The Office of Accounting applauds these efforts. However, care and consideration must be given prior to converting paper records to an electronic format. Departments should review the following checklist before implementing an electronic records system.
Consider how frequently the records must be accessed. Records that are in frequent use need to be readily available to those in need of them. Also consider whether the records are confidential or open. Confidential records need to be secured so that only authorized personnel can access them.
Determine record destruction dates ahead of time. Make sure that the records are organized in such a way that will ease their disposition when the retention period has been met. Similar record series should be filed together; segregate records with different retention periods. For instance, records with a retention period of FE+1 should not be filed with records that must be kept for AC+8.
Consider the format the records will be stored in. The industry standard is TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). PDF (Portable Document Format) is more and more widely accepted as a standard format. However, it is proprietary and may not be supported in the future. Although using industry standards is not required by state law, it does facilitate migration to new systems and allows you to access the records for the entire retention period.
Consider the hardware that the records will be stored on. It should be large enough to accommodate future growth. We strongly recommend that a central server or storage device be used to prevent accidental destruction of important data. Regular backups of the data should be performed. A backup copy of vital and essential master records is required to be stored offsite for disaster recovery purposes.
Consider how the images will be indexed so that they can be retrieved when needed. Naming conventions should be consistent. Examples: name, date, document ID, form, etc.
The process for converting, indexing, filing, and destroying should be well documented. Staff involved with the process should be properly trained. Should legal issues arise, good documentation and training of imaging systems are things the courts take into consideration when reviewing the authenticity of a record. Therefore you should be able to show that you train the staff and monitor their performance, that errors are tracked and corrected, and that regular audits are performed.
Consider quality assurance, including a visual inspection of the images, scanner testing, and verification of image recording and index data. Test that the integrity of the document has been retained.
You may wish to review
For your convenience, we have also provided a signature line below, so that your department or office may print this out and have the appropriate authority sign and date, should legal issues ever arise in the future.
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