How You Should Organize Your Electronic Records
- No filing strategy: You do not create folders, keeping all e-mails in the inbox.
- Filing system: You use a simple filing scheme based on topical areas. In this way, you can incorporate your office’s records retention and disposition schedule.
- You use a combination of filing system and usage of inbox to store e-mails.
Planning a Filing Structure
- Deal with bad electronic filing systems now. The problem will only get worse as more records are created.
- Plan ahead—coordinate with the paper filing system.
- Create a directory tree with primary subjects divided by secondary subjects.
- Keep all files together in a central directory/folder.
- Each folder and each file needs a logical place in the filing structure so arbitrary decisions are limited.
- Filing structures must be easy to understand.
- Focus on business processes, not records.
- Define activities associated with each business process.
- Determine how records are retrieved and accessed.
- Use consistent terminology.
Planning a Filing Structure and Naming Electronic Files
- Follow the ABC rule: Use titles that are Accurate, Brief, and Concise.
- Use default application file extensions.
- Titles should have only one interpretation.
- Avoid repeating the folder name in the file name.
- Determine subject content when naming.
- Use version numbers, if necessary (useful for e-mail attachments).
- Be consistent with case numbers, dates, and upper vs. lower case.
Managing Filing Systems
- As new projects are started and new records are created, the filing system will need to change.
- As some folders grow, they may get too large and will need to be divided.
- Eventually some folders may need to be eliminated or combined with others.
- Managing a filing system is an ongoing process.