Gilmore Blog https://www.gilmoreservices.com/blog

You’ve probably heard of this compliance regulation before, but do you really know what it means? Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance is a critical step in the accounting and auditing processes of public companies.

However, some of the Act’s provisions also apply to private companies. Even accidently destroying documents required under the act can lead to repercussions, so every business needs to take steps to ensure proper compliance.

If you spent the winter debating whether or not it’s time to move, spring is the season to get serious. Before you know it, you’ll be dedicating your weekends to driving around the area’s most desirable neighborhoods in search of your next home.

If your company is committed to adopting modern records management trends, it’s time to convert some of your paper documents to digital files. Doing so is not only environmentally conscious but this simple process can save money and improve your reputation with clients.

Whether you operate a small, single-physician family practice or are an administrator in a large hospital, records management is one of your primary responsibilities. Efficient records management is critical, not only for day-to-day operations but—most critically—for patient confidentiality and compliance with federal mandates like HIPAA.

If you’ve decided to implement a more strategic records management plan this year, you’ve taken a big step toward increasing efficiency and security for your organization.

However, when many companies decide to enhance their records management, they may do so piecemeal, with different personnel managing different parts of the plan. This strategy often leads to inconsistencies and can negate many of the benefits a records management plan can provide.

Moving season is upon us. Whether you’re planning your first move or your fifth, you probably have plenty of questions about how to approach the process.

You can save yourself a lot of headache with a little inside knowledge. That’s why we called Kathy Justice, broker associate at Main Street Properties in Perdido Key, Florida. Kathy is the leading real estate expert in Perdido Key, where her market knowledge, enthusiasm and exceptional customer service skills saw her named the top volume sales agent from 2007 to 2014 and the top condo volume sales agent in all of Pensacola in 2014.

As an office manager, you have a lot on your plate: preparing payroll, developing and enforcing office policies, returning emails, ordering supplies, assisting with recruiting, and more.

One key responsibility that shouldn’t be overlooked is filing and storage. You need to store your company’s records properly to ensure compliance, efficiency and security.

When compared to in-house shredding, secure document destruction saves money, increases security and enhances internal workflows.

Spring is around the corner and with it comes the start of moving season. It’s the time of year when there’s a moving truck coming or going on your block every week.

In today’s highly regulated business environment, responsible business owners need to carefully manage and monitor who handles important business documents and when. If your records management plan includes offsite or digital document storage, a specific process, known as the “chain of custody,” needs to be a key part of your security considerations.

If you’re looking for ways to cut costs and maximize revenue in 2017, partnering with a professional paper shredding service is a great place to start. Professional on-site shredding or off-site shredding eliminates many of the risks and extraneous costs related to in-house shredding practices.

As a business owner or manager, knowing the location and security of important business records should be a top priority. Not knowing where and how your critical documents are stored risks identity theft, compliance fines and damage to your company’s reputation.

As you and your organization enter 2017, is your record management plan starting to feel like Groundhog Day - just the same old routine over and over again with no thought?

Protecting your business’s data is critical to the continued health of your company. Financial and employee records, and other proprietary data stored on hard drives needs to be protected whether that data has reached the end of its lifecycle or not.

As a responsible business owner, you likely already know that certified document destruction offers a cost-effective and convenient solution for ensuring compliance with document disposal regulatory guidelines. It can also save you money by enhancing security and maximizing your employees’ time.

If you partner with a moving company for your home or office relocation, you entrust that company with valuable, sometimes irreplaceable, parts of your life. Photographs, antiques, jewelry, electronics and digital data represent just a few of the items a moving company might be asked to carefully package and move on your behalf.

Identity theft is a common concern for both businesses and consumers, and not without reason. A recent study found that $15 billion was stolen from 13.1 million U.S. consumers in 2015. In the past six years, identity thieves have stolen $112 billion.

The New Year is a great time for your business to look ahead and put in place needed changes in key areas, including records management. While the implementation of new processes can be confusing and unorganized, it doesn’t need to be, and improved processes can ultimately benefit your business in the long run.

Whether you are relocating down the street or across the country, moving is often a stressful and time-consuming process. From preparing your family and friends to selecting the right moving company, planning for a move starts well before the packing and transportation begins.

Hard drives hold your business’s most valuable information, including proprietary data, financial statements and employee records. While the use of hard drives are widely prevalent and often necessary, the value of this information can create a problematic scenario when it comes time to upgrade your company’s hardware and increase technological efficiency.

Unfortunately, you can’t simply throw a hard drive in the trash at the end of its useful life and hope the information it contains will remain safe.

Going “paperless” is increasingly viewed as a key sign of a modern business. However, it’s not always in a company’s best interest to cut paper entirely out of record-keeping and other processes. Instead, it often makes more sense to simply cut back on paper use and begin the transition to paperless records management with digital files.

Modern companies understand the importance of reliable document scanning and digital conversion of records for remote access capability and information backup. They also realize that managing physical document storage in-house can tax even the most resource-rich businesses.

Handling your shredding needs in the office with a consumer-grade shredder might seem like a cost-effective and time-efficient way to destroy your company’s confidential documents, but your business might not save as much money and time as you think. In-house shredding can waste valuable employee time, increases the potential for mistakes and even poses security risks.

As your business grows, managing documents in-house becomes a time- and resource-consuming task. Growth means increased responsibility across business verticals and with that increased responsibility comes a reduced capacity to internally manage the storage of your documents.

When considering document storage solutions, many businesses disregard professional third-party options over cost concerns. Storing documents in house or in a self-storage unit is often viewed as a cost-effective alternative to professional solutions.

Many would agree that moving is one of the more stressful things in life. Sorting through all your worldly items, packing them in boxes, transporting them — and yourself — to a completely new place is hard work. Add in the additional stressor of choosing a reliable moving company to handle a lot of that labor for you, and the stress can easily turn into anxiety.

Putting an effective records management solution in place takes time, organization, and commitment. A solid record keeping procedure can help keep your company compliant, enable more streamlined access to information, and protect sensitive information over time. The anatomy of a successful records management plan includes things like:

When it comes to records management, compliance is a critical element of success. Generally, compliance has to do with adhering to regulations set forth by a certain industry or governing body such as maintaining confidentiality, updating documents on a schedule, and destroying documents when the time is right.

Keeping business operations streamlined and running smoothly is a key goal for many business owners. After all, as your business grows, so too do clients, responsibilities, and business documents.

Business documents may include the paper documents you house on-site, or the electronic records you keep for each new customer. Managing records is a necessary aspect of many businesses, but keeping them organized and secure over time can present an unforeseen challenge for many business owners and administrative professionals.

The world today is practically overflowing with information. From mailed publications and credit card offers to emails and digital data, document and information management can be overwhelming.

That said, it’s all the more reason why records management professionals need to prioritize document storage strategies. After all, while you may have tried "winging it" with document storage in the past, that just won’t cut it any more.