[dustdees]

Hi all Happy New and all that Jazz!!

Does anyone know legally how long you have to keep paper work for, for example, old application forms, closed account information and stuff like that?

Because of the new year and stuff I have been in that I must tidy things up and chuck what I don't need!! I hate clutter!!

Thanks for your help!!!

Cheers

Denise

[clifford]

asked the wife and she is an accountant and she says 7 years.   hope this helps.


cliff

[Jan K]

it used to be 6 yrs so i guess 7 yrs sounds like the sorta thing the government would do, give us extra work and more crap to store 

[dustdees]

Hiya

Thanks for your help, does that 7 years include old personnel stuff as well . I can understand the the accounting things.

Jan do you keep all your unsuccessful application forms and stuff.

Sounds like more storage space required!! Oh God!!!

Thanks

[Jan K]

yea denise i keep everything, just in case 

[chosker]

Yeah, we keep everything just in case, didn't know it was Seven years tho, we only keep for six so thanks for that, will update all staff.

Definately make sure you keep all client records for that long in particular accounts but also addresses and contact details and any other information that could be relavent, you never know what could go wrong. Nothing ever really has with us, but that doesn't mean it never will!

Incidentally what about keeping records for if say a couple of years down the line a cleaner tried to sue you for a back complaint or something like that? how many years would they have to take a case against you?

[Cleaning Resource]

I scan any documents, save them as a pdf and stick them on a disk, saves on storage   

[Jan K]

i was under the impression you had to keep it in paper form 

[dustdees]

Hi Jan

I thought the same as you to be honest, mind you if that's not the case then tha could be handy couldn't it.

Is there anyone else that could conform that this is legal?

Reploes welcome,

[angela stone]

Hi guys,

I've just spoken to our accountant about this as I knew about the 7 years thing but was unsure about the rest.

Apparently, it is now law to keep your insurance documents for 40 years (due to asbestosis (however you spell it)  - applies to any industry.

Along with this it would be good practice to keep your employee records for that length of time also to tally up.

Good practice to keep bank records forever.

It is ok to keep the records on disk as long as you can prove it is a complete record.  I'm not sure how you would do this - but I suppose this applies to the paper version also.  So it seems this is good news for the old storage space!

hope this helps

ange

[angela stone]

sorry just to add to that...I think if you were to opt for the data copy on cd I would take a couple of backups onto different cd's - because if a disk is damage or becomes corrupt that data can be lost forever then it would cause problems.

Sorry that's the software tester coming out in me!

[Jan K]

thanx for the info Anglea its always good to be kept up to speed

[pdl]

Just Spoke to Accountant.  Definatley 7 years for payroll and personnel documentation and then 40 year for insurance paperwork.

You can store payroll and personel information electronically as long as the electronic information stored is exactly the same information as if it had been printed on paper.  Sage Payroll does store all the information you require should you get an inspection, however, we have had several inspections over the years and they do prefer hard copy.