Once the data processing is complete, archive the documents so they can be located if necessary.

Apart from providing documents in an audit, if the book-keeping is done well it should be fairly rare to need to go back to the original documents.

Sales Receipts and Invoices are usually best archived in number order, checking there are no numbers missing. Cash and card receipts can be archived on a treasury tag in the entry-number order and marked-up on the receipt. Small receipts and tickets can be stapled to an A4 sheet to stop them being lost. Bank expenditure can be archived alphabetically, although some people prefer to use an entry-number system instead and cross reference this to the book-keeping entry. Either way is fine as long as it works when it comes to finding the document in a reasonable time.

For e-documents, file names can be given a prefix of YYYY MM DD which will ensure the files are sorted by date, and this format works in both the UK and US. For example:

2010 03 17 Joe Bloggs Plumbing bill.pdf

 

Records in the UK should be kept for six years after the year-end. 

Always keep documents from different financial years separate.