Why Record Keeping Is Essential For Your Business

Record Keeping Is Essential For Your Business_Chispa Magazine
In business, keeping records is vital; however, the importance of record keeping is lost with some people though. A few don’t know the dangers of failing to make this a priority. Likewise, they don’t know the benefits of keeping records either.

Risk assessment and record keeping are intertwined. Some records can help you get out of trouble. Some can get you I trouble. Regardless, you need to make sure you have them to hand whenever possible. Even in situations where they do not benefit you. Handing over records can at least prevent a situation getting worse.

Let’s take a look at reasons to invest in record keeping:

For legal reasons, record keeping is essential. Imagine this situation: your business has been involved in an industry-wide scandal. The police are coming to seize business documents to help their case.

While not having the records might seem like a positive as a knee-jerk reaction, they could be used as an indicator of guilt. Whenever you are in situations like this, responsible business owners must assist with investigations no matter what.

On top of that, there are numerous legal compliance laws when it comes to records. Some are mandated by law to be kept for a certain amount of time. Not keeping certain records may be illegal. Even if you aren’t involved in any scandal, it makes your business a target for police. It is not a responsible outlook.

Good news: Record keeping is easier today than it has ever been. With IT services and cloud-based quickbooks making access and storage of records simple and cheap, there are no practical reasons not to.

Cloud services are the new technology changing record keeping. They effectively work as the best off-site backup you could ask for. If the data is wiped from your in-house machines, you just download it back from the web.

Similarly, the data can be uploaded with relatively little effort. Digital storage was the past; it involved packing it onto hard drives and shipping them off for archiving.

Not only is record keeping vital for legal reasons, but it also has practical reasons for your business. Keeping records of what a customer or business partner has agreed to can be used to ensure they don’t try to skip out on what they agreed.

Likewise, if a situation would go to court where your business is the victim, records could be used to prove the guilty party.

If you business is large enough, keeping records could just be a good way of keeping track of things. Once you reach the upper levels of size and management, business is all about data. An operation spanning many interests and countries isn’t easy to keep track of.

Keeping records can simply distill the information into digestible sizes. Say you want to know how many products you sold in a month, but only in Europe. The daily sales records of each country would be totaled to get that figure. This is only possible through keeping records.

It might seem clerical and dull, but record keeping is efficient and smart. Don’t put yourself at risk without needing it.

Photo by Andrew Pons

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Mia Guerra

Mia Guerra

Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine
Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine, Mia Guerra is a writer at heart. Regardless the topic, she loves to investigate, encourage, and ruminate on topics that can make us better people. Aiming to live a Proverbs 31 life, Mia is ecstatic to be following her calling with Chispa. At home she is her husband's sidekick and together they are raising a God-fearing family in Atlanta.

Mia Guerra

Executive Editor at Chispa Magazine, Mia Guerra is a writer at heart. Regardless the topic, she loves to investigate, encourage, and ruminate on topics that can make us better people. Aiming to live a Proverbs 31 life, Mia is ecstatic to be following her calling with Chispa. At home she is her husband's sidekick and together they are raising a God-fearing family in Atlanta.