Believe it or not, the third quarter is around the corner. As a business owner or manager, now’s the time to finalize your business plan for the quarter so you can work toward meeting your financial goals in the second half of the year. That could mean ramping up your marketing efforts, making any necessary cuts, or increasing process efficiency.
You’ve probably heard of this compliance regulation before, but do you really know what it means? Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance is a critical step in the accounting and auditing processes of public companies.
However, some of the Act’s provisions also apply to private companies. Even accidently destroying documents required under the act can lead to repercussions, so every business needs to take steps to ensure proper compliance.
If your company is committed to adopting modern records management trends, it’s time to convert some of your paper documents to digital files. Doing so is not only environmentally conscious but this simple process can save money and improve your reputation with clients.
In today’s highly regulated business environment, responsible business owners need to carefully manage and monitor who handles important business documents and when. If your records management plan includes offsite or digital document storage, a specific process, known as the “chain of custody,” needs to be a key part of your security considerations.
Storing business documents on “the cloud” has become an increasingly popular -- and critical -- way for companies to ensure comprehensive access to and security over their files. While cloud storage has come under criticism in some circles for its perceived vulnerability to hacking, the cloud is, in fact, one of the most secure ways to store your documents, especially if you work with a reputable storage partner.
As a business owner or manager, knowing the location and security of important business records should be a top priority. Not knowing where and how your critical documents are stored risks identity theft, compliance fines and damage to your company’s reputation.
Identity theft is a common concern for both businesses and consumers, and not without reason. A recent study found that $15 billion was stolen from 13.1 million U.S. consumers in 2015. In the past six years, identity thieves have stolen $112 billion.
The New Year is a great time for your business to look ahead and put in place needed changes in key areas, including records management. While the implementation of new processes can be confusing and unorganized, it doesn’t need to be, and improved processes can ultimately benefit your business in the long run.
Hard drives hold your business’s most valuable information, including proprietary data, financial statements and employee records. While the use of hard drives are widely prevalent and often necessary, the value of this information can create a problematic scenario when it comes time to upgrade your company’s hardware and increase technological efficiency.
Unfortunately, you can’t simply throw a hard drive in the trash at the end of its useful life and hope the information it contains will remain safe.
Modern companies understand the importance of reliable document scanning and digital conversion of records for remote access capability and information backup. They also realize that managing physical document storage in-house can tax even the most resource-rich businesses.
