“Two Company Secretaries are asking very similar questions:
“In order to save storage space in the office and reduce offsite archive costs are company secretaries scanning/retaining in electronic form any company statutory records (and if so which) rather than keep hard copies? If certain hard copies are not being kept on site, are they being destroyed rather than archived?”
“We would like to know what is best practice for the maintenance of original documents, including filing and storage. Do any companies make use of a fireproof safe?”
We tend to keep some paper records, in particular original minutes, with electronic copies kept as well for every day use. However, we do archive documents and request destruction at the legal limit required for retention.
Some hard copy records are kept for compliance reviews.
All statutory records, for example registers of directors, directors interests etc are held electronically. We keep electronic copies of minutes; however, we still retain signed originals on site in fire proof safes.
We retain paper achive material, either within archive rooms on site or on pallets within the warehouse, depending on the nature of the material and the likely frequency of review. We do not retain things in fire proof safes.
We do not purposely scan documents for retention, however over time we have built up quite an archive of older documents.
All statutory records are held electronically, but original books are still kept in a fire-proof safe on site. Old plc minutes and dissolved company files held offsite.