Archive storage is keeping records you have to hold on to but rarely need, such as old accounts, client files, contracts and payroll records, somewhere safe, dry and organised, so you can find a file when it’s asked for and destroy it when its time is up.
At Wigwam
A unit makes a secure home for an archive you manage yourself, and our document storage page explains how it works. We’ve also written about where small offices keep their archives. You decide who can get in, and you can fetch a file whenever you need it, normally from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. Every unit has its own alarm, the external doors have access control, and our sites are watched by CCTV monitored around the clock by a professional monitoring company.
A few habits make an archive easy to run:
- use lidded archive boxes on freestanding shelving, off the floor, and pack everything dry;
- number each box and keep the index, with each box’s destroy-by date, back at the office;
- when files reach the end of their retention period, use a confidential shredding firm that gives you a certificate of destruction.
Everything stored needs contents cover. For documents, cover pays for replacing or reprinting the paper, not the information in it, so keep copies of anything you couldn’t work without.
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