The Office Procedures and Technology

Chapter 9

Records Management

Systems

Copyright 2003 by South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning

Overview

Records management system

Set of procedures used to organize, store,

retrieve, and dispose of records

Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records Slide 2

Storage media

Paper

Magnetic media

Optical media

Micrographics

Microfiche is a common micrographics

storage medium

Storage equipment and supplies

Filing cabinets

Folders

Guides

Filing procedures

Used to store records in an orderly manner

within an organized system

Used to charge out records

Records retention and disposition

Storage Media for Records

Paper

Minimizing paper records

Accessibility is key

Magnetic media

Hard disks

Floppy disks

Magnetic tape

Compact disc

Optical media form

Holds more information than a floppy disk

Micrographics

Photographically reducing documents to a

fraction of their original size to fit on film

Microfilm and microfiche are common forms

Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records Slide 3

A microfilm

jacket holds

strips of

microfilm or

single images

Imaging systems

Convert all types of documents to digitized

electronic data

Store documents on CD-ROM

Allow quick retrieval of documents

Cost Factors

Equipment, supplies, and

storage

Human resources

Destruction costs

Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records Slide 4

Record Life Cycle

Record categories

Vital

Important

Useful

Nonessential

A record

may be filed

and

retrieved

many times

during its

life cycle

Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records Slide 5

Removing Records

Retention schedule

Identifies how long particular types of records

should be kept

Active storage

Inactive storage

Topic 9-1 Maintaining Office Records Slide 6

Commercial

records centers

Focus On …

Disaster Recovery Plans Provide procedures to be followed in case of

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 Slide 7

Components of a Paper System

Equipment

Filing cabinets

Open shelves

Storage boxes and containers

Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems Slide 8

Procedures

Indexing Deciding how to identify each record to be filed

Coding Marking a record to indicate how it was indexed

Supplies

Guides Heavy cardboard sheets that create divisions in a file

Labels Strips of paper that contain captions identifying files

Folders Containers used to hold papers in a file

Note the

position of

guides and

folders in

this portion

of a name

file

Alphabetic Filing Systems

Filing by name

Records are indexed according to the name of

an individual or organization

General, special, and individual folders are

used

Filing by subject

Records are indexed according to topics

Special guides identify subdivisions of main

subjects

Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems Slide 9

Filing by geographic location

Records are indexed according to the location of

the individual or organization

Main geographic divisions are called key units

In a geographic

file, the primary

guides identify

the largest

geographic

location within

the key unit

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 10

A numeric filing

system helps keep

records confidential

because numbers,

not names, are used

as folder captions

Accession log

Lists in numeric order the numbers already

assigned

Gives the name or subject to which each

number is assigned

May be kept manually or by computer

Numeric Filing Systems

Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems Slide 11

This database

contains an

accession log

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

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

Consecutive order

Files arranged in simple numeric order

Often used for records that already have

numbers assigned to them, such as invoices

Numeric Filing Systems

Topic 9-2 Paper Records Systems Slide 12

Terminal-digit order

System in which the last two or three numbers

serve as the primary filing unit

Record numbers are divided into groups

Groups of numbers are read from right to left

Middle-digit order

System in which the middle two or three

numbers serve as the primary filing unit

Record numbers are divided into groups

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