RECORDS RETENTION SCHEDULE

What financial records to keep and how long to keep them
Courtesy of www.Bankrate.com


One year

• Personnel employment applications

• Purchase orders (except purchasing department copy)

• Stenographers' notebooks

• Stockroom withdrawal forms

Three years

• Bank reconciliations

• Duplicate bank deposit slips

• Expired insurance policies

• General correspondence

• Internal audit reports and working papers

• Petty cash vouchers

• Physical inventory logs

Seven years

• Accident reports and claims (settled cases)

• Accounts payable ledgers (computer runs)

• Accounts receivable ledgers (computer runs)

• Automobile logs

• Bank statements

• Bills of lading

• Cash books

• Commission records

• Contracts and leases (expired)

• Employee personnel records after termination

• Employment tax reports

• Expense reports

• General journals

• Inventory records

• Invoices to customers and from vendors

• Payroll records and summaries, including payment to pensioners

• Personal property tax returns

• Purchase orders

• Sales tax returns

Permanently

• Articles of incorporation or organization

• Audit reports of public accountants

• Canceled checks for important payments such as taxes, property acquisition, etc.

• Capital stock and bond registers

• Copyrights

• Correspondence (legal and important matters only)

• Deeds and mortgages

• Depreciation schedules

• Financial statements (year-end -- other months optional)

• General ledgers and year-end trial balances

• Licenses and permits

• Patents

• Property appraisals by outside appraisers

• Property records -- costs, blueprints and plans

• Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents' reports and other documents relating to determination of tax liability

• Trademark registrations