How Are You Maintaining Your Document Retention Policy? (And Do You Have One?)

If you were asked about how well you adhere to your business’s document retention policy, how would you answer? Could you even answer? Do you know what your document retention policy is – or if one even exists in your organization? A full-functioning contract management software system can help you answer those and related questions quickly and easily.

Depending on your industry, document and record retention can be vital – if not regulated and required – for you to actively participate. From the Sarbanes-Oaxley Act to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) to other government policies, document management and retention has become an all-too-important task for CIOs and other business executives.

Consider the need to retain agreements to meet legal requirements. The majority of the time, this is paramount if you contract with – or hope to – local, state, and federal governments. As Government Video points out, “…when you do business with the government, you are under a duty to retain contract, cost, and pricing records for a certain period of time, generally three years from the date of final payment… For certain records, the period runs from the end of the fiscal year in which the cost was incurred, so that the actual retention period could last even longer.”

An important and often overlooked component to a proper document retention policy is the timeline for document expiry and destruction. While your business or organization should have policies in place for how long to maintain hardcopy and electronic documents, it should also be clear when those documents are no longer necessary to retain and the correct way to dispose of them. Of course, just having these policies in place does not guarantee that the right steps are being followed according to the right timeframes, so owners, executives, and managers must follow-up with the staff responsible for document and contract management to ensure compliance.

Utilizing contract management software to administrate your business’s governing documents is a natural complement to maintaining proper document management policy. Leading systems will allow you to make notes to separate electronic documents and attach alerts and email reminders to stay on retention and destruction schedules. Best of all, a contract management system will provide you with the visibility and control of the important key dates and milestones, ensuring your legal obligations are satisfied.

For tips on how to get started on crafting your own document retention policy, or to refine your existing policy, check out these links from CIO.com, ASAE Center for Association Leadership, and Information Management Magazine.

If you’re currently in the market for a contract management software solution, consider Contract Assistant™. With Contract Assistant, users in organizations of all sizes can manage their contracts and negotiated agreements with confidence by quickly accessing information, generating reports, receiving automatic reminders of critical dates, and more. Contract Assistant is available in single-user Standard Edition, multi-user PRO edition, and powerful, SQL-based Enterprise Edition.