Storing and Maintaining Records

Every business must adhere to the Corporations Act 2001 and ATO record keeping requirements which includes:
    records to be retained for all business transactions – to prove income, expenditure, status of business and to support audit reviews
    contracts, insurance documents, business registration/business entity, Principal Place of Business Certificate, and other legal documents
    legal documents relating to litigation, penalties or breaches
    business lease documents
    business constitution, meeting documents, resolutions of business decisions
    a record of employee qualifications, certificates, licences and permits
    employee records including time sheets, copies of pay slips, superannuation paid, tax withheld, personal information
    safety records, such as reported incidents, risk register, hazard register, risk assessment processes and control measures,
    customer details – client relationship management system
    details of suppliers, vendors and other people the business engages with.

Sound and systematic record-keeping is a vital requirement for any organisation. This involves the maintenance and storage of important documents, data and other information. If records are not stored and maintained in the relevant appropriate manner, heavy penalties can apply.

Legal Documents

All legal documents are required to be kept in a safe place and accessible at all times to the relevant persons such as directors, partners, shareholders and representatives of the Taxation Office. The legal documents that need to be kept are defined by the business structure and the relevant industry standards.

The main legal documents include partnership agreements, constitution documents, statutory books for companies (register of members, register of directors and minute books), certificate of incorporation, franchise agreements, contracts and leases.

Financial Records

It is always important to keep solid, systematic financial records. This is an area which can cause the swift downfall of a company, no matter how big or small.

Financial records can include:

• Creditors data
• Debtors data
• Wages and salaries records and statements
• Superannuation contribution records
• ATO records
• Profit and loss statements
• Balance sheets

For many of these records, you may be audited by government organisations such as the Australian Taxation Office. These organisations can be unforgiving should discrepancies in your records be uncovered.

Taxation

This is a critical part of any business. If you are trading, you will be subject to taxation; this is how the country runs effectively. Tax laws and regulations often change or alter and it is beyond your scope to be on top of these changes all the time, it would take up many business hours to do so, but there are some basic tax areas that you need to understand.

Goods and Services Tax (GST): Registering for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is required if your annual GST turnover meets or exceeds $75,000 (or $150,000 for non-profit organisations). If your annual turnover is less than $75,000, it is your choice whether to register for GST. The benefits of registering are that you can claim back any GST your business pays.

Source: www.ato.gov.au

Australian Business Number (ABN)

All businesses must register for an Australian Business Number (ABN). Its function is to show that the business is properly registered and must be evident on all company contracts, letterheads and business cards.

Pay As You Go (PAYG) Withholding

PAYG withholding is the system whereby payers withhold amounts from payments to payees and send the withheld amounts to the Taxation Office.

Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT)

This tax is a different type of separate registration to Goods and Services Tax registration and an Australian Business Number. Businesses must register for Fringe Benefits Tax if they offer out-of-salary benefits such as company cars or mobile phones to employees.

Business Activity Statements (BAS)

Business Activity Statements (BAS) are used by GST-registered companies when they report their tax situations and requirements, which include Pay As You Go (PAYG) tax amounts, Goods and Services tax amounts and Fringe Benefits Tax instalments.

Business Activity Statements are completed by businesses each quarter. Good business practice is to use a financial controller, accountant or experienced bookkeeper to collate and maintain all the records required to complete a BAS.

Personnel Records

relations legislation to keep records for all employees of length or service, hours worked (if applicable), leave balances and records, superannuation contributions made and all monies paid. These records usually need to be stored for varying lengths of time. You should employ a human resources specialist, taxation agent and/or accountant to advise you of your responsibilities in this regard.

Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) Records

Business obligations under WHS laws can include the provision of:

• Safe and secure working environment
• Safe, certified and regularly-maintained machinery (if applicable)
• Work systems which are safe and secure
• Adequate facilities in all workspaces (e.g., toilets, washrooms, prayer rooms)
• Correct and meaningful training and supervision in the WHS space
• The agreement for staff to elect a WHS representative who will be a voice for employees on WHS matters

Businesses are required to store and maintain both WHS data and staff records which relate to the health and safety of their workers. This especially relates to records of illness, injury, hazards, risks and near-misses that occur in the workplace. A WHS specialist (as previously mentioned) will assist you in setting up systems and processes to ensure that you meet your WHS obligations in order to keep you, your staff and members of the public safe.

Examples of information you might be required to digitally create can include:

• Social media posts or advertisements (e.g., Instagram or LinkedIn)
• Spreadsheets containing employee data such as timesheets or leave balances
• Instructional documents such as instruction or manufacturer manuals and staff handbooks
• Intellectual property such as graphics, logos, videos or audio files
• Archived and confidential emails and attachments

As well as the examples above, you will often be asked to convert paper-based documents or data into a variety of electronic formats. The days of storing paper records in filing cabinets are slowly fading into memory. It is just not practical and is a waste of expensive floorspace. Paper files will inevitably deteriorate over time, where electronically stored data can, theoretically, be stored indefinitely with no effect on quality or usability. This is not to say that all paper-based data should be stored digitally; some organisations may be required to keep paper-based documents for a length of time for legal reasons.

Storing and Retrieving Digitally Stored Information

When you complete the creation of digitally formatted information, you need to choose an appropriate method of storing it. This invariably means using a standard naming and storage process, following the company’s confidentiality requirements. A strong organisation will usually have these systems already in place for you to follow.

We will look at this further in a later section.

Adhering to a strict and easy-to-use naming convention will be very important for when yourself or others wish to locate the file in the future. File names should be easily distinguishable and clearly different from one another. Your company should have a system or rule for naming digital files. You must ensure that you are always monitoring this to ensure you name and store your documents correctly. Whichever naming convention is in place, consistency is key and all employees who are involved in the naming and storing of data should be following the same processes and conventions.

Some ways you can make your files more accessible through naming conventions include:

• Using key words
• Using dates
• Version control
• Specific details
• Separating documents by department or team code

Example

An example of a document naming convention could be 221220_Budget Report_V1.2. This contains the following information: date (22 December 2020), contents of the document (Budget Report), and version number (1.2).

As we have previously discussed, how you store information will vary depending on the kind of information that you have been asked to create. If you have created an email, it will usually be archived within the company’s computer system. In other cases, information or data will be saved to a hard drive or cloud storage system.

Invariably, the main issue with digitally-stored information is that it is often insecure. Sensitive or private information can be very valuable to unscrupulous people and this is obviously a very serious consideration for organisations to take into account. The most obvious method of securing information is the application of password protection. It is also important to determine emergency or contingency plans to employ if you lose digitally-stored information. For example, what would you do if your computer or server is infected with a virus? You could potentially lose all the stored data, or worse still, it could be stolen. Regular back-ups are vital. You could back up onto removable hard drives, USB drives or even email copies of information to colleagues. Your company must have policies and procedures to follow regarding this key area.

Digital information can be stored in many ways, including:

• PC desktop
• Personal drive
• Company-accessible drive
• USB/flash drives
• Cloud-based storage such as OneDrive, Dropbox or iCloud

It is vital that you are able to easily find any information that you have stored quickly and efficiently whenever the need arises. If you were unable or had difficulty in retrieving vital information you have stored, the task would quickly become time consuming and frustrating.

This is why using consistent and standard naming and storing conventions is so important. The process of finding them and preparing them for use will be relatively simple. A quick key word search in your files could be your first option. Key search terms could include client names, dates or document types. The search engine will give you a list of potential documents for you to look at and will quite probably make the specific item you are looking for very easy to uncover.

Some organisations will go a step further and implement a document management system (DMS). This allows users to keep track of a variety of files across the organisation. This is a particularly good tool for companies which store extremely large numbers of documents such as accountants or solicitors. A useful feature of a DMS is the version control monitor, which puts the documents into a controlled order. This is important for companies which alter or amend documents regularly, particularly for compliance purposes, such as government-regulated training organisations.

At this point, it is important to note that the information provided here is not exhaustive. There is a plethora of different methods of data management and every organisation will have its own particular preferred method and electronic system employed. When starting work with a new employer, part of your induction should include the individual organisation’s policy and procedures for the creation, storage and retrieval of digital data. If you are not given this training, you must ask for assistance. The last thing you want to do is to use the wrong method, which could compromise the integrity of the company’s entire system.

Watch

The following video explains Poor Records Management: Causes, Consequences & Prevention, and is produced by Record Nations.

The Risks of Poor Record Keeping

Use the following questions to check your knowledge.

1. Make a list of legal documents that should be stored.
2. Make a list of financial records that should be stored.
3. Explain how you can store documents in your organisation.
4. Explain the purpose of an ‘ABN.’ Q5. Describe the safety records that should be stored and why.