How Long Do You Have To Keep Your Business Records Legally?
Apr 16, 2024
We are well aware of the amount of information coming into organizations these days, and creating criteria for document management is a task in itself. Hence, it comes to us as a no-brainer that firms require a document management guide in order to streamline the journey of a document through the organization.
The document management practice is extremely important as it carries the potential to enhance business processes while saving money by reducing manual processing time and giving out more efficient results. In this blog, we will be discussing everything from the basics.
In case you are looking forward to getting your hands on the best document management service in Gurgaon, then you must get in touch with Dox and Box, as they are the industry-leading providers of document management solutions and services.
Learning More About the Document Management Plan
This goes without saying that facilitating the creation of a document management plan for your business is a tough task and a tedious process for sure. It won’t take much to get overwhelmed and corrupt valuable time. That’s why it is crucial to consider the latest trends in the field of document management.
A document management plan is a document that outlines the procedures, policies, and guidelines for managing documents in physical and digital form within your organization. The process of document management is how a firm manages documents so that its information is created, distributed, arranged, and filed efficiently.
A business in a controlled industry is required to ensure that they have a very safe and central way in which documents are kept and accessed at various levels of the firm.
How to Create a Document Management Plan
Every business must consider the fact that a document management plan is required to be created in association with other crucial business processes, such as the business continuity plan and the project management plan. Moreover, it should be noted that the document management plan would involve all the associated policies and procedures.
Steps Involved in the Creation of a Document Management Plan
Step 1:
Identifying all the types of documents in your organization, such as training manuals, month-end reports, HR records, employee departure letters, service level agreements, health records, and warranty certificates.
Step 2:
Identifying who has access to these types of documents, such as employees for HR files, the employee team for training manuals, service level agreements, and contract managers for warranty certificates, health records, termination letters, and month-end reports at each month's end.
Step 3:
Identifying how documents are stored and retrieved in your organization, are these stored in paper form in locked cabinets? Or on a private cloud within several intranet websites, in an online database, on a SharePoint site accessible to employees, with access made available through a mobile application, a web application, or a web browser.
Step 4:
Conducting a risk assessment for information that could be considered a threat, such as health records, personal information, termination notices, and paystubs. This is because these documents require an additional level of security apart from what is required for other documents.
Step 5:
Identify additional security measures, such as encryption, firewalls, and data protection, in order to implement to protect these documents.
Step 6:
Document management policies are to be created as they are crucial for firms that intend to share or collaborate on documents. These policies explain what should happen when someone creates a document, how these documents are stored, and who has gained access to those documents.
Step 7:
Get rid of unnecessary documents, and you should have a list of all the documents that you no longer require. Find ways to get rid of them, and that too in a responsible manner.
Step 8:
Define a document retention plan for various types of documents. You must note that you will be required to periodically exclude these documents from your electronic storage.
For the best small business document storage services, you must get in touch with Dox and Box, as they are equipped with the top document storage and management solutions.
Summing Up
A document management plan is capable of providing a clear outline of the timeframes and steps for each task. Well, hopefully, this document management guide will assist you in making the right decisions regarding the document management processes in your organization. Get in touch with Dox and Box, as they are one of the top record management companies in India.
