Briefly about record management

Why Business Records Should be Kept

1.0 INTRODUCTION

According to the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (1992), of all the businesses damaged (a category of 4 storm), 80% of those lacking some form of business continuity plan failed within two years of the storm. However, even with all the warnings and advice to have in place a strategy for protecting information assets, many businesses and organizations, both large and small, fail to take effective measures to manage and protect their documents and records to mitigate the risks of hurricanes, terrorism attacks, extended power outages and other business interruptions (Emery, 2005).

A well-managed records retention and destruction program can help support the company’s efforts to face business challenges. In order to face any problems in the future, disaster preparedness is one alternatives that can be taken for developing a records and information management program for the business. If we own or manage a small or medium-sized business we are responsible for the appropriate guardianship of both our employees’ and customers’ records and information. All the records created in our company activities should be kept in so that we have evidence to be use in future. The consequences of not having a records management program in place can have even greater negative impacts for not only small and medium-sized businesses but also large businesses. The business benefits of implementing a records management program in our company can be clearly seen not only for the time being but also for future.

2.0 RECORDS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

          Some people have mistaken that records management is about notice everything that comes across one’s desk in the course of doing business. In some vastly structured industries, it may seem like that is the case but in most cases it is not only making sure that what needs to be kept as a record is retained, but it is about how long it should be kept, where it should be stored, who has access to it and when it should be destroyed (if necessary).

Shepherd and Yeo (2003) mentioned that a record is not defined by its physical form, age, or the fact that it contains information. Its essential characteristic is that it provides evidence of some specific activity. Whatever the format, records need to be properly managed for business efficiency in an organisation. Mnjama and Wamukoya (2004) agree that records are valuable assets that need to be managed and protected. Records are required for developing and implementing policies, planning, keeping track of actions, achieving consistency in decision-making, providing effective service to citizens and achieving greater efficiency (Kemoni, 2007). Therefore, records must be properly managed to ensure their usefulness through time.

          The ISO 15489: 2001 standard defines records and information management as ‘the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records’. A record is any recorded information relating to the work of your business, regardless of who created it or how the information was recorded (Emery, 2005). She summarize it to more specifically, records are recorded information, regardless of physical or digital form, that are: generated or received and used while conducting business and preserved because of their informational value or as evidence of your organizational structure, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, mission, programs, projects, and activities. Records can exist in any medium and in many forms, including documentary, databases, photographs and audio visual.

          According to Regalia Records Management (2009), businesses nowadays generate an ever-increasing business records from every aspects of the organization and it is true for any organization irregardless of size or industry and the significant challenges posted by the sheer volume of both the active and inactive information require sound and consistent records management solutions. Erima and Wamukoya (2012) stated records management supports risk management and business continuity planning. It identifies which records are vital to the running of the business and supports the business continuity or risk management plan. BNARS (2009) with records management manual, timely processing of outgoing and incoming correspondence will lead to operation efficiency and effectiveness. Pemberton (1991) and Ngoepe (2008) declare that better service delivery always begins with better records management practices. This is because government departments can only take appropriate action and make correct decisions if they have sufficient information at their fingertips. 

                For example, every business should be keeping a prescribed set of records in order to meet IRS auditing standards. This means that your general ledgers, receipts for expenses, and many other financial documents need to be retained for anywhere from 7 to 10 years. Many small businesses incorrectly believe that the IRS is more likely to audit large corporations than smaller enterprises. On the contrary - according to the Transactional Records Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University, audit rates for the largest corporations with assets of $250 million or more have decreased from 64% in 1988 to 27% i 2008. In turn, companies with $10 million to $50 million in assets were 29% more likely to be investigated. Not having an up-to-date records retention program can mean lots of time and money expended to find the required records. Some small companies can spend thousands of dollars and significant time to respond and close out an IRS audit because they haven’t prepared for this eventuality but having a fully functional records management program isn’t just about keeping records for a prescribed period of time – it’s about following the lifecycle of a record, from its creation to active use, maintenance, inactive use and disposition; whether that disposition is for long term storage or destruction.”- (TRAC), 2008) 

           Other than that, study that has been made by Mampe and Kalusompa (2012) has drawn parallel to the response of the study which to establish how records users viewed records in relation to their daily business activities. The majority of records users 24 (68.6%) cited that records were very essential and seven (20%) said that records were essential to their business activities. Ramokate (2010) also has make study on the management of land board records. The study found that records were important for the conduct of different land board activities such as dispute resolution and land administration with five (100%) response. The study also established that 54 (80%) said that records were important for communication. Similarly, Ngoepe (2010) also highlighted that sound records management is crucial to the conduct of business and makes public administration more efficient and effective. Without effective records management programme, projects for instance are difficult to implement in the absence of well managed records (Kanzi, 2010).

3.0 WHAT ARE THE BUSINESS CONSEQUENCES OF NOT HAVING A RECORDS

      MANAGEMENT PROGRAM?

           By not enforcing a records management policy in a consistent way, it can cast the business in a poor light. In order to fully understand why a records management program should be in place in the company, the business consequences of not having a records and information management can be seen in below:

                 i. Adhering to Industry Rules

Firstly is the adhering to industry rules. For example, organization in US need to bear in mind the importance of the need to maintain certain records to fulfil with Internal Revenue Services (IRS) tax regulations; but there are additional regulations that most businesses are subject to that require the maintenance and secure destruction of business records (Doug, 2009). Financial advisors and traders are subject to NASD and SEC regulations, educators are subject to certification and training requirements, real estate professionals are subject to certification, licensing and maintaining appropriate paperwork for each real estate transaction, and so on. The list is exhaustive and as a business owner or manager, you know your company is ultimately responsible for paying the fines and responding to auditors or investigators if any of your employees is non-compliant with your industry’s regulations. At the very minimum, just about every business is subject to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA), legislation was put in place to prevent identity theft. It specifies that every company is legally responsible for protecting both employees’ and customers’ personal and financial information. Thus, even if we have only one employee you are responsible for the protection of any information that you collect to maintain that person on the payroll. This includes that person’s social security number, their birth date, address and other information. If you do credit checks on employees or customers that information is also subject to protection. According to the FTC Chairman at that time, Deborah Platt Majoras in 2007, he stated that “every business, whether large or small, must take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect sensitive consumer information, from acquisition to disposal. This agency will continue to prosecute companies that fail to fulfil their legal responsibility to protect consumer’s personal information” (Federal Trade Commission Press Release, 2007).

               ii. Protecting Vital Records in Case of Business Interruption 

Emery (2005) said by not managing vital records can have a devastating effect on the longterm survival of the business. By not protecting and identifying vital records can put a company out of business. For example, after hurricane many businesses lost the ability to move forward not just because their local infrastructure was destroyed. Many had staff members that evacuated to safe havens much farther inland with electricity and network access. Yet, electronic files located on local servers and paper files located in basements can make it impossible for staff to work effectively from afar, even if they have access to their email. Some paper-based documents were completely destroyed because of flooding and mould damage. - (Emery, 2005)

               iii. Lawsuits

Speaking of lawyers, the United States is the most litigious country in the world (Emery, 2005). Just one lawsuit can be extremely expensive to defend for both large and small organizations. In US, about 90% of US corporations are involved in some form of litigation. Lawsuits can arise for any number of reasons – employee grievance, business or product liability. The business may even have insurance to cover the cost of any court fees and or judgments that may arise out of situation even if the business is not liable we will still end up spending a lot of time and money supporting the Discovery process. Discovery is a process used during civil lawsuits or criminal cases to gather, search, cull and produce large volumes of relevant information for legal review Doug (2009). The defendant company or party will then review the request and gather the information and provide it to the plaintiff. Just imagine being requested to find paper documents that may have been generated over 10 years time and having to go back into a warehouse to find them. Without an organized way to retain the paper information using a records retention plan and indexing the information in a way that it can be found, discovery can be a time consuming activity. We may still need to find information that has been generated over the last 10 years but now it is stored on data records, word processing documents, spreadsheets, e-mails, CDs, microfilm, voice mail messages, network shared repositories, desktops, back-up tapes. The Discovery process has become much more complex and sprawling from a records access standpoint. The scope of what can usually be gathered typically includes active documents and data and archived information. According to a recent study conducted by AIIM, 28% of organizations would take more than a month to produce documents for a legal discovery process. - (Doug, 2009)

4.0 CONCLUSION

         A records and information management program is a requirement for all businesses. Without one in place your company is in danger of running conflicts with the law and could be at risk of going out of business if any disaster attacks. As we know information is the vital strategic and operational assets of organization to make decision making, support the business operation and as evidence to the organization business activities and operation. It is very important to preserve the records for the future use so that if any cases happens it can be prove to support the issues. Not only that, it also enables organizations to evaluate performance and

improve services and run the office and plot strategies for their business. Information can be summarize as the core of every business transaction. Many initiatives has been made to preserve the records by most organizations such as digitize the records through digitization as a recovery if any happens to the records, so this has proven that the records is very important to be keep and well preserve.

5.0 REFERENCES

Caron, P. (14, April 2008). IRS audits of big companies fall to all-time low. Retrieved May 5,

2016, from http://taxprof.typepad.com/

Doug, M. (2009). AIIM’s State of the ECM Industry. Retrieved May 3, 2016, from

http://www.aiim.org/

Emery, P. (2005). Why Records Management? Retrieved May 6, 2016, from

http://www.continuityinsights.com/sites/continuityinsights.com/files/legacyfiles/Recal

l_White_Paper_Records_Managment.pdf

Erima, J. A., & Wamukoya, J. (2012). Aligning records management and risk management

with business processes: A case study of Moi University in Kenya. Journal of the South

African Society of Archivists, 45, 24-38. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from

http://www.ajol.info/index.php

International Organisation for Standards (ISO). 2001. ISO 15489-1 Information and

documentation-records management – Part 1 General.

Mampe, G., & Kalusopa, T. (2012). Records management and service delivery: The case of

Department of Corporate Services in the Ministry of Health in Botswana. Journal of the

South African Society of Archivists, 45, 5-23. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from

http://www.ajol.info/index.php

Mnjama, N. (2000). Managing records for ISO compliance: records keeping at the Botswana

Meat Commission. Information Development, 16 (2):70-74. Retrieved May 2, 2016,

from http://www.ubrisa.ub.bw/

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Ngoepe, M. (2008). An exploration of records management trends in the South African public sector: a case study of provincial and local government. Masters Degree dissertation, University of South Africa, Pretoria

Regalia (2009). Solutions. Retrieved May 3, 2016, from http://www.regalia.com.my/solutions_records_managment.asp

Robek, M. F., Brown, G. F., & Stephens, D. O. (1995). Information and records management: Document-based information systems. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

The Federal Trade Commission of United State. (2007, December 17). Federal Trade Commission Press Release [Press release]. Retrieved May 3, 2016, from https://www.ftc.gov

Transactional Records Clearinghouse. (2008, April 13). IRS Audits of Largest Corporations Plunge to Historic Low. Syracuse University. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://trac.syr.edu/

Yeo, G., & Shepherd, E. J. (2003). Managing Records: A handbook of principles and practice. Facet Publishing

Records Management Plan

Records Management Plan

By: Nor Izzati Binti Nadzarudin

1.0 Abstract     

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to analyze the elements need to be considering records management plan.

Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on the approach taken in a business field. This paper presents the records life cycle concept where it is necessary to implement in each of the organization.

Findings – The records management expertise should know how to handle the records management plan in an organization. This paper will discussed on the elements, and records life-cycle phase that should consist when implement a good management plan. All the standard of procedures needs to standardize suits to the technological changes.

Practical implications – How will the records management plan can be maintained forever? The answer lies in an organization of business process, procedure standardization of records life-cycle where can be used for long term framework.

Originality/value – This paper reflects practical lessons learned and will help other professionals who are considering records life-cycle in business records.

Keywords – Life-cycle, Record management, business, plan, create, dispose, use and maintenance.

2.0 Introduction 

Business is an organization where goods and services are exchanged for one another or for money. Every business requires some form of investment and has targeted customers to whom their good and services can be sold on. Business are divided into three ways which are can privately owned, not-profit or state-owned. There are a lot of major challenges in a business environment. Mental and physical preparedness to conduct the big business entity should became the main thing need to consider as there are a lot of highly expertise competitors to grab any chance of  opportunities in this field. An organization needs to have their own unique goals or objectives of business entity to differentiate from other companies in order to compete with other competitors. 

Records can be defined as a unit of recorded information. It is a document that memorializes and provides objectives, events occurred, result achieved, or statements made. Records are created or received by an organization in daily routine transaction of its business or in pursuance of its legal obligations. A record may consist of two or more documents. All documented information, regardless of its characteristics, media, physical form, and the manner it is recorded or stored. Records include accounts, agreements, books, drawings, and letters and so on. Generally speaking, records function as evidence of activities, whereas documents function as evidence of intentions.

Records management is something that we can call as a guideline where it is a process of maintaining and controlling all records life-cycle stages. It is important to manage the records effectively to ease access and retrieve when needed. There are four stages in records life which are records creation, records use and maintenance, and records disposal. In the stage of use and maintenance, there are two (2) types of records need to be appraise which is active records and inactive records.

3.0  Content

Management is about planning for the future. In a business entity, the first thing need to consider is organizational workflow management. Generally, this is basic task need to be done before the organization starts to move their operational business. The management plan on the records is vital as to track the movements of the records in an organization where it is consists of a few departments such as finance department, human resource department, marketing department and many more. This plan enable records are being classified accordingly and systematically. The records management expertise in an organization should aware this management plan where they should know what records are useful and need to be kept and what records need to dispose. Records known as a backbone to an organization and without them, the organization cannot function successfully. Within organization, the records managers will work on operating in a multidimensional environment in terms of document creation structures, workflow procedures and enterprise control (Marjo Rita Valtonen, 2007). In the organization, the records life-cycle will lead the records manager to handle all documents workflow smoothly from the beginning of creation until dispose stage. Therefore, records manager play vital part in managing the records. See figure 1 below is example of records life-cycle.

 

Figure 1: Image records life cycle

           3.1 Create

In a business, the organization should hire a professional staff to control and handle the records. Usually, they will hold the records manager position where they already graduated in Records Management field and have been trained to masterly records life-cycle management plan. In the other words, management plan is in line instructed of suitable standards and procedures for the effectiveness to control the records and records systems from their creation to their disposal stage (Catherine Hare Graham Southwood, 1995). Generally, there are many types of documents transaction in daily operation in an organization. According to the Ronald Tumuhairwe Arthur Ahimbisibwe , (2016), he said obtaining the records management system including of documents created at various stages within the process consists of the procurement plan, requisition, purchase order, specifications/terms of reference, tenders documents, correspondences, minutes of proceedings, notice of contract award and publication and contracts, among others. 

The records management system helps to smooth the movements of documents. Any activities of records transaction are being track into system. Therefore, the creation is accommodating records management system in any organization is necessary for the organization to manage all records and information related activities within organization proactively and progressively (Mountain, 2005). Other than that, to start the early stage of records life-cycle, there should be a brief planning and analysis of the records. The early basis for planning the schedules is a functional and contextual records survey for example an analysis of the functions and tasks of the records creators who produce the records in an organization. The importance of records life cycle can be seen where decisions made at the conception and creation stages of records influence the whole lifecycle (Marjo Rita Valtonen, 1999).

            3.2 Use and Maintenance

In the records life-cycle, this stage plays crucial part from other stages where many perspectives in organization to look for to enhance and improve the maintenance of records. According to the Rasha Abd El Aziz Rasha Fady , (2013), she said that to maintain the records in an organization, there should consists of three  development and improvement elements which are restructuring roles and interactions, flow-wise improvements and point-wise improvements. Difference opinion stated that, information and communications technology (ICT) is therefore a main of basic importance for the implementation of an efficiency of maintenance management structure (Garg and Deshmukh, 2006, Marquez and Guptab, 2006). This statement also has been add on and supported by British Standard BS EN 13306-2010 where maintenance is the combination a few thing including of all technical, administrative and managerial actions during the life cycle of records, intentional to preserve it or reestablish it to, a state in which it can continue to implement the certain function (Venkatraman Narayan, 2012). 

Other opinion stated that many of the maintenance related decisions ultimately depend on the trustworthy and timely exchange of data between operations and maintenance and higher management and strategic organization layers (Murthy et al., 2002). Among all these importance to consider, there must be a standard used as a guidelines to maintain the records. One of it, there is a standard that can be used to maintain the records such as the ISO 15489 (2001) and International Organizational for Standardization (2015) 9000 guidelines specify how product development procedures are documented and how records are maintained (Read et al., 2002; Saffady, 2011). This guideline enable the organization to follow in order to do the appraisal all the records. 

           3.3 Dispose

There are two choice needs to consider when the records are ready for destruction. In this phase, the records manager should identify the proper way to dispose whether the records are still have its value or not after reached their retention period. There might be some different of dispose procedure between private institution and government institution. For government, there are a lot of policy and standard used when to dispose a documents especially importance documents. In government procedure, various laws and government regulations specify that certain types of records need to be retained for a minimum period (Saffady, 2011). For instance, according to Kangave (2005), records required to be maintained by any business entity or responsible person for tax should be retained for at least six years after the end of the period to which they relate. In addition, a few authors also support these statements as besides compliance with the records retention schedule, other records management procedures and activities such as composition and structure, access, alteration, destruction and disposition of the record need be done in accordance to the governing records guidelines (Egbuji, 1999; Kyobe et al., 2009; Myler and Broadbent, 2006). As above mentioned, there is specific procedure need to be taken when dispose records that related to government issues. 

4.0  Conclusion

As a conclusion, there are numerous challenges for records management plan projects. There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a technological revolution and as such, the exponential advancement of technology over the past few years has meant that the way many organizations look and operate now, is not going to be what they will look like in the future. Records life-cycle is not left behind from being influence by these changes. In the other hand, the technology itself is being bound to create, distribute and manage the records. Standard commercial packages, such as spreadsheets, databases and word processing, probable to be readily available in organizations, still can play their phase but they are now being added by a whole range of software types. But this technology has not disposed of the need to use basic records management principles and techniques (Catherine Hare Graham Southwood, 1995). The challenges in records life-cycle open the opportunities for records manager to contribute, experience, and learns to enhance their skills as well. An organization should know what records need to kept, what technological issues in records management plan need to consider. 

5.0  References

Aziz, R. A., & Fady, R. (2013). Business improvement using organisational goals, Riva technique and                e-business development stages. Journal of Ent Info Management Journal of Enterprise Information                Management, 26(5), 577-595. doi:10.1108/jeim-07-2013-0044 Emmanouilidis, C., Liyanage, J. P., 

    & Jantunen, E. (2009). Mobile solutions for engineering asset and maintenance management. Journal of         Quality in Maintenance Engineering J of Qual in Maintenance Eng, 15(1), 92-105.                                          doi:10.1108/13552510910943903

Garg, A. and Deshmukh, S.G. (2006), “Maintenance management: literature review and directions”, Journal           of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 12, pp. 205-38.

Hare, C., & Southwood, G. (1995). Getting the records straight – developments in records management.               New Library World, 96(1), 5-12. doi:10.1108/03074809510075452

Kangave, J. (2005), “Improving tax administration: a case study of the uganda revenue authority”, Journal of                Africa Law, Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 145-176.

Mountain, I. (2005), The Records Management Best Practices Guide, Iron Mountain Atlantic Avenue,                         Boston, MA.

Murthy, D.N.P., Atrens, A. and Eccleston, J.A. (2002), “Strategic maintenance management”, Journal of                   Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 8, pp. 287-305.

Narayan, V. (2011), Effective Maintenance Management – Risk and Reliability Strategies for Optimizing                      Performance, 2nd ed., Industrial Press Inc, New York, NY.

Narayan, V. (2012). Business performance and maintenance. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering                   J of Qual in Maintenance Eng, 18(2), 183-195. doi:10.1108/13552511211244210.

Saffady, W. (2011), Records and Information Management: Fundamentals of Professional  Practice, 2nd                     ed., ARMA International, Overland Park, KS, Print ISBN: 9781936654000, p. 250

Stanberry, K. (2011). US and global efforts to expand the use of electronic health records. Records                             Management Journal, 21(3), 214-224. doi:10.1108/09565691111186885

Tumuhairwe, R., & Ahimbisibwe, A. (2016). Procurement records compliance, effective risk management             and records management performance. Records Management Journal, 26(1), 83-101.                                 doi:10.1108/rmj-06-2015-0024

Record Keeping in Business

Record Keeping in Business

By: Fatin Nur binti Zulkipli

1.0 Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the article is too aware the importance of record keeping in the business management, which can give a benefit to the organization and can be used in the current and future. Furthermore, to improve and acknowledge people on how to handle record which is how long and what type of record that need to keep in the business.

Design/methodology/approach – Record keeping will ensure the management of record will run smoothly and easy to refer. To make it easier in managing records such as cash flow, meet your tax obligations and understand how your business is doing well,  how you should maintain your business records and to make a disciplined practice of storing business records in an organization. 

Findings – The study identified several difficulties that record keeping professionals. The article provides a brief analysis about business, record and details rule of the task by taking the important elements and rule related to the record keeping in business organization.

Research limitations/implications – The difficulties faced and the means of handling them not same in all business organization and this is also having a little difficulty in writing this article in handling record keeping. However, the standard in the article is different compared to real-world situations that have many styles of business nowadays and every organization has their own style without followed a right standard in record keeping.

Originality/value – The paper provides a clear and original about business record method and provides a rule of record keeping in business organization.

Keywords- Record; business; record keeping; business record; record management;                                     accurate record; Payroll; Personnel. 

2.0 Introduction

          Business is a process that is related to buying, selling, or exchanging products, services, or information for money or profit. Business can be divided into two categories which are offline and online. Offline business is a face-to-face business. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages. This is because nowadays, it is easier for them to run a business successfully without any kind of shop. The contribution of the profession in this field not only has an impact on national development, but also encompasses all aspects of a person's life itself. 

Malaysia is one of the countries where the economy is growing with very positive impact whether it is small or large business. According to (Seth & Elena, 2015) online business or electronic commerce (EC) is a process of buying, selling, or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks. Business-to-business e-commerce (B2B EC) is transactions among businesses conducted electronically completed using the Internet, extranets, intranets, or private networks also known as eB2B (electronic B2B) or just B2B. A broader definition of electronic commerce (EC) is not just the buying and selling of goods and services, but also servicing customers, work in partnership with business partners, and conducting electronic transactions within an organization. 

Information is knowledge that human beings perceive through one or more of their senses.  It remains intangible until it is represented in a formal manner as data.  When represented as data in a document, information can then be stored, communicated and used. Records and business are something that very closely related. Records will be used as evidence if something happened in their business. Not only that, the record also will control your organization and will make the management in your organization run successfully. Records will be divided into two categories which are paper base and e-electronic. The contents and functions of electronic and paper records are usually closely related. Data may be extracted from a database to produce summary reports on paper, printouts of reports may be produced as a database is updated, and word-processed correspondence stored on a diskette may also exist in an agency’s paper file.  As a result, paper and electronic records management must be closely coordinated.  A comprehensive records management program must focus first on analysis of the information in records and then on the medium on which the information is stored.

3.0 Content
           
          Records is a document regardless of form or medium created, received, maintained and used by an organization (public or private) in the transaction of business, of which it provides evidence and information by an organization or person in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business by Emmerson (1989) and Duranti (2005). Type of information they contain includes, therefore, not only paper files series and digital records management systems, but also business and information systems for example case management, finance, and geographical information systems. However, most of young entrepreneur nowadays takes it easy and underestimate for these things. Mostly, they don't know the value and the importance of the record keeping in their business organization. 

               3.1 Form of Record

 

Figure 1: Form of record

          According to Yeo (2007) he said, in business, records will be divided into three forms which are paper, non-paper and electronic as you can see in figure 1. Firstly, paper. Paper is material manufactured or sheet. In this context, paper will be a something that contains the important information. The paper will be like correspondence, minutes, reports, memoranda (normally filed systematically), ledgers, registers, notebooks, appointment diaries, maps and plans (cartographic records), architectural and engineering drawings, pictures (iconographic records) or computer printouts. Second is non-paper. Example of non-paper which are rolled microfilm, microfiche or computer output microfiche (COM) formats (microforms); photographs, including prints, negatives, transparencies and x-ray films; sound recordings on disk or tape; as moving images on film or video (audiovisual records). Lastly is electronic. Electronic is something that related to device or operating with the aid of many small components such as text or images copied on magnetic tape or magnetic or optical disk or held in online databases (electronic records; formerly known as machine-readable records); as three‑dimensional models, scientific specimens or other objects; or as combinations of any of the above formats in an electronic form such as multimedia. (Cimtech, 2007)

               3.2 Implementing Record

         Implementing e-records management program requires records professional to cover the necessary scope of tasks. According to all the scope of task are mentioned by professional an organization needs record professional to assure all the task is done wisely. Without records professional, the entire task cannot be done by common workers without training or experience before. It is because all the tasks related to confidential records and only records professional know how to manage them properly. However, in use electronic records in management, the development of ICT and networked communities have paved the way for greater electronic transactions online. Because of that, we have found several greater challenges as more and more e-records are created from it. 

This is a part of the article that I found regarding the issues of managing NARA is taking action to respond to long-standing problems associated with managing and preserving electronic records in archives. In 2001, NARA completed an assessment of government wide records management practices. This assessment concluded that although agencies are creating sufficient records and maintaining them appropriately, most electronic records remain unscheduled, and permanent records of historical value are not being identified and provided to NARA for preservation and archiving. As a result, potentially valuable records may be at risk. Based on my reading on other articles shown that, the challenges are quite difficult when there is no necessary action taken by record professional and the creation e record can be too much than paper based when there is no necessary action taken. According to Joanna Slusarz (2016) she gives several of electronic implementing in managing record which is:-

FIVE (5) ELECTRONIC IMPLEMENTING IN MANAGING RECORD

1. Identify employees with the qualifications to implement the system and train staff in its proper use, or hire outside consultants with the necessary expertise.

2. Create a timeline for the implementation project, with specific goals and objectives for each step in the process.

3. Perform an inventory review of all paper-based documents to be entered into the system. These will need to be scanned for permanent digital storage.

4. Research providers of electronic document management services, and choose a company with special expertise in the field of education.

5. Carry out the plan created at the outset of the project, including the installation of software, the creation of user accounts with specific permissions for specific users, the training of all staff and employees in the proper use of the system, the scanning and entry of existing paper documents in the system, and the transition of all newly generated documents to the electronic format.

              3.3 Records Keeping

 

Record keeping is a fundamental activity of public administration. Without records there can be no rule of law and no accountability. Public servants must have information to carry out their work, and records represent a particular and crucial source of information. Records provide a reliable, legally verifiable source of evidence of decisions and actions. They document compliance or non-compliance with laws, rules, and procedures. The relationship between key governance objectives and the records required to support them is illustrated below according to Smith (2007):-

          ‘Record-keeping’ should not be viewed as solely a function of storing and retrieving documents. Undeniably, many entrepreneurs wonder how long you should keep business records. This is actually depends on what the record pertains to in your business. There is also an article that says sets some basic record retention standards for tax records. Yet lawyers, accountants, banks and government agencies all seem to have different ideas about how long to retain business records depending upon your individual business situations. Past research has found that the most common records kept by farmers are financial records. In our digital era, both paper and electronic documents need to be considered in your record preservation plans. Some basic record retention rules to think about for your business which is business income tax returns and supporting documents, employment tax records, business asset records, business ledgers and other key documents, human resources files, cancelled checks, and bank account and credit card statements. According to Ganesh Vednere (2009) he suggests three points to be noted in record keeping in business management which are:- 

1. Records management team.

2. Behooves the records managers to evaluate the current state.

3. How is the various business processes managed and executed.

          There are also many other reasons why you should keep accurate business records which are accurate records allow you to be in better control of your business by helping with financial planning and decision making, you portray a more professional image that makes it easier to deal with your bank. Besides, appropriate records enable you to file an accurate profits tax return, easy to keep if all of the necessary records are readily available, losses and theft in your business may be detected and the last one you are in greater overall control of your business. 

To improve our record keeping, we need to manage it efficiently such as make bookkeeping part of your regular routine. You need to ensure you have been established a routine and from that you can see your work through your books more quickly, besides, we need to keep your bookkeeping up to date and keep your books in an organized manner. From that, you will work quickly and easily for your staff to access the information you need and everything you do need to ensure don’t leave important things. According to Ganesh Vednere, (2009) he said the management and the business departments nowadays are so impressed with all of the features and functions of this new technology tool that they decide to move forward.

                3.4 Payroll and Personnel 

                 According to De Jager (2006/2007) it is not unusual for the media in South Africa to carry the following sentiments in their reports: “that the overall impression of the audit reports of governmental bodies (national departments, provincial departments, municipalities and statutory bodies) is one of financial disorder and widespread mismanagement of taxpayers’ money”. If organizations hire employees, the organization record keeping capacity needs to be advanced enough to comply with numerous local, state, and federal payroll and personal legal requirements. All of this depends on the number of employees in the organization because any organization may require a payroll service. Here is a brief list of some of the payroll and personnel legal information that need in business organization that will be required to track such as:- 

       • Hiring and evaluation documentation

       • The basis on which wages are paid

       • Social security numbers

       • Total hours worked

       • Additions to or deductions from wages

       • Total wages paid each pay period

       • Income tax withholdings

       • Fair labor standards act required information

       • Injury reports

       • Employment records

       • Copy of annual performance evaluations

                3.5 Important Record Keeping in Business

         The rise of entrepreneurship and its growing importance to the future of the American economy is well documented (Schramm, 2006; Baumol, Litan, and Schramm, 2007). Clear, accurate, user-friendly bookkeeping and payroll records are essential to the efficient operation of your business. Keeping these records is also as a legal responsibility. There are four (4) important types of records that you should consider keeping which customer service records, business safety records, inventory record and lastly is departmentalizing as you can see below:-  

A customer service record is an important part in your organization and one of the elements of your marketing efforts. Customer service records will help the company itself to satisfy your customer needs are working and where improvement that can be prepared. Customer service record could include the number of customer compliments per week or month, the nature of the complaints, the number of returns and the number of repairs made under warranty. For business safety records it related with tracking and recording the number and nature of on the job injuries suffered by employees per month. Business safety records are usually can be used to determine insurance rates, to enhance public relation and to identify safety problems and look for a solution (Geoffrey Yeo, 2011). Besides, inventory record there have two methods for keeping record of your stock which are physical inventory and gross margin. Physical inventory is about involves counting and listing the number of values of all items. The gross margin method is a less time-consuming and less accurate method of determining stock on hand. Department is about retail or service business in the organization. Department purchase and sales record can be used as the basis for monthly departmental operating statements. 

3.6 Continuum Concept

According to Marjo Rita Valtonen (2007) records continuum model by Upward (1996, 2000) the continuum concept suggests that four actions continue or recur throughout the life of a record: identification of records; intellectual control of them; provision of access to them; and physical control of them. Continuum concept is a consistent and coherent process of records management throughout the life of records, from the development of record-keeping systems through the creation and preservation of records to their retention.

From this principle a unified model has been developed.  The model reflects the pattern of a continuum. Four actions continue or recur throughout the life of a record and cut across the traditional boundary between records management and archival administration.  There are:-

4.0 Conclusion

              As a conclusion record is an important thing in business organization. If record will keep successfully, all the management in the organization will be run smoothly. However, the contents and functions of electronic and paper records are usually closely related.  Data may be extracted from a database to produce summary reports on paper; printouts of reports may be produced as a database is updated; and word-processed correspondence stored on a diskette may also exist in an agency’s paper file. As a result, paper and electronic records management must be closely coordinated.  A comprehensive records management program must focus first on analysis of the information in records and then on the medium on which the information is stored. From my opinion, Computer Systems is a something good to less space than paper. Besides that, it is faster and easier to manage through internet transmission and so on that related to the system. However, nowadays many businesses and government agencies allow the use of the Internet in organizing. Because of that, we need to learn and grow into computer systems over time and be sure to backup records through file also.

5.0 Reference

Akussah, H. (2005). Preservation of Public Records in Ghana: The training, education and awareness factors. Information Development, 21(4), 295-302. doi:10.1177/0266666905060090 Lanzolla, G.,             & Frankort, H. T. (2015). The Online Shadow of Offline Signals: Which Sellers Get     Contacted in             Online B2B Marketplaces? Academy of Management Journal, 59(1), 207-231.                                            doi:10.5465/amj.2014.0051

Packalén, S., & Henttonen, P. (2015). Recordkeeping professionals’ understanding of and justification for              functional classification: Finnish public sector organizational context. Arch Sci Archival Science.                    doi:10.1007/s10502-015-9254-4 

Sanett, S. (2013). Archival Digital Preservation Programs: Staffing, Costs, and Policy. Preservation, Digital              Technology & Culture, 42(3). doi:10.1515/pdtc-2013-0019 

Tough, A. (2011). Accountability, open government and record keeping: Time to think again? Records                    Management Journal, 21(3), 225-236. doi:10.1108/09565691111186894 

Wet, S. D., & Toit, A. D. (2000). The challenge of implementing a records management system at the                     National Electricity Regulator in South Africa. Records Management Journal, 10(2), 73-86.                         doi:10.1108/eum0000000007257

Wolf, C. A., Lupi, F., & Harsh, S. (2011). Farmer demand for financial record‐keeping system attributes.               Agricultural Finance Review, 71(2), 259-276. doi:10.1108/00021461111152609 

Yeo, G. (2011). Rising to the level of a record? Some thoughts on records and documents. Records                       Management Journal, 21(1), 8-27. doi:10.1108/09565691111125071