Chapter 04
Records and retention
A records system is only as good as the ten seconds after the appointment, when someone decides whether to file it now or later.
04.1Later is where records go to die
Every records problem a small practice has can be traced to a decision to file something later. Later is not a time. It is a pile, and the pile grows faster than any afternoon set aside to clear it.
The habit that works is closing each record as part of the appointment rather than after it. That usually means the schedule has to allow for it, which is why records and scheduling are the same conversation. A diary that assumes filing takes no time has quietly moved the work to the evening.
04.2Naming things consistently
A naming convention is boring and it is the highest-return decision in the whole records question. If documents are named in a consistent order — subject, type, date, in the same format every time — they sort themselves and they can be found by someone who did not file them.
The convention matters more than which convention. Choose a date format that sorts correctly, decide once whether names or reference numbers lead, write the rule on one line, and put that line where the filing happens.
04.3The half-migrated system
The worst state for a small practice's records is not paper and it is not digital. It is half of each: a system that was adopted for new records while the old ones stayed where they were, with no rule about which is authoritative.
A migration needs a cut-off date, a stated rule about where anything before it lives, and a decision about whether the old material is converted, indexed or simply left in place and findable. Any of the three is fine. What is not fine is leaving the question open, because then every search is two searches.
04.4Retention as a habit
Records accumulate, and a practice that never disposes of anything eventually cannot find anything. The operational side of retention is simply that there is a schedule, that someone owns it, and that it is run on a fixed date rather than when the storage fills up.
The specific periods a practice must observe depend on its field and its jurisdiction, and those are not questions this site can answer. The part that is universal is the discipline: a written schedule, a recurring date, and a record of what was disposed of and when.
04.5Access and the two-person test
A useful check on any records system is whether a second person, working alone, can find a specific document within a couple of minutes. If they cannot, the system is one person's memory with folders around it.
Running that test occasionally is cheap and slightly humbling. It surfaces the folders that only make sense to their author and the documents whose names describe how they arrived rather than what they are.