In this previous article we outlined a brief history of and comparison of tape backup environments to disc backup environments. Understanding how your data is retained is the first and critical step to designing a data retention policy, but the next steps are a little more murky and complex.Depending on industry in which you trade, your information retention policy could possibly be dictated by legal or business retention requirements. To illustrate, legal retention requirements would come with:
Each state has unique law about long medical records need to be maintained
Every business’ tax records should be kept for about 36 months - but there many exceptions to the rule:You need to keep all employment tax records for not less than Four years right after the date that this tax becomes due or perhaps is paid, whichever is later.
In Texas, Sales and Use Tax records must be retained for 4 years.
Businesses controlled by OSHA regulations have specific requirements on what long their data needs to be retained
Food manufacturers are necessary to track all the ingredients and their location of origin in the unfortunate event of poisoning
Machine shops are required to maintain records on from where the material origin in case there is product failure
The The Massachusetts Society of Cpas has published a great resource on this subject here.In addition to what you are legally needed to do, there are compelling business arguments for retaining your data for time. Ask yourself how long you have to maintain customer or accounting records. Look into the many scenarios that could impact your business, for instance, do you offer any warranty or credits? Will there be any chance for a recall of the manufactured items? What's the general practice in your niche for maintaining business records? Imagin if you were to offer this company, how long of the history would a possible acquirer want?
Start the information you have retention policy by inviting key employees to the brainstorming session and inquire, what happens if we should instead return at some point to retrieve for data for:
A tax records audit
A labor law compliance auditA product or service liability lawsuitA work practices claimA worker tort for example a sexual harassment claimand begin to build your policy around these scenarios. Check it against both the legal data retention requirements and also your own business retention needs.Partially 3 in our series on Developing a successful data retention policy, we’ll offer a checklist that you follow when organizing your business’s data retention policy.
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento