Tax time reminder about good record keeping

Every year around tax time, Boeing employees resolve to do a better job of managing their records and information for the following year.

Shared Service Group's Records and Information Management staff reminds Boeing people that they, as individuals, are responsible for managing company records properly, although the RIM staff will help by providing guidelines.

Indeed, many of the lessons RIM offers in keeping or tossing business records are directly transferable to the mess in the home filing cabinet. The key? Deal with them now and deal with them accurately, according to Debra Wible, RIM manager.

Work records—papers, e-mails, audio-visuals, spread sheets, etc.—are subject to legal, contractual, operational and tax requirements. The Master Records Retention Schedule (found on the Boeing intranet at records.web.boeing.com/mrrs.cfm) is the reference for what to retain, how long to retain it and when to dispose of it. "Be familiar with the schedule, so you can incorporate it into your daily work," Wible said.

"If you keep in mind that 75 percent of records filed never will be looked at more than once, and records 90 days old are 90 percent likely never to be used again, you can immediately focus your energies," Wible said.

"It's been shown that businesses not using a records- and information-management system retain 51 percent more records than required." Wible said. "For every five-drawer cabinet, that's two-plus drawers, and the personnel to store or retrieve the records, as well as the charge for the building space to set the cabinet."

Wible suggests these tips:

• Know your record-management procedures—PRO-251 (http://records.web.boeing.com)

• Know your records inventory (know what you have)

• Use the Master Record Retention Schedule for retention information

• Destroy everything that should not be saved for legal purposes

• Remember that records and information management is an individual responsibility

"The records-retention process helps organizations develop a comprehensive plan for protecting their vital records and information—whether it be enabling them to recover from disruption or to have the institutional memory kept for future projects and generations," Wible said.