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Filing Best Practices
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• System testing. There is a saying that all systems have bugs in them—you
just may not have found them yet. This is a major problem if a company
implements a new system without proper testing. A rigid testing program
will ensure that new systems have the appropriate back-up systems, will
operate as promised, can handle large transaction volumes, and will handle
unusual transactions. If a new system successfully passes all of these tests,
then it can be put into service. If not, it must be fixed and tested again. Only
by rigidly adhering to tough testing standards can a company provide reli-
able computer systems to its employees.

While all of the preceding system reliability improvements are being imple-
mented, it is extremely important to publicize the progress of the work. If the
improvements are undertaken quietly, employees may still be influenced by a
long tradition of system problems and their opinions will not be changed for a long
time. Instead, to more quickly bring employees to the point of accepting the com-
puter system as their primary source of documents, it is necessary to publicize
current system improvement projects, upcoming ones, and before-and-after mea-
surements that clearly show the improvement in system reliability. Advertising
system changes to employees is one of the best ways to get them to support a
move to eliminate paper-based backup systems.
Cost: Installation time:

10–9 ADOPT A DOCUMENT-DESTRUCTION
POLICY

Many companies keep on storing more documents year after year because they
have no idea of when they are supposed to get rid of them. By default, they typi-
cally remain in a heap in the back corner of the most distant warehouse, eating up
space that can be put to better uses. For companies that have been in operation for
many years, this can become a considerable burden due to the many years paper
has been allowed to accumulate, especially if management has a habit of pur-
chasing expensive filing cabinets in which to store old records, rather than less
expensive cardboard storage boxes.
An easy best practice to adopt is to work with a company’s lawyers and certified
public accountants (CPAs) to construct a document-destruction policy similar to the
comprehensive one shown in Exhibit 10.3. The policy should take into account the
document-retention requirements of all federal, state, and local regulatory agencies,
always adopting the longest required retention period. Once this policy has been
completed, the existing pile of paperwork can be sorted through with an eye to elim-
inating all items for which there is no legal reason to keep them. When conducting
this elimination process, however, it is important to keep all documents for which