Document Archiving: How to Prepare Your Documents

With any business comes paperwork, and whether it’s keeping business transactions for HMRC, customer records or old contracts, you’ll need to find a safe, secure and efficient means for archiving documents.

Of course many businesses are currently undergoing digital archiving, but this can be a long process and doesn’t negate the need for those valuable pieces of paper entirely. This is why preparing your documents for archiving correctly plays such a key role in ensuring you can find exactly what you’re looking for as and when you need it.

The First Step

When it comes to preparing your documents for archiving it’s incredibly important to get them organised first. It’s highly likely that there will be some pieces of paperwork and data that you won’t need ready access too, but no doubt there will be some documents that you may need in the short term, so start by categorising your documents into short and long-term. This will ensure that when they go into storage, you can position the short term documents nearer the front of the area, making access much easier and life simpler.

Additional Categorisation

Further to segregating your documents into short and long term, you should also take a systematic approach to how they will be boxed up or filed. Keeping all relevant paperwork together, such as all HMRC paperwork or customer transactions, will make finding what you’re looking for a lot easier. Furthermore, also make sure that all paperwork is filed alphabetically, numerically or whatever works best for you in the sub-categories, keeping them better protected in plastic pockets or folders.

Clear Labelling

Once you’ve got all your archive documents categorised correctly, you should also make sure that whatever storage container they will be kept in is clearly labelled on the outside and keep a full inventory of the documents in each box for your own records and later reference.

Choosing the Right Containers

Whilst archiving documents can soon mean they’re put to the back of your mind, you also want to have peace of mind that they won’t be subject to any damage during storage. When choosing how you’re going to store your items, it’s always a good idea to opt for sturdy, waterproof and pest proof boxes or filing cabinets. This will ensure that no matter how long you’re documents remain unopened and archived, they will not be subject to any unforeseen damage.

Deciding on the Right Location

When you have everything systematically filed, protected and sealed (if necessary), it’s now time to find the right location for your document archiving. This can be a place on your premises, a secure storage facilities or specialist document archiving facilities.

Doing the hard work and preparation before you archive your paperwork, is sure to pay off in the long run, as you should have easy access to them at any time.

The author has written and published articles on a wide range of topics including Small Business Advice, Tax and Accounting, Interior Design, House Renovation and Project Management.