The Office Procedures and Technology Chapter 9 Records Management Systems Copyright© 2007 Thomson/South-Western

Records Management System Used to organize, store, retrieve, and dispose of records Consists of Procedures Storage media Equipment and supplies Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Storage Media for Records Paper Minimizing paper records Accessibility is key Magnetic media Hard disks Floppy disks Magnetic tape Flash drives Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Storage Media for Records Compact disk Optical media form Holds more information than a floppy disk Micrographics Photographically reduced documents stored on film Microfilm and microfiche are common forms Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Imaging Systems Convert all types of documents to digitized electronic data Store documents on CD-ROM Allow quick retrieval of documents Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Cost Factors Records management involves several cost factors Equipment, supplies, and storage Human resources Destruction costs Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Record Categories Vital records Important records Useful records Essential to the company Often not replaceable Important records Needed for smooth business operations Expensive to replace Useful records Convenient to have, but are replaceable Nonessential records Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Record Life Cycle A record may be filed and retrieved many times during its life cycle Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Removing Records Retention schedule Commercial records centers Identifies how long particular types of records should be kept Active storage Inactive storage Commercial records centers Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Focus On … Disaster Recovery Plans Provide procedures to be followed after an event that results in loss of records Fire Flood Earthquake Power outages Sabotage Include several phases Prevention Readiness Reaction Recovery Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records

Components of a Paper System Procedures Storage media Equipment and supplies Indexing: deciding how to identify each record to be filed Coding: marking a record to indicate how it was indexed Key Terms Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Supplies for a Paper System Guides are heavy cardboard sheets that create divisions in a file Labels are strips of paper that contain captions identifying files Folders are containers used to hold papers in a file Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Filing by Name Records are indexed according to the name of an individual or organization General, special, and individual folders are used Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Name File Note the position of guides and folders in this name file Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Filing by Subject Records are indexed according to topics Special guides identify divisions of main subjects Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Filing by Geographic Location Records are indexed according to the location of an individual, organization, or item Main geographic divisions are called key units Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Geographic Filing System In a geographic file, the primary guides identify the largest geographic location within the key unit Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Numeric Filing Systems Guides Captions on guides are numbers Special guides aid in retrieving records quickly Individual folders Contain records related to one individual or organization Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Numeric Filing System A numeric filing system helps keep records confidential because numbers, not names, are used as folder captions Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Accession Log Lists the numbers already assigned in numeric order Gives the name or subject to which each number is assigned May be kept manually or by computer This database contains an accession log Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

General Alphabetic File Contains records that do not have an individual numeric folder When several records accumulate in the general file, a numeric folder is created Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Alphabetic Index Contains an alphabetic list of names and subjects in a file Gives the number assigned to each name or subject A G indicates that a record is stored in the general alphabetic file Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Numeric Filing Systems Consecutive order Files are arranged in simple numeric order Often used for records that already have numbers, such as invoices Terminal-digit order The last two or three numbers serve as the primary filing unit Groups of numbers are read from right to left Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems

Numeric Filing Systems Middle-digit order The middle two or three numbers serve as the primary filing unit Groups of numbers are read from middle to left to right Chronologic order Records are filed according to date May be used to arrange records in individual folders in alphabetic name files Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems