A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS DOCUMENT RETENTION GUIDE
The Shred-it® Guide to Document Retention
Shred-it wants to help you to know which documents to shred and which to keep.
These days, most businesses are required by law to retain confidential client information, along with employee or company data, for a minimal amount of time. But many types of documents eventually outlive their purpose, and holding onto them too long puts you at risk of a security breach and non-compliance with today’s privacy legislation.
How long you store business records should be determined by a retention schedule that balances each record’s usefulness with the legal requirements. To some degree, this will depend on your type of business, and the lifecycle of specific documents. You’ll want to determine a retention schedule for each type of document, and then create a secure destruction schedule for those documents to reduce risks associated with data breaches.
From a risk-management perspective, once you’ve agreed on a time period to retain each type of document, the only acceptable way to discard your documents is to make sure they’re irreversibly destroyed. Shredding is a legal requirement for many types of documents, and on site shredding is the safest policy. You’ll want a Certificate of Destruction that specifies the exact date and method used to destroy your documents.
To help you create the right retention schedule for your business, here’s a list of documents that contain confidential information, along with the recommended retention period for each type in accordance with certain legal requirements. These recommendations on document retention are general guidelines only. They are not intended to represent legal advice. Contact your legal expert(s) or federal, state or provincial government to ensure you are following current legal requirements for your area.**
Alphabetized by document category
BUSINESS DOCUMENTS
Contracts -- 6* Years
Correspondence, general -- 6* Years
Deeds PermanentLicense, traffic and purchase -- 6 Years (correspondence)
Mortgages and note agreements -- 6* Years
Patents -- Permanent
Production (correspondence) -- 8 Years
DOCUMENTS
Auditors’ reports -- Permanent
Bank debt deduction -- 7 Years
Bank deposit slips, reconciliations, statements -- 4 Years
Bills of lading -- 4 Years
Budgets -- 2 Years
Checks – cancelled -- 4 Years
Contracts – purchase and sales -- 4* Years
Credit memos -- 4 Years
Depreciation records -- 4* Years
Employee expense reports -- 4 Years
Employee payroll records (W2, W-4, annual earnings records, etc.) -- 6* Years
Financial statements – annual -- Permanent
Financial statements – interim -- 4 Years
Freight bills -- 4 Years
Internal reports (work orders, sales reports, production reports) -- 4 Years
Inventory lists -- 4 Years
Invoices – sales and cash register receipts, merchandise purchases -- 4 Years
Invoices – purchases (permanent assets) -- 4* Years
General ledger -- Permanent
General, cash receipts, cash disbursement, and purchase journals -- Permanent
Payroll journal -- 4 Years
Subsidiary ledgers (accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc.) -- 6 Years
Time cards -- 4 Years
Worthless securities -- 7 Years
INSURANCE DOCUMENTS
Accident reports -- 6 Years
Claims – after settlement -- 10 Years
Fire inspection reports -- 6 Years
Group disability reports -- 8 Years
Policies – all types – expired 4
Insurance policies -- 6* Years
Safety reports -- 8 Years
Settled insurance claims -- 4* Years
PERSONNEL
Attendance records -- 7 Years
COBRA records -- 4 Years
Contracts – expired -- 6 Years
Dental benefits -- 5 Years
Daily time reports -- 6 Years
Disability and sick benefit records -- 6 Years
Employment applications – not hired -- 3 Years
Employee benefit plans -- 2* Years
Employee medical history -- 7 Years
Medical benefits -- 7 Years
OSHA logs -- 6 Years
Performance record – after termination -- 7 Years
Personnel files – terminated -- 7* Years
Withholding tax statements -- 6 Years
PURCHASING AND SALES
Purchase orders -- 7 Years
Requisitions -- 3 Years
Sales contracts -- 3 Years
Sales invoices -- 3 Years
TAX DOCUMENTS
Payroll tax returns -- 4 Years
Pension/profit-sharing informational returns -- Permanent
Sales and use tax returns -- Permanent
Tax returns and cancelled checks (federal, state and local) -- Permanent
TRAFFIC – SHIPPING AND RECEIVING
Export declarations -- 4 Years
Freight bills -- 4 Years
Manifests -- 4 Years
Shipping and receiving reports -- 4 Years
Waybills and bills of lading -- 4 Years
*Retention periods begin after the termination, expiration, disposal, etc., of the item.
** Information in this guide has been sourced from the links below:
1. http://www.businessarchives.com/document-retention-requirements.asp
2. http://www.cpa.net/resources/retengde.pdf
3. http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/laws/rules/6500-2400.html
4. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98575,00.htmlThe Shred-it® Guide to Document Retention
