Management Plans and Procedures Retention

Management plans, procedures and other administrative documents can become vital resources for consulting many countless years into the future. Even if major elements of your business have changed, you may need to keep a record of how processes, policy and procedure was dealt with in the past in order to perform a comparative analysis.

Additionally, management and administrative documentation can become relevant evidence in legal cases. Lawsuits regarding discrimination, non-disclosure, wrongful termination and other cause-of-actions can often be examined by closely scrutinizing documented work policies.

As such, most managerial and administrative documents are considered irreplaceable, and the general recommendation is to hold onto them forever, whether in digital or paper form.

Suggested Retention Duration for Select Managerial/Admin Documents

Document Type	Suggested Minimum Retention
Corporate charter and bylaws	Permanently
Strategic plans	Permanently
Organizational charts	Permanently
Mission/vision statements	Permanently
Patents and related papers	Permanently
Copyrights, trademarks	Permanently
Administrative Correspondence*	3 years
*(Important memos, emails and other correspondence regarding strategy, services, programs, policies, procedures, planning and other such materials)
General/Routine Correspondence	1 year
Legal Correspondence	Permanently
Asset appraisals	Permanently
Property records including cost reports, depreciation schedules	Permanently
Deeds, mortgages, bills of sale	7 years after property sale or transfer
Internal audit reports	3 years
Employee evaluations	3 years following termination
Training Manuals	Permanently
Sales records	7 years
Year-end statements	Permanently