If you
have been put in charge to handle the organization of documents at your office,
then you're in for a lot of work. However, organizing documents is not entirely
a Herculean task. All you need is to follow the standard document retention
schedule and sorting out these documents will be a breeze; in the end, you
might even find yourself freeing up some extra space after identifying files
that you should have thrown away a long time ago.
A
schedule for retaining documents exist primarily for auditing purposes,
especially when it comes to accounting and tax records. Bank deposit slips,
interim financial statements, sales and cash register receipts, employee
expense records, and employee payroll records are recommended to be retained
for about four to six years. On the other hand, annual financial statements and
cash disbursements, and purchase journals are ideally kept permanently, unless
otherwise instructed.
On the
tax records side, sales and use tax returns and pension and profit-sharing
informational returns are recommended to be kept for good, while the ideal
retention period for payroll tax returns is no more than four years. Still,
remember that this schedule is just general guidelines, and sometimes companies
formulate their own document retention schedule according to their needs and
their own company policies. Whatever guidelines you choose to adhere to, keep
all these files organized according to their type by using high-quality binders.
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