Filing Strategies & Suggestions
Managing your files with the goal of quick access to information is essential to good records management. Good filing offers higher productivity and faster filing and retrieval along with increased staff efficiency and productivity. Lower costs come from fewer purchases of supplies, less time spent locating files, reduced space costs, and less of a likelihood of litigation losses.
Records can be filed alphabetically, chronologically, numerically, geographically, or by subject. The Campus Retention Schedule (CRS) is a filing scheme that incorporates filing by subject or category. Filing in this way offers several advantages, among them the ability to more easily monitor retention periods and disposition actions. This method of filing can be used for electronic as well as paper records.
Within an office, your records can be filed into the functions listed in the CRS. They can then be subdivided into the records categories or series based on the categories listed in the schedule.
For example, for the official copy of meeting minutes, create an aggregate grouping for administrative materials, then subdivide the minutes into folders based on a given criteria (date in this case).
Electronic records can follow these same guidelines, using folders and subfolders as necessary. With electronic records, however, more can be accomplished with standard metadata, which makes searching and discovering records easier.