⁷

Finally, for those other states which have not adopted the UPPBRA, no specific law exists which creates a similar three-year records retention presumption for state records. As such, an organization assumes a greater risk when relying on the three-year records retention presumption when no specific records retention period is stated. An effective argument could be made, however, that since no specific retention period is stated, the records need only exist at some time - for example, one day - to meet the "letter of the law". However, maintenance of the records for one day fails to meet the "spirit of the law" - the underlying purpose of the law to ensure that certain information is maintained for agency review. The courts would certainly require that the records be available to the agency for a "reasonable" period of time to ensure that the statute or regulation is being followed or to monitor the impact of these laws.

How long then must records be maintained when the law requires the records to be maintained but no retention period is stated? The answer is that these records should be kept for a "reasonable period of time" (rather than permanently). What is considered "reasonable"? Based upon the previous discussion related to federal records, and the existence of specific state laws in four states, a three-year records retention period seems to be reasonable.

In fact, it may not be necessary in many cases to even keep these records for three years. Instead, an organization can make a risk analysis to determine that the risk of maintaining certain records less than three years is extremely low or nonexistent. The records can then be kept to meet operational needs and then destroyed.

NO RECORDS MAINTENANCE OR RETENTION REQUIREMENTS FOUND AFTER RESEARCH

In addition to those requirements to maintain records for which no retention period is stated, records managers often cannot find statutes or regulations which address certain types of records. Some requirements are extremely difficult to locate while other requirements sought may not exist. Even an experienced researcher will rarely locate all records requirements related to the organization; generally some requirements will be missed. Failure to conduct (and document) adequate legal research, however, is never a valid excuse for not finding records requirements!

Since it is therefore practically impossible to find all the legal requirements in the first place and it is reasonable to expect that no legal requirements exist for some types of records, how should the records manager determine the records retention period for those records for which no legal requirements have been found? First, the records manager in coordination with legal counsel could determine that since no records maintenance requirements exist, there is no legal requirement to even keep the records. The records will merely be maintained to meet organizational needs and then destroyed. The risk that a legal requirement was missed during research must be evaluated in relationship to the cost savings and desirability of records destruction in less than three years.

Second, the records could be kept for a reasonable three-year period of time based on the discussion above. When no records requirements have been found after a reasonable research effort, the three-year may be considered since a three-year retention period appears to always be a reasonable period.

In case an actual legal requirement was not detected during research, the assumptions used in establishing the legal retention period at three years should be documented and preserved along with the actual legal research performed. If the records retention period is questioned by judges or administrative agencies, the organization can clearly show good faith in attempting to comply with the law.

Most records managers (and attorneys) seem to have difficulty in determining the legal requirements for records (1) when the law requires the maintenance of the record but does not state a specific retention period or (2) when no legal retention requirements have been identified related to a specific record, especially after extensive research. Based upon the federal

Paperwork Reduction Act as interpreted and implemented by regulations published by the Office of Management and Budget, there appears to be a presumption that no records required under federal regulations (not statutes) need be retained longer than three years unless the federal agency involved has stated (and justified) a longer retention period.

In addition, the majority of records maintained by an organization for long periods of time generally relate to tax matters and federal statutes provide a three year limitation of action for tax records (in most cases). It can reasonably be argued that since three years is the de facto retention period appropriate for most records, other records need only be retained for three years when no specific retention period is stated.

In the states of Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma, the Uniform Preservation of Private Business Records Act specifies that records may be destroyed after three years without constituting an offense under the law (with some exceptions). The remaining states, can look to the laws in these four states for support and also use the presumptions related to federal records. An organization which destroys state records under the three-year records retention presumption, however, incurs a greater legal risk than when federal records are involved.

Finally, if no records maintenance requirements and no records retention periods were found after a reasonable search, it is reasonable to assume that no legal retention period need be followed. The records retention period can than be established just long enough to meet operational (user), tax/fiscal, or historical requirements.
1. See "Researching Legal Requirements for Your Records". 2. See this publication, generally. 3. See "Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980", 44 USC 3501-3520. Chapter 25 - Coordination of Federal Information Policy. [US 144-0010-00] 4. See "Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public", 5 CFR 1320 (48 FR 13689, March 31, 1983, effective May 2, 1983); Title 5 - Administrative Personnel, Chapter III - Office of Management and Budget. [US 205-0010-00] 5. See "Some Considerations Related to Records Retention Requirements for Tax Records". 6. See "Uniform Preservation of Private Records Act", Uniform Laws Annotated, Volume 13, (same as Uniform Rules of Evidence). The following jurisdictions have adopted the UPPBRA or an equivalent law:
The reader should note that this entire article suggests that the three-year records retention period may be "presumed" (with some exceptions) in those cases when a specific records retention period is not stated or when no legal requirement has been identified after extensive research. A "presumption", however, is not an absolute rule or fact, and those following the presumption may take some legal risks.
7. See "Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records As Evidence Act", Uniform Laws Annotated, Volume 13, 1949. (same as Uniform Rules of Evidence). This law is currently in effect in 33 states and was repealed in several others in favor of the Uniform Rules of Evidence. The impact of this law is discussed in "The Legal Status of Microfilm and Other Duplicate Records" [020-3020-00].
The Association of Records Managers and Administrators can play an effective role in reducing the paperwork burdens of both large and small organizations by actively supporting legislation such as the Uniform Preservation of Private Business Records Act (Section 2.) to change the three-year records retention presumption into a three-year records retention reality. The resulting reduction in paperwork burdens could be monumental!

(c) Copyright Information Requirements Clearinghouse

Colorado (1990): C.R.S. 6-17-101 to 6-17-106
Georgia (1991): G.C.A. 10-11-1 to 10-11-3
Illinois (1957): S.H.A. Chapter 116, Par. 59 to 64
Maryland (1957): Code 1957, Article 15B, Sec. 1 to 6
New Hampshire (1955): RSA 337-A:1 to 337-A:
Oklahoma (1965): 67 O.S.A. Sec. 251 to 256
Texas (1989): Bus. and Comm. Code §35.47

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Record Retention Legal Requirements, Document Retention Guidelines - IRCH

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By Donald S. Skupsky, JD, CRM, FAI A large number of records managers are responsible for researching and analyzing legal requirements for records maintained by their organizations.

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Record Retention Consulting Services By Irch.com

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Record Retention Consulting Services By Irch.com

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Irch.com is the industry leader in records retention schedule consulting and development. They provide consulting services in other areas of records management on request. Visit today!

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Irch.com For Document Retention Solutions

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Irch.com For Document Retention Solutions

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Irch.com is a leading provider of legally defensible document retention solutions and consultations. They’ve considered as the leading global resource for retention schedule development since 1984.

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Records Retention, Document Retention Policy & Schedule- IRCH

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Records retention software and data retention policy templates by IRCH! We specialize in developing legally-defensible records retention schedules and requirements. Call us now!