These four areas have definitions to help understand their relevance.
Legal records are records required to be retained by statute or regulation
such as
OSHA-related or which spell out the legal rights of corporate bodies.
Business
records are also known as operating records and cover the current
documentation
of the business such as vouchers, invoices, etc. Fiscal records are
those documenting financial transactions which may be necessary to retain
for IRS or
audit functions. The fourth area, historical, or archival denote those
which may
be saved to document the history of the organization, e.g. annual reports,
photographs, the original charter, the first dollar bill received in sales,
etc.
Some archivists include a fifth area called administrative but this is a
little harder to explain in the business mix.
You understand that legal value is not always fiscal value. A legal case
involving a consumer who was injured by a faulty appliance is not the same
as a legal case involving misappropriation of funds. Certainly the latter
is going to involve fiscal
records but the former may not.
Archivists use these terms to identify the underlying value of
records/information
therein to help make decisions on long-term or permanent retention.
Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections/West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514-5750
850-474-2213
850-474-3338 (fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Bob Nawrocki
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 1:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Theoretical Question on Retention Model
I cannot answer why these two terms are included, but the four categories
have been drummed into me from day one and that was a long time ago. They
are probably kept separate because they represent two different functional
groups within an organization.
I would always contact the financial folks so we could determine whether the
records were subject to audit and how long it took until the audits took
place etc. Legal would help me determine whether there were any statutory
requirements, whether there was pending litigation etc. Each group was aware
of their own specific requirements but would not necessarily know the others
requirements.
By laying the 4 areas out it reminded the records manager to look to both
legal and finance for needed retention information. Of the four areas
finance and legal are usually the most aware of the hard retention times.
Adminsitrative needs and archival needs are always much more subjective. In
some ways I wonder if we shouldn't add a fifth group, that being IT. If only
to understand how the electronic record is being stored, indexed etc.
Bob
Robert F. Nawrocki CRM
Innovate and Infuriate
My opinions are my own and not my employers.
>From: David Gaynon <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Records Management Program <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Theoretical Question on Retention Model
>Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 09:06:30 -0700
>
>I have a question for my fellow records managers on the list. My
>understanding is that retention requirements are commonly derived from
>legal, business, fiscal, and sometimes historical needs for evidence. Why
>are legal and fiscal separate categories when fiscal requirements are
>typically defined by laws and regulations. Is this just the way some
>archivist (Schellenberg maybe) laid it out back in the olden days? If
>anyone knows the answer to this one I would greatly appreciate it.
>
>Dave Gaynon
>[log in to unmask]
>
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