If it’s too late for this preventative measure, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself when tax time rolls around. Ask for an extension of your deadline. If you have yet to file taxes, you may need more time to reproduce lost records. The IRS is sometimes forgiving in their deadlines, especially if your records were lost due to a federal disaster declaration. Don’t forget to fill out form 4506T if you’ve changed addresses.

As soon as the items have been destroyed, list everything you lost in order of importance. If you’ve lost the only copy you had of an important document, you’ll need to contact the involved third party for another copy of that document. It’s best to start at the end of the year and work backwards. Whether it’s your bank, a client, or the government, chances are someone else has it. Getting copies of cancelled checks from your bank might get expensive, but it’s possible. It’s usually free to have government agencies send you documentation; the IRS keeps copies of all your tax documents including 1099’s and W2’s up to a certain number of years.

If you’ve lost receipts for expenditures, contact your bank for your transaction history and compare this to your date book to try to prove your reasons for deductions. If you paid with cash, it will be more difficult to prove these reasons unless the items were things that you buy every month for relatively the same price, like office supplies. Your transaction history from your bank or credit card company may not be enough for a tax agent, so be sure to contact your suppliers for copies of your invoices. If you’ve lost your mileage records, look at your datebook to see who you met with on what days and estimate the miles between each meeting place. If your day book was lost as well and you have luxury of time, your last ninety days of mileage log can be used as a sample.

The important thing is to put effort into recreating these documents plausibly and learn from your mistakes. Preparing for an audit is incredibly tedious, and downright painful if your files have been destroyed. Since your time would be better spent on building your business, plan ahead. Scan all of your important documents, then save these scans on a flash drive or data tape backup and store them in a fire-proof safe or a safe deposit box. The best solution is to store your electronic records off-site and consider using a local records center to see if they provide tape rotation services for an affordable rate.

For professional records centers, the capability to pull, deliver, and re-file expediently and accurately for record retention and storage clients is crucial. Most software systems available for these professional records centers include this capability, such as DHS’ Total Recall. Records center managers scan custom bar codes with mobile hand-held units upon delivering a file to a specific location, automatically updating the database of where the file or box is.

Unlike a private business, federal agencies are required to maintain their records according to the National Archives and Records Administration Act. Under that law, 44 U.S.C. § 3101, the “head of each federal agency shall make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures and essential transactions of the agency.” This Act could indeed mean that affected agencies include memos regarding speech approvals, so that every speech and all its various versions could very well live in perpetuity in a storage box somewhere – and never be allowed to be shredded or destroyed. Just think: people 100 years from now will be able to read even parts of a Presidential speech which never made it into the “real deal.”

This permanent retention policy gets expensive for some agencies, because the volume of records for permanent retention increases about 5% per year. The US is not alone. Growth rates can be a lot higher if a government embarks on an inactive records purge initiative, like Hong Kong did several years ago. Looking at a huge mountain of information in their Public Records Office of Hong Kong (PRO), Hong Kong’s average annual intake of historical records was about 11%. Based on this growth rate, the total archival stock in 5 years’ time amounted to about 1,100,000 records items.

Though most private businesses will never have this size of an issue, this example highlights the importance of a document destruction policy. For private businesses which are ready to implement a document destruction program, records should be stored in a facility that allows the setting of automatic document destruction dates upon cataloging and entry into that facility. The barcode also tags each file or box with a date which can automatically trigger professional records center managers to pull and destroy boxes and files per a prescribed schedule. Clients receive a certificate of destruction either for a group of destroyed files, or one per box or file, depending on client need. Most professional records centers then recycle the destroyed documents and media. For x-rays, many centers even have a silver reclamation process before destroying films and recycling those into such new office interior products as carpeting and furniture fabrics.

Remember: spring cleaning should include a good methodical purge of inactive records, creating a more productive use of real estate, time, and money.
—
Beth Reynolds, Storr Records Management, January 25, 2012

In a world where information is the lifeblood of virtually every business on earth, functions such as compliance, IT, legal and records management cannot operate separately. This article in ALA Currents examines the key questions every company should ask itself about creation, storage, use, archival and deletion. Information governance is no longer merely a topic for forward-thinking law firm books and think tanks. Rather, it is quickly becoming an essential strategy for adapting to the realities of doing business today. …read more…

• Service (effective and efficient),
• Profit (or cost-avoidance), and
• Social (moral, ethical and legal) responsibility.

Records management programs must manage organizational information so that it is timely, accurate, complete, cost-effective, accessible and useable, finally, disposed of at the appropriate time. Better information, at the right time, makes better business.

Records management programs are not generally an organization’s primary business, and even though RM programs don’t usually generate income, the following are the most important reasons to set up a good records management program in your office anyway. (The EPA adapted this article from Ten Business Reasons for Records Management in Information and Records Management: Document-based Information Systems, Robek, Brown, Stephens, 1995.  Storr’s minor additions and edits appear below.)

1. Stop Hoarding Records   Despite decades of using various non-paper storage media, the amount of paper in our offices continues to escalate. An effective records management program addresses both creation control (limits the generation of records or copies not required to operate the business) and records retention (a systematic schedule for off-site storing, then destroying useless records or retiring inactive records), thus stabilizing the growth of records in all formats.  Off-site storage of records will still grow approximately 5% per year, even with a plan in place.
2. Reduce Operating Costs   Recordkeeping requires fixed asset dollars for filing equipment, rent for space in offices, and staffing to maintain an organized filing system (or to search for lost records when there is no organized system). It costs a lot less per linear foot of records to store inactive records in Storr’s Records Center versus in your office.  There is a good opportunity to deliver cost savings in space and equipment, and an opportunity to utilize staff more productively – just by implementing a records management program.  Usually, in an office that doesn’t have a records program, 30-50% of the files could be stored off-site. 
3. More Efficient, More Productive Staff  Time spent searching for missing or misfiled records is non-productive. A good records management program can help any organization leverage technology systems so you can more efficiently retrieve information, with corresponding improvements in office efficiency and productivity. Storr leverages Total Recal, a web-based system with an effective index which can facilitate retrieval and deliver information to users as quickly as they need it.
4. Embrace New Records Management Technologies    A good records management program provides an organization with the capability to assimilate new technologies and take advantage of their many benefits. Investments in new computer systems don’t solve filing problems unless current manual recordkeeping systems are analyzed (and occasionally, overhauled) before automation is applied.
5. Comply with Government Regulation   In terms of recordkeeping requirements, the United States is the most heavily regulated country in the world. These laws have created major compliance issues for medical professionals, businesses and government agencies since the applicable laws can be difficult to locate, interpret and apply.  The best defense for your organization is by operating a good records management program which includes regulatory compliance procedures, making sure you consult with your legal advisors periodically.  Failure to comply with laws and regulations could result in severe fines, penalties or other legal consequences.
6. “I’ll Sue You!”  Business organizations implement records management programs in order to reduce the risks associated with litigation and potential penalties.   A consistently records management schedule can reduce the liabilities associated with document disposal by providing for their systematic and certified disposal as a normal business operation – not an afterthought.
7. Vital or Permanent Record Preservation   It’s a fact:  disasters will happen.  Every organization is susceptable to catastrophic loss.  Every family, every organization, every company, every agency - everyone needs a comprehensive program for protecting vital records and information. As part of your records management program, your vital records system needs to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of your most important records.  Create your own schedule and plan to protect those records.  (See Vault Storage, http://www.storrrecords.com/vault-storage/)
8. Better Data In, Better Decision Out   In today’s business environment, the one holding the relevant data first often wins, either by making the decision ahead of the competition, or by making a better, more informed decision. A records management program can help ensure that managers and executives have the information they need when they need it. By implementing an enterprise-wide file organization, including indexing and retrieval capability, you can access the information you need to make faster, better decisions – and beat your competition
9. Corporate Memory – not Employee Memory   Every business day, your staff creates paper or electronic records which could become background data for future management decisions and planning.   If this knowledge exists only in unorganized paper files, disconnected databases or in the human memory banks of your employees, you run the risk of permanent loss.  Guard against that with a proactive plan.
10. It’s an Image Thing   Think about your staff’s work environment.  If there are files and boxes without organization, or a plan to move them out of the way of productive work, the resultant disorganization creates a poor working environment.  The perceptions of customers as well as the morale of your staff may be among the best reasons to establish a good records management program.

Storr Records Management can help you create a custom schedule for the pickup, storage, and certificated document destruction of your paper and data storage media.  With Records Centers in Raleigh, Greensboro, Tampa, and Orlando, trust Storr Records to help you exectute your plan.

(Based on an article by the Ten Business Reasons for Records Management in Information and Records Management: Document-based Information Systems, Robek, Brown, Stephens, 1995.)

Storr Records Management, a division of Storr Office Environments, has an opening for a Records Management Sales Executive in our Raleigh, NC location. The Sales Executive will prospect for new customers, be results oriented, exceptionally and have the ability to grow our customer base.

Primary Responsibilities:
• Develop new customers in the areas of records storage (of paper records), confidential shredding, and data protection services (environmentally controlled vault storage).
• Assess and identify customer’s current and potential needs, determining appropriate solutions.
• Position Storr’s service offerings, highlighting areas of strength and competitive advantages.
• Achieve monthly, quarterly and yearly revenue and profit goals.
•
Educational/Experience Requirements:
• BS/BA degree
• 2-3 years industry/ new business sales experience
• Knowledge of the records management industry preferred
• Established business connections
• Strong organizational and problem solving skills
• Solid communication skills

We offer competitive earning potential, as well as a comprehensive benefit package. To learn more about our company visit www.storr.com. To apply, please send resume to raleighrecordssales@storr.com.

Storr Records Management Division Installs USA’s First Biometrically-Secured Data Vault
SRM first to put hand vascular recognition technology to the test

Raleigh, NC, December 17, 2009 — Storr Office Environments has completed the installation of its world-class records vault on site in its records management facility in Raleigh. The vault, constructed of concrete and steel inside Storr’s existing the concrete and steel warehouse, is among the first in the world to be secured with the latest hand vascular pattern recognition technology. This technology, previously only used by the United States military and some off-shore drilling platforms, is the only installation in the US specifically for a records storage vault. The new vault and its HVPR technology security are currently operational.
About Storr Office Environments
Storr Office Environments is a Steelcase Exemplary Performance Dealer based in Raleigh, NC and has been recognized as one of the Triangle’s fastest growing private companies seven of the last eleven years. In business since 1914, today Storr has offices in Raleigh and Greensboro, NC and in Tampa, FL. Storr provides a single-source of knowledge, products and services to create working spaces that significantly impact its clients’ business objectives. Representing more than 200 manufacturers of high-quality new furniture for working spaces, Storr also offers pre-owned and refurbishment of furniture. Other services include commercial flooring, specialty healthcare furniture and casework, asset storage and record retention services, CAD/CAFM, churn management, and professional office moving services.

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1)  You have paper records that you are required to keep forever.
Some documents have such high historical or documentation value that you may need to keep them forever.  From corporate tax returns to actual historic documents, it is ideal that any paper document that needs to be kept forever reside in a climate-controlled and secured vault.

2)  You are a datacenter or IT manager in charge of backup tape rotation.
Tape rotations can be a high-cost requirement for data centers as they require multiple services for which records management companies charge fees.  Pickup and drop-off services, re-shelving, delivery and receiving fees and sometimes rush fees all become part of the

3)  You are a prosecuting or defense attorney with DNA evidence to keep.
DNA evidence, considered crucial to proving guilt or innocence in many court cases, requires special security in storage handling and would best be suited to a highly-secured vault.

4)  You are a healthcare provider with x-ray films.
All types of media degrade over time if exposed to extremes of heat or cold or wide swings in humidity.  X-rays provide historically significant medical data and generally could be kept as long as 50 years.

5)  You are the creator of important Software Source Code.   
Planning for fulfilling a 50-year contractual commitment is daunting and some companies charge astronomical rates to store source code, just because they know they can.  Storr Records Management provides temperature and humidity controlled vault storage with high security and friendly staff.