Business Document Storage

Do you need to store hard copies of business documents? Even if you’ve ‘gone paperless’, it’s unlikely you have completely migrated away from paper documents. It’s also likely that you are legally required to archive business documents for an extended period of time. Such requirements may be onerous for most businesses that occupy a relatively small amount of office space. In a short period of time, your office becomes crowded and disorganised due to mounting paper documents.

This is where Secure Storage Services is able to assist. In the North West of England, we store business documents for thousands of businesses and public authorities. This business document storage service gives you access to affordable off-site storage and allows you to abide by industry laws and regulations without cluttering up your primary place of business.

At Secure Storage Services, documents are stored in a purpose-built facility. The conditions we maintain are ideally suited for the long-term storage of paper documents. The vast majority of documents we store are destroyed according to a pre-determined retention policy, but if you need to access documents before this date has passed, you may be assured your documents will be presented to you in a timely and in perfect condition.

How Long Does a Business Need to Keep Documents in the UK?

Businesses in the UK are required to keep certain business documents for a minimum of six years. This includes documents such as invoices, receipts, financial statements, and tax records and employee records. After six years, businesses can destroy these documents or choose to store them indefinitely.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For certain items such as purchases you expect to keep longer than six years for example machinery, you must keep these records longer.

If you lose your records or they are accidentally destroyed, HMG insists that you must do your best to replicate these items. This is of course problematic and can cause serious problems and unnecessary time wasted for your business.

Why Should I Store my Business Documents?

Businesses generate a lot of paperwork, from invoices and financial records to employee contracts. While it may be tempting to simply throw all this documentation into the recycling bin, doing so could have serious consequences.

You are required by law to keep business documents for up to six years. In many businesses, this can accumulate to vast amounts of paperwork, filing and space taken up simply by storing your records.

Safeguard Important Information

These records are necessary for you to comply with government regulations and also help keep your tax affairs in order. In addition, these documents can be very sensitive holding information on individuals, and private information that we are under an obligation not to share with any 3^rd party.

So not only do we need to keep this information, but we have a duty to ensure the documentation is secure. In certain cases, private information has been lost and can end up in the public domain. This can lead to a series of issues such as stolen identity and fraudulent activity.

Accessing my Business Documents

We have seen many businesses with piles of cardboard boxed stacked up in a broom cupboard. We have also seen entire rooms filled up with boxes of paperwork.

When you need to retrieve a document this can take up serious time and effort, especially if somebody has been through an ordered list and not put paperwork back in it’s correct place.

Once your business grows, you will need to find an effective system to store your documents and receipts before it becomes totally unmanageable.

Here at secure Storage we provide a range of solutions to ensure document retrieval is effective and efficient.

Paper Based and Digital Retrieval

When you place your documents in one of our secure units you have the opportunity for us to scan your documents and enable access via online resources or placed on a cd or hard drive you can take away.

Our up-to-date filing system also allows us to quickly retrieve documents if you desire to have the actual physical copy of the record at hand.

You may of course have no need to re-visit certain documents over the next six years, and in that case, you will simply have the peace of mind that your documents are in a safe, secure and highly restricted environment.

Keeping your Business Documents Secure

As the name suggests, here at secure storage we value the security of your documents above all else. Our state-of-the-art facility is highly restricted, we have an up-to-date CCTV system and 24-hour guards to ensure all documents are protected under lock and key.

Only verified members of secure storage are allowed on the premises and any retrieval of documents must be requested. You wont see people walking around our storage facility unless it is a retrieval request and all documentation incoming and leaving our facility is carefully monitored and recorded.

Keep Costs Low by Storing your Documents

Businesses large and small generate a lot of documents, from invoices and sales reports to HR forms and customer contracts. While it's important to keep some of these documents on hand, they can quickly start to pile up, taking up valuable space and making it difficult to find the information you need.

Many businesses choose to scan documents and save on the cloud, here they can access their documents. Some businesses also have electronic systems where everything is recorded online to keep paperwork to a minimum.

Although not every business is the same and receipts, invoices and other important documentation is unfortunately a guaranteed occurrence in business.

If you find yourself in a position where you have taken up too much space storing documents, it could be affecting your opportunity to grow. Why would you want an office stacked with paperwork and filing cabinets when the space could be used for productivity?

This is why storing your documents offsite in a storage facility can help not only save you money through freeing up space in the building for productive work, but also reduce the time spent retrieving documents and the correct management of the documentation.

Financial Record Storage

One particular area we specilise in at secure storage is in the Storage of financial record. Keeping on top of financial records can be a challenge, especially for businesses that are growing quickly. Our services provide a secure way to store business documents, ensuring that they are well-protected from fire, theft, and other risks. In addition, financial record storage can help businesses to save space as we can store your documents electronically.

Retail Document Storage

Many new businesses generate a lot of online sales. These records are usually stored in your CMS system and retrieving documents is relatively simple.

But the majority of businesses that complete transactions still have an abundance of invoices that can be generated from in-store purchases, guarantee signatures, delivery notes and supplier invoices.

This can quickly overwhelm a growing business unless you think ahead and plan how to deal with the ever amount of paperwork your business not only must deal with but keep safe for the next 6 years.

This is why secure document storage for your businesses needs to be efficient and managed. Knowing you have a plan in place for your documents will give you peace of mind and effectively save you money over the longer term.

About our current clients

Many of our clients operate in the retail market and legal and financial sectors. This includes accountants, financial advisors, solicitors, and barristers. We also maintain storage contracts with many public sector organisations such as councils, schools, and hospitals. We store a plethora of business documents ranging from legal proceeds, personnel files and financial documents of all varieties.

All documents we maintained are stored according to our strict indexation policy. This allows for quick retrieval if the need for document retrieval arises. All document boxes are scanned and barcoded. We also offer a ‘scan on demand service for almost instantaneous retrieval of your business documents.

Document safety

At Secure Storage Service, document safety is our number one priority. Our premises is covered by a state-of-the-art CCTV system. The building is also highly resistant to flooding and fire. We have also invested in the best possible fire and burglar alarms available on the market today. Staff members are CRB checked.