Records management is an ongoing process and regardless of having a good filing system, the records will need to be monitored and reviewed. It is highly recommended that departments establish a Records Clean-up Day. The purpose of this day will be to:
- Review all records (paper and electronic) and ensure that you are keeping the required documents based on the retention schedule. The State and System regulations do not differentiate between electronic and paper records.
- Start preparing documents that are about to reach the end of their retention period, so that they can be destroyed. You can start filling in the Destruction Form, so that it won’t be such a huge undertaking when it is time to actually dispose of the documents.
- Review your filing system. Make sure records are being named correctly, being stored in the right locations, removing duplicate copies and that everything has been filed.
Te retention periods for a majority of the documents are at the end of the fiscal year (August 31) and keeping that in mind it is recommended that you do your Clean-up Day between May and June. This will give you enough time to review your records and be ready to go through the destruction process if you have any eligible documents.