Economic activity, and indeed the functioning of any enterprise and organization, is regulated by a huge number of documents for internal use. Most of these papers are disposed of in the prescribed manner, but the shelf life of orders for core business is unlimited. In other words, administrative documents of the director and senior managers are stored permanently and transferred to the archive only upon liquidation of the legal entity. In this article, we consider the principles of paperwork and accounting. Orders on core business (shelf life) will focus.
General Provisions
The shelf life of orders for core business is unlimited. The management of the organization is obliged to provide these documents at the request of regulatory or judicial authorities. The importance of this category of securities is difficult to overestimate. History knows cases where the absence of orders on personnel and main activities for a certain period led to the bankruptcy of the enterprise. Therefore, the safety of this particular type of documentation is given special attention.
Regardless of which field of activity a legal entity belongs to (industrial production, provision of services, educational organization), orders for core activities are usually stored in the legal department. It's about the originals. Copies of them can and should be transferred for execution to the appropriate units. Here they remain in the subsequent time.
Where is the documentation stored?
The orders that govern personnel issues and core business should be clearly separated. These are far from equivalent concepts. If the former should be kept in the personnel department of the organization, then the latter, as already noted, in the legal department. This will avoid confusion and more quickly find the necessary documents.
Features of creating a repository
Organization of the archive is a very, very difficult matter. Only a person with the necessary education (archivist, archival specialist, clerk) and work experience will be able to qualitatively complete this task. Therefore, the staff of large organizations and enterprises must have an archive manager. It is more advisable for small companies to hire a person under a contract to organize a repository of documents at the enterprise. As practice shows, attempts to independently resolve this issue turn into big problems with regulatory authorities.
As a rule, orders that regulate the main activities of the organization are stored separately from everyone else in the legal department. However, it is only in theory that all papers of this type should be kept forever. In practice, periodic cleanings are carried out and all documents that have lost their relevance are destroyed.
Of course, a certain procedure must be followed for this. A special commission is created, which makes the final decision on the disposal of documentation. Destruction of orders for the main activity becomes possible only if one of the conditions is met:
- the document is suspended or completely canceled by another order;
- The validity period specified in the document has expired.
Representatives of all departments whose activities directly or indirectly affect the documents under consideration must be included in the disposal committee.
Features of storing copies of documents
In accordance with the current legislation in the field of paperwork, not only the original papers should be stored. The same applies to their certified second copies. However, the shelf life of copies of orders for core activities is different. And this is quite logical. Over time, the number of calls to documentation decreases exponentially, and storing a huge amount of paper does not make any sense, and this is a rather expensive article. In case of unforeseen circumstances, the original documents are requested from the archive of the legal department. In addition, in some cases, copies of documents (albeit stamped organizations) do not have legal force, which means that archiving them loses all meaning.
In general, the storage period for such cases is three years. Although this figure may vary. Sometimes it is recommended to keep copies until the destruction of the original documents.
Some features of paper archiving
Documents regulating the main activities of the organization are stored throughout the existence of the enterprise. However, as with any rule, there are exceptions. The fact is that only those organizations that take part in the formation of funds of state archival institutions are required to keep documentation for many decades. A fairly large part of institutions and enterprises does not take part in this activity. In such organizations, documents marked "keep permanently" should be stored only for ten years, after which they can be disposed of. It should be borne in mind that the term for calculating archival storage begins on the first calendar day of the year following the year of publication of the document.
Features of calculating storage periods
The laws and regulations governing this issue are very blurred and opaque, and therefore can be interpreted differently. It is not clear why such oversights were not corrected at the stage of the development of the law. In accordance with its provisions, storage periods are established “from the date of creation” of the documentation. But in domestic archival practice, this has never been practiced. Foreign archival institutions also count down not from the moment of signing the order by the head and registration in the journal, but from the next calendar year.
Features of the change of the person responsible for the storage of documents
Life does not stand still, and sooner or later there is a need to appoint a new person responsible for the archive of the enterprise. Some of the experienced and time-tested employees retire, others quit due to family reasons.
The procedure for changing the responsible person is strictly regulated. By order of the director, a special commission is created. An act of acceptance and transfer of all documentation in the archive is drawn up. The minimum composition of the said commission is three people. In addition to compiling an inventory of documents whose storage period has not expired, the duties of members of the commission include checking the safety and condition of the papers. The said act is signed by the employee transferring and receiving the case.
The main activities of the organization
Among the huge amount of papers, only documents and orders on the main activity should be constantly kept. What are these directions, the question arises? This category, first of all, should include orders on the transformation of the internal structure of the enterprise as a result of the merger (section) of its individual structural components. Changing the operating mode is also an important decision. Such papers should also be kept in the legal department.
Orders also belong to this category:
- aimed at improving the system of advanced training of working and office personnel of the organization;
- on certification of workplaces and employees;
- on the dismissal of staff in connection with a reduction in the number of staff;
- on admission to the balance sheet of the enterprise equipment (fixed assets);
- on the creation of a commission on the inventory of property and (or) assets of the organization.
And this is far from a complete set of orders for the main activity.
Archive Organization Requirements
The classification of orders is based on the normative shelf life of securities. To determine this indicator, clerks use a special list of organizations' documentation. It should be said that in some cases, individual organizations set their own, departmental standards for storing securities, taking into account the characteristics of the work and the specifics of the industry. Let's consider in more detail.
The shelf life of orders for core activities is not limited. In other words, this kind of documentation is kept in the archive throughout the existence of the organization - from the moment of its registration with state bodies to the moment of liquidation. Other securities should not be destroyed within 75 years (documents on personnel matters), or within five years (all other orders).
Documents intended for long-term storage should be filed in separate cases. This will avoid unnecessary hassle afterwards.
In accordance with the established rules, the generated securities pool is assigned its own special cipher, which in most cases consists of a combination of letters and numbers.
Storage of documents on electronic media
Nowadays, information technology is becoming increasingly popular. And increasingly, progressive executives prefer to keep company records in electronic format. The realities are such that even an order typed in a text editor, having the electronic signature of an authorized person, has legal force. It should be said that most directors and senior managers, especially in state-owned companies, prefer to conduct business in the traditional way, using paper and ink. However, with the advent of a new generation, the situation will radically change.
In accordance with established standards, electronic copies of documents must be stored for the same period as similar traditional documents on paper.
Where to look for storage standards for orders for core business?
The Law of the Russian Federation “On Archives” is the main source of the rules for organizing document storage, both at the enterprise and in state archives. Currently, its revision is dated May 23, 2016. The law itself entered into force on October 22, 2004. It should be noted that not only specialized archival institutions and state enterprises, but also private business entities are required to comply with the provisions of the said Law.
The composition of orders for core activities and other important and useful information is contained in the specialized “List of model documents”. This industry normative legal act provides a detailed description and requirements for the paperwork, which are formed in the process of economic (or any other) activity of the enterprise. The document is developed by the Ministry of Culture of Russia. The approval date of the List is August 25, 2010. The current edition is February 16, 2016.
In some organizations with a special status, archiving is regulated by individual industry normative legal acts.
Shelf life of the order book on core activities
In accordance with the established requirements, a unique number is assigned to any order, and a note about its release is entered in a special journal. It is recommended to use the alphabet for the convenience of numbering these documents. For example, the Latin letters OD at the beginning of the order number immediately make it clear that the document regulates the main activities of the organization. Only after making an appropriate entry in the journal does the document become legally significant. Conversely, if there is no entry in the registration journal, the order will be just a piece of paper. In this case, its significance will be called into question in the case of judicial or other cases.
The order book is an extremely important element, no less significant than the orders themselves. In accordance with the classification of the List of documents and the requirements of the law, it refers to those that must be preserved throughout the existence of the organization (that is, constantly). Thus, the shelf life of the orders of the director for primary activities and the journal of registration of orders is “permanent”.
Magazine design features
The article has repeatedly emphasized the importance of such a document as a book of registration of orders for core activities. Sometimes it is called a magazine. Both of these names are acceptable. Despite the paramount importance of this document, its unified form is missing. Any organization has the right to design its pages at its discretion. The main thing is that the book contains the following columns - the number of the order and the date of registration (entry into force), the abstract description of the contents of the document.