And in this case, John is correct, from a legal perspective. (DUH!) =)
That said, it doesn't always make sense to go through all these
machinations and convert paper to electronic images and do all the
indexing, etc for records that may have a limited retention and serious
infrequent access after they are generated or received.
If you evaluate the cost of purchasing and maintaining the application,
training staff to use it, capture, QC and indexing of the content, and the
management of it including the eventual disposal after 2, 3 or 6 years
(depending on what your retention requirements are)... as opposed to filing
and putting the paper on shelves, then discarding the boxes... have you
saved anything?
It sounded as if you are in the process of changing an existing paper based
process and attempting to determine how to satisfy existing requirements if
it goes all electronic... what it DIDN'T sound like was if anyone was
making a determination if it made sense, financially or otherwise to do
this.
While John's comments about "...a very large body of case law, all of which
have essentially eliminated any distinction between paper and electronic
records, and which have eliminated virtually all barriers to maintaining
electronic copies of records in lieu of paper originals." is accurate, as
pointed out in an earlier discussion on drawings, plans, and other
documents, depending on your situation and WHY you are doing this, not
EVERYTHING hangs on the legal requirements for maintaining paper or other
forms of source documents.
Larry
[log in to unmask]
On Fri, Aug 2, 2013 at 7:41 AM, John Montana <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From a legal perspective, in the U.S., the question is whether the
> electronic version accurately captures the information from the original.
> If it does, there's no objection to the process you describe, even if the
> output format doesn't match the original paper invoice- it's the
> information that counts. The best evidence rule has long been supplanted
> by UETA, the E-Sign Act, the Federal Rules of Evidence and their state
> analogues, and a very large body of case law, all of which have essentially
> eliminated any distinction between paper and electronic records, and which
> have eliminated virtually all barriers to maintaining electronic copies of
> records in lieu of paper originals.
>
> Note that this does not apply quite so broadly in many non-U.S.
> jurisdictions. VAT invoices in many countries are subject to an assortment
> of rules, and requirements to create and keep paper originals are common.
>
> Best regards,
>
> John
> John Montaņa
>
--
*Lawrence J. Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972*
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