I would like to know what everyone's organization has for a record retention policy, specifically for financial data (checks, invoices, payroll information, bank statements, etc) I am developing our policies, and we are planning to move our office within the next year, so cleaning out old stuff is needed right now. Thanks for anyone's input- you can email me directly if you like at [Email Removed]. Sonja

You should check with your auditors, they are the ones who should make that call. Our auditors, said seven years, for checks, which I think is customary. Of course our major donors have files, so theirs never get thrown away. Of course with scanning now, I believe you can just keep an image instead of the actual paper, if you so desire. We don't do that here, yet but we did implement it at my former organization. I can't speak for payroll or finance, since we have seperate departments for that but I am assuming the auditors would say the same thing. Denise Stengl School Sisters of St. Francis Milwaukee, WI [Email Removed]

We reference "Recordkeeping Requirements" The First Practical Guide to Help You control Your Records....What YOu Need to Keep and What You Can Safely Destroy. It's by Donald S. Skupsky, JD, CRM ISBN 0-929316-18-5 It's an old copy but still seems to work. We've looked at scanning, but then you have disk storage to purchase along with someone to scan the documents.

We have turned to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for guidance on this issue. It is pretty comprehensive and may include some things you do not necessarily need. Feel free to pick and choose; we certainly did. A good document can be found at: http://www.ncna.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document.showDocumentByID&DocumentID=2182  Click on the link after "Availability".

Does anyone have a policy regarding keeping voided checks on file? Is this necessary?

I would say probably no more than 1 year is needed with these. This is probably more of an issue with your auditor than anyone else. Consult them for their own policy. Sonja

Thank you to everyone who replied to my question. I received good feedback, and several examples of policies. I also asked our own CPA who had a list also. I took all of these and made our own policy. Thanks for the help! Sonja