Question & Answer Details
How long should I keep my documents/records?
Record Retention Guidelines
These retention periods are offered for guideline purposes only. Please have your company attorney and accountant approve your records retention timetable. Print this document . . .
Accident reports/claims (settled cases) - 7 years
Accounts payable ledgers and schedules - 7 years
Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules - 7 years
Audit reports - Permanent
Bank reconciliations - 2 years
Bank statements - 3 years
Capital stock and bond records, ledgers, transfer registers, stubs, etc. - Permanent
Cash books - Permanent
Charts of accounts - Permanent
Checks, cancelled (for important payments: taxes, purchases of property, special contracts) - Permanent
Checks, cancelled - 7 years
Contracts, mortgages, notes, leases - expired - 7 years
Contracts, mortgages, notes, leases - active - Permanent
Correspondence - general - 2 years
Correspondence - legal and important - Permanent
Deeds, mortgages, bills of sale - Permanent
Depreciation schedules - Permanent
Deposit slips, duplicates - 2 years
Employment applications - 3 years
Expense analysis/expense distribution schedules - years
Financial statements - Permanent
Garnishments - 7 years
General/private ledgers, year-end trial balance - Permanent
Insurance policies - expired - 3 years
Insurance records - current, accident reports, claims, policies - Permanent
Internal reports - general - 3 years
Inventories - 7 years
Invoices - 7 years
Journals - Permanent
Magnetic tape and tab cards - 1 year
Minute books of directors, stockholders, bylaws, charter - Permanent
Notes receivable ledgers and schedules - 7 years
Option records - expired - 7 years
Patents and related papers - Permanent
Payroll records and summaries - 7 years
Personnel files - terminated - 7 years
Petty cash vouchers - 3 years
Physical inventory tags - 3 years
Plant cost ledgers - 7 years
Property appraisals by outside appraisers - Permanent
Property records (costs, depreciation reserves, year-end trial balances, blueprints, etc.) - Permanent
Purchase orders - except purchasing department copy - 1 year
Purchase orders - purchasing department copy - 7 years
Receiving sheets - 1 year
Requisitions - 1 year
Retirement and pension records - Permanent
Sales commissions reports - 3 years
Sales records - 7 years
Scrap and salvage records - 7 years
Stenographers’ notebooks - 1 year
Stock and bond certificates - cancelled - 7 years
Subsidiary ledgers - 7 years
Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents’ reports, etc. - Permanent
Time books/cards - 7 years
Trademark registrations and copyrights - Permanent
Training manuals - Permanent
Union agreements - Permanent
Vouchers for payments - 7 years
Withholding tax statements - 7 years
Record Retention Guidelines
These retention periods are offered for guideline purposes only. Please have your company attorney and accountant approve your records retention timetable. Print this document . . .
Accident reports/claims (settled cases) - 7 years
Accounts payable ledgers and schedules - 7 years
Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules - 7 years
Audit reports - Permanent
Bank reconciliations - 2 years
Bank statements - 3 years
Capital stock and bond records, ledgers, transfer registers, stubs, etc. - Permanent
Cash books - Permanent
Charts of accounts - Permanent
Checks, cancelled (for important payments: taxes, purchases of property, special contracts) - Permanent
Checks, cancelled - 7 years
Contracts, mortgages, notes, leases - expired - 7 years
Contracts, mortgages, notes, leases - active - Permanent
Correspondence - general - 2 years
Correspondence - legal and important - Permanent
Deeds, mortgages, bills of sale - Permanent
Depreciation schedules - Permanent
Deposit slips, duplicates - 2 years
Employment applications - 3 years
Expense analysis/expense distribution schedules - years
Financial statements - Permanent
Garnishments - 7 years
General/private ledgers, year-end trial balance - Permanent
Insurance policies - expired - 3 years
Insurance records - current, accident reports, claims, policies - Permanent
Internal reports - general - 3 years
Inventories - 7 years
Invoices - 7 years
Journals - Permanent
Magnetic tape and tab cards - 1 year
Minute books of directors, stockholders, bylaws, charter - Permanent
Notes receivable ledgers and schedules - 7 years
Option records - expired - 7 years
Patents and related papers - Permanent
Payroll records and summaries - 7 years
Personnel files - terminated - 7 years
Petty cash vouchers - 3 years
Physical inventory tags - 3 years
Plant cost ledgers - 7 years
Property appraisals by outside appraisers - Permanent
Property records (costs, depreciation reserves, year-end trial balances, blueprints, etc.) - Permanent
Purchase orders - except purchasing department copy - 1 year
Purchase orders - purchasing department copy - 7 years
Receiving sheets - 1 year
Requisitions - 1 year
Retirement and pension records - Permanent
Sales commissions reports - 3 years
Sales records - 7 years
Scrap and salvage records - 7 years
Stenographers’ notebooks - 1 year
Stock and bond certificates - cancelled - 7 years
Subsidiary ledgers - 7 years
Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents’ reports, etc. - Permanent
Time books/cards - 7 years
Trademark registrations and copyrights - Permanent
Training manuals - Permanent
Union agreements - Permanent
Vouchers for payments - 7 years
Withholding tax statements - 7 years
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