Document Archiving and Storage Services
We provide off-site document storage services to meet your company’s individual needs. Over the years the amount of documents, files and papers you legally have to retain keeps growing. Legal documents, tax forms, personnel records and medical files are just some of the documents businesses may need to maintain and store. Businesses can quickly run out of space, which in turn can negatively affect the mechanics of the business, and the administrative burden on staff can be high.
This is where Colin Batt Removals can help you, we offer a secure document storage facility to free up your space and your staff’s time, so they can get back to their core business. We can collect your files from your location and securely store them in purpose-built facilities to ensure your documents are safe at all times.
Our document storage and archive services include:
- Document Collection and Delivery, both regular and one-off visits.
- Secure Document Storage.
- Document Retrieval.
- Fully Trained and Uniformed Staff.
- Secure Document Shedding and Disposal.
- Scanning and electronic transfer.
Document Storage Benefits
Document storage is a cost effective and popular way to free up space in your office, shop or stock room. It is far more cost effective for businesses to invest in document storage, as the only alternative is to buy more office space, which ends up becoming a lot more expensive. In addition, business critical documents (or copies of them) can be secured offsite to protect your company, providing business continuity and legal protection against risks such as fire or theft.
The direct costs of document storage may appear as an overhead but think of the indirect costs you incur if you store and manage the records yourself. The time your employees spend on archiving costs money and distracts them from your core business, there may also be fuel costs and insurance charges to also take into account when self-storing. Once all of these issues are factored in off-site storage can be a cost effective solution that offers peace of mind and business security.
What documents am I required to maintain by law?
Company and Accounting Records
You are required to keep details of all company statements that detail the directors, shareholders, loans, mortgages and indemnities. In addition all accounting records, such as invoices, debtors, assets stock takings and receipts, need to be stored. The governments states that all records should be held for at least 6 years from the end of the last company financial year that they relate to.
For more information regarding company and accounting records read: https://www.gov.uk/running-a-limited-company/company-and-accounting-records
Value Added Tax (VAT)
HM Revenue & Customs mandate that all VAT records must be kept for at least 6 years.
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
PAYE records must be kept for a minimum of 3 years after the end of the tax year in question.
Individual Income Tax/Self-Assessment
If you are a sole trader or run a business partnership you will have to maintain your Income tax and Self Assessment forms and supporting paperwork. The Inland Revenue can demand a review of the tax records up to six years after the end of the chargeable period in question. In addition there is no time limit or restriction for any cases of fraud or willful deceit.
Document Destruction and Disposal
Along with our document storage solution we can also shred and dispose of any unwanted files. This means that you can safely and easily dispose of your stores files once they pass their retention date. Data protection legislation requires that businesses securely dispose of any data or documentation that contains customers, clients or employees personal data, this includes names, addresses and financial documents. To help with this we can provide a safe and secure method for the disposal of any files or documents on your behalf. Once we have shredded your files and papers we will provide a destruction certificate for your records.
We provide a full document storage and destruction service to cater for your business’s individual needs. We are here to help whether you need short- or long-term document storage to free up valuable space, provide business continuity security or just to allow your staff to concentrate on their day job. Call us or drop us a line and a member of our experienced team will call you to talk through your requirements and how best we can help. 01233 740395 – info@colinbattremovals.co.uk
Document Archive Top Tips
- Assess all documents and dispose of any unnecessary or redundant files.
- For long-term storage, remove staples and elastic bands as these can degrade and corrode, potentially damaging your documents. Use brass connectors to keep papers together as these do not corrode over time.
- Record all items in each box and print three copies of the record, one for yourself, one for us to take on collection and place one in the box itself.
- Label the box with your unique, memorable and descriptive identifier using a permanent marker.
- We recommend not putting documents with different retention dates in the same archive box.
- Fill the box completely, using packing material if necessary, to ensure that any documents and files do not move around and become damaged in transport. We recommend you don’t use newspaper as the ink can transfer onto your files and papers.
- Do not over-fill the box and make it too heavy to carry.
- Schedule regular document storage reviews to assess the ongoing storage requirements and to dispose of items no longer required.