The inventory is truly the backbone of a working records management system. Without an accurate, up-to-date and complete inventory, the rest of the system falls apart.

It’s all very well that your in-house team or your records management provider, has created a purpose-built environment for records management. It may well be safe from flood, fire and pest damage and it may well be effectively laid out for ease of access and retrieval. But, if the inventory – the roadmap around this well-organised storage facility – doesn’t work, then these records may as well be considered inaccessible.

‘Retrieval is only as good as the quality of the inventory’

Frequently, new clients will come to us once they’ve realised that the project of in-house records storage and management has already become unmanageable. They’ll come to us with boxed files, often in good condition, but with their inventory failingly compromised by inaccurate reporting.

At this stage, though the records are often well-maintained, the client tends to have no idea where to find most of what they’ve stored. This is a very frustrating phase that growing businesses frequently find themselves in. They’ve done most of the work of records management very well but, despite that they know they have a certain document, they simply can’t find it.

Fortunately, we’re very happy to help at this stage. If a client is on-boarding with us, the first thing we’ll do is ensure that the inventory is up-to-date and working well. During our new client on-boarding process, we’ll embed some of our archivists into that initial process and ensure that the inventory works before our clients records are placed in our warehouses.

We do all this for no extra cost if it is done at the on-boarding stage. For clients that need their in-house records inventoried properly but don’t want to store with us, we can also provide a consultancy service to help remedy the wrong turns taken.

A word of warning to every business storing their records in-house: document archiving is about retrieval, not about storage

It is very easy to think that the primary function of a records management system is the storage of records. That is not the case. Document management systems are all about retrieval. They are about satisfying one very specific, very important need for a business: ensuring it has access to a specific document when it is needed.

To many readers (we know many of our regular readers are records management professionals), this may seem obvious. To many business operators, this is also obvious. However, all it takes is one momentary reprioritising of this principle for the whole inventory to fall apart.

All it takes is for one essential piece of documentation to be considered safe within the system after its been stored but without it ever being inventoried, for that document to never be found again.

We see this all to often from clients who come to us as a last resort, after their document management system has been found out as unworkable. First clients store their records in a designated space and with an inventory of each document’s whereabouts. Then they have a flurry of busy months and, as the documents pile up, the inventory gets put on a backseat, one or two entries are missed.

Next, the records storage space overflows and files are found on desks or store cupboards and the inventory is so out-of-date that it’s either never used or used only if its easily at hand. Lastly, and this is when you know you’re in trouble, records are being taken to the director’s home and they’re cluttering up a basement, garage or lock-up.

Once you get to this stage, your business is likely seeing and living the impacts of irretrievable files. Deals aren’t made, contracts wobble without the appropriate paperwork, relationships with clients and other businesses start to see friction.

Don’t let your business get to this stage. If you’re in records management or you are the business operator, and you know that your records management system is at the early stages of faltering, don’t let it get out of hand. Once the inventory is compromised, even in a small way, the problem will only get bigger until you completely squash it.

 

 

If you’re in records management or you’re a business director, and you think your records management system needs fixing, click here and fill out our ‘Quick Quote’ form, describing your query. The Filing Room is always happy to help!