Archive Storage Huntingdon

Why Store Documents – Legal Obligation

As a company, you handle confidential information on a daily basis, and are entrusted by your staff, customers and suppliers to protect this information. Archive Storage Huntingdon provides a secure location for your paper based documentation

Data protection legislation also places a legal duty on businesses to protect confidential information, with unlimited fines for those who fail to do so. This includes all methods of information storage, not just paper documents. If a breach in security does occur, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has the authority to impose huge fines in the instance of non-compliance with data protection legislation.

For many organisations, information is the most important and most valuable commodity they own. No Huntingdon based company can afford to underestimate the cost, to both their reputation and their bottom line, of information falling into the wrong hands. In an increasingly competitive business environment, your company’s integrity, reputation and prosperity depend upon the secure handling, storage and destruction of sensitive information.

Why Choose The Storage Hub for Archive Storage Huntingdon

Our facilities have secure electronic entry systems and CCTV monitoring round the clock. Our internal self storage facilities are waterproof and dry with individual lockable storage units from 15sq ft to 300 sq ft. Boxes are stored on specialist racking to protect your documents. You are welcome to barcode and tag boxes to enable easy traceability for retrieval and collection.

Moving your archives over to the Storage Hub couldn’t be easier. Simply book the storage unit size that you need. If your not sure how much space you need, visit our facility or talk to one of our experienced team on 01480 417785.

Once you have paid for your unit you will receive access details for the self storage facility. You will then be able to visit the site 7 days a week to access / drop off your archive documentation.

5 reasons why document archiving is important

1. With well organised data it’s easier to find the right documents when you need them

Properly archiving documents means your employees have quick and secure access to information they need, resulting in less downtime and fewer delays.

For the ultimate solution many companies choose to use records management software to store, manage and access their records. This has several benefits:

• You can securely access digital documents from anywhere with an internet connection
• You can gain real-time updates when staff members access or amend a document or request that one is retrieved
• You can still access hard copies as and when needed.

Larger companies or information intensive businesses should create a records management policy to outline how and where documents should be stored. This will set out what your business needs to do to comply with records management best practice, so records are handled correctly once they are ready to be archived.

2. Records can be easily audited and retrieved for legal reasons

Auditing

An audit involves examining your business’s records to confirm they are accurate. Audits can be done internally by an employee, or externally by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). If you’re audited externally, HMRC will want to see documents such as:

• expenses forms and receipts
• board meeting minutes
• payroll reports
• contracts
• records of cash expenditure

If you can’t provide these documents, you:

• risk making the auditing process longer and more expensive—for example, to verify your company finances, you may have to gather oral testimonies or written statements from employees and people you do business with
• could be fined—you can view a full list of potential penalties issued by HMRC on its website

Document archiving makes the process quicker and easier for auditors as they will have instant access to the information they require, saving them (and your business) time and hassle.

Retention periods

Legally, your business has to retain certain documents for a set period of time (known as a retention period). You can read more about document retention periods here.

Legal claims

If your business is being sued—either by an employee, customer or another business—you may be asked to provide certain documents to support your case. Having easy-to-access, well-organised records will ensure that you can supply the information needed as part of any legal proceedings.

3. Improves security—only the right people can access the right documents

Archived paper files are more secure as your document management company will ensure only employees who have permission can access them. The company will take the files out of storage and hand-deliver them to a named person inside your business.

4. Saving space in your office

Archiving documents saves valuable storage space in your office by keeping paper documents off-site. Converting paper documents into digital format means you can destroy the paper copies (or store them off-site) and access them via a secure online portal. Alternatively, you can store paper documents off-site without converting them into digital versions and still save space in your office.

5. It prevents you from losing data

Losing important documents could have significant consequences for your business:

• Drop in productivity—it could take hours or days to recover lost files, which means your employees are unable to work. The more documents you lose, the more downtime your business will experience.
• Loss of customers’ trust—if you misplace files related to your customers’ personal information, or the files are stolen, not only will it affect your relationship with those customers but you could be hit with a significant fine.
• Breaking the law—if you lose confidential information, or people without authority gain access to it, your business may be in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). There are several possible consequences to this, including criminal prosecution and significant fines.
• Damage to your reputation—losing data could lead to unwanted media attention and harm to your business’s reputation.

The easiest way to prevent this is to secure your documents by archiving them with Archive Storage Huntingdon

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