Document Archiving: What Is It & How To Do It

In today's digital age, effective document archiving is crucial for both individuals and businesses. Proper archiving ensures that important records are securely stored, easily retrievable, and compliant with legal requirements. 

This guide will explore what document archiving entails, provide practical steps on how to do it efficiently, and explain how to securely dispose of documents that are no longer needed. 

Whether you're looking to organise personal files or manage company records, mastering archiving techniques can save time and prevent data loss.

What is Document Archiving?

Document archiving is the process of storing and managing documents for long-term preservation and easy access. 

It involves organising both physical and digital records systematically. Effective archiving is crucial for maintaining historical records, complying with legal requirements, and ensuring efficient information management. This helps protect valuable data and simplifies record-keeping for businesses and individuals.

Types of Document Archiving

Firstly, you’ll need to know the different ways to archive documents, which are traditional storage, digital storage, and scan on demand. Below is an overview of each of these methods.

Traditional Storage

Traditional storage is when you archive paper by filing it away in a cabinet on-site. It’s a good approach for smaller businesses that may only have a small number of documents to archive.

On-site storage comes with some measures to follow such as ensuring you invest in appropriate equipment that is secure. This could include a fire-proof safe or a lockable filing cabinet.

Organisation is also vital with this method because additional security is needed to ensure your documents are safe. Knowing what documents are archived and where will assist this potential problem.

If on-site storage isn’t an option for your business, then you could pay for an off-site secure storage facility. Large businesses will often opt for off-site storage so they maintain non-mission-critical documents.

There are a few factors to consider when archiving documents with an off-site storage facility. This includes how close the facility is to your workplace, how quickly you can access archived documents, and security at the facility - you don’t want your documents getting into the wrong hands.

Digital Storage

Digital storage is archiving documents digitally and is fantastic for saving space as it limits the need for paper file storage. Archiving documents online also allows businesses to work remotely as well as save space within the office.

However, going digital isn’t for everyone. Uploading everything online might seem daunting and without a secure network or cloud service, your archived documents could be left open to cyberattacks which could impact your bottom line and affect your reputation.

Investing in a trustworthy cloud service as well as top quality hard drives will help make sure archiving documents is a secure and safe option.

Scan on Demand

Scan on demand blends the two methods by archiving documents off-site and then digitally scanning and sending them back to you. It can be the best of both worlds and a great option for large businesses that need more storage and occasional access to their documents.

This option can be more expensive because you will be paying for additional services with the service including both off-site paper file storage and digital storage.

Secure Destruction of Archived Files & Data

After archiving documents in compliance with GDPR guidelines and retention periods it’s time to review documents that may require secure destruction.

Paper accounts for 26% of landfill waste, and we offer a few ways to securely destroy your documents and hard drives, whether on-site or off-site, that’s more environmentally friendly than throwing them away or keeping them archived taking up space.

Let's explore the various methods of confidential waste destruction and why utilising such a service is essential:

One Time Paper Shredding

Paper file storage can take up vital space while archiving documents, but our One Time Paper Shred Service will help you to declutter any non-essential documents so you only have to archive paper and documents that you need to keep or are relevant to your business and clients.

Regular Scheduled Paper Shredding

Our One Time Paper Shred can work for many businesses, but larger operations may often need a more regular service. This is where our Regularly Scheduled Paper Shredding Service can prove cost-effective and help your confidential information stay secure.

Mobile On-Site Shredding

As well as One Time Shredding and Regularly Scheduled Shredding we also offer our customers Mobile On-Site Shredding. Mobile On-Site Shredding offers the same safe, end-to-end secure chain of custody as our off-site services but at your workplace location.

Hard Drive Destruction

Archiving documents with paper file storage solutions might not be an effective use of storage for a large business, so using a cloud service or hard drives are the best option. However, hard drives don’t have infinite storage, and you don’t want your confidential information falling into the wrong hands. Shred-it's Hard Drive Destruction Services are specifically designed to destroy your hard drives so that data can never be retrieved or reconstructed.

Things To Remember While Archiving Documents