Records pile up quietly until an office move or a lease end forces a decision. The right order is: find out how long each kind of record must be kept, sort the boxes by that date, and only then decide what to move, store or destroy. The retention periods below come from federal agencies, and your own industry may add to them.
What the IRS says about tax records
The IRS tells taxpayers to keep records for three years from the date the return was filed in most cases, and longer in specific situations: six years if income was underreported by more than 25 percent, and seven years for claims tied to worthless securities or bad debts. Employment tax records have their own four-year period. Read the IRS page linked below for the exact list.
Property and asset records are kept until the period of limitations ends for the year you dispose of the property, so a building or equipment file may outlast most others.
Health records and HIPAA
Covered health entities must keep the written policies and documentation required by the HIPAA Security Rule for six years from the date created or last in effect. Medical records themselves follow state law and professional rules, which differ, so a practice should confirm its own period with its association or counsel before sorting.
Sort before you move
Label each box with the contents, the year range and a destroy-after date. A box with a clear date is a decision made once; a box without one gets moved again and again. Keep active files, files you must keep, and files due for secure destruction in three separate groups.
Use uniform file boxes so they stack safely and fit shelving. Boxes sold at the Sparks office suit this job, and you can read about moving boxes and supplies.
Moving and storing file boxes
O'Brien's moves and stores business files and records. A box list gives each carton a number and a location, so a file can be found later. The warehouse in Sparks is a 30,000 square foot building on the same site as the office. See records moving and records storage.
When you ask for an estimate, tell the estimator how many boxes there are, whether they will be retrieved often, and whether anyone from your office needs to be present on move day.
Secure destruction
Records past their retention date should be destroyed in a way that fits their sensitivity. Employee files, patient files and financial records call for a shredding service with a documented process. Keep a short log of what was destroyed and when, so you can show the schedule was followed.