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
Slide 2
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
Slide 3
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
Slide 4
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
Slide 5
Cost Factors

Records management involves several cost
factors



Equipment, supplies,
and storage
Human resources
Destruction costs
Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records
Slide 6
Record Categories

Vital records



Important records



Needed for smooth business operations
Expensive to replace
Useful records


Essential to the company
Often not replaceable
Convenient to have, but are replaceable
Nonessential records
Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records
Slide 7
Record Life Cycle
A record
may be
filed and
retrieved
many
times
during its
life cycle
Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records
Slide 8
Removing Records

Retention schedule




Identifies how long particular types of records
should be kept
Active storage
Inactive storage
Commercial
records centers
Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records
Slide 9
Focus On …
Disaster Recovery Plans
 Provide procedures to be followed after

an event that results in loss of records
Include
 Fire several phases
 Prevention
Flood
 Readiness
Earthquake
 Reaction
Power outages
 Recovery
Sabotage
Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records
Slide 10
Components of a Paper System



Procedures
Storage media
Equipment and supplies
Key Terms
Indexing: deciding how to identify
each record to be filed
Coding: marking a record to indicate
how it was indexed
Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems
Slide 11
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
Slide 12
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
Slide 13
Name File
Note the position
of guides and
folders in this
name file
Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems
Slide 14
Filing by Subject


Records are indexed according to topics
Special guides identify divisions of main
subjects
Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems
Slide 15
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
Slide 16
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
Slide 17
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
Slide 18
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
Slide 19
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
Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems
This database contains
an accession log
Slide 20
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
Slide 21
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
Slide 22
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
Slide 23
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
Slide 24