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The task of writing a laboratory report (or your senior thesis!) can be immeasurably enhanced by good record keeping.Ī laboratory notebook is the written record of everything that was done (good and bad) and all relevant plans, observations, notations, interpretations, and conclusions. The skill of writing the Laboratory Notebook is a vital part of industrial and academic research and is required by law to establish intellectual and patent rights. Questionnaire to determine customer demographics.ĭocumentation of the shipment of materials.Įmployees' sign-up forms for health plans.Scientific knowledge is disseminated via the published research article, and the accuracy and integrity of such presentation depends on reliable record keeping. Summaries of sick time, vacation time, and other non-salary payroll items. Summaries of hours worked, overtime, and salaries paid. The following is a completed sample file plan: Records What kind of media are records of this kind stored in. Who is the primary records manager for records of this kind.
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How records should be disposed of when the retention period expires. How long each kind of record should be retained. Records of individuals' employment histories and related personnel actions.Īfter you determine which documents should be retained as records and after you create a set of record categories, complete your file plan by providing additional information about each kind of record. Public relations information about products and services.Įmergency contact sheets, medical plan enrollment forms, resumes, benefits status reports Product surveys, questionnaires, training manuals, training videos Records of goods or services purchased from vendors. Summaries of hours worked, overtime, and salary paid. Payroll timesheets, supplementary payroll information The following is a sample worksheet: Kind of recordīenefit plans, insurance plans, pension plansĭescriptions of all employee benefit plans. Record the kind of record, the category that records of this kind belong to, and a brief description of the kind of record. Record the information that you collected. Records in the same category often have the same retention periods and might require similar treatment in other ways. For example, you might determine that the following should be retained as records:ĭocuments related to employees' benefits.ĭocuments related to product research and development. In a collaborative effort across the divisions of your organization, analyze how active documents are used.ĭevelop a list of the kinds of documents that should become records. Understand your enterprise's legal obligations and business needs. Generally, to determine what are records in your organization: Most likely, your enterprise is already doing some form of records management and has filled most of the records management roles that you need, and you might already have a taxonomy of records. It is beyond the scope of this article to provide more than general information about how to determine what is a record in your organization. Along with general business laws, you must evaluate legal requirements that are specific to your enterprise. Note that, even if your enterprise is not in a highly regulated industry, there are general laws that might obligate your enterprise to keep records. Identify kinds of recordsĭetermining which active documents in your organization might be declarable as records requires the collaboration of records managers, lawyers, compliance officers, and content managers. The article also directs you to a worksheet in which you can record the file plan.
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This article describes the contents of a file plan and summarizes how to create a file plan for your organization.
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Although file plans can differ across organizations, they typically:ĭescribe the kinds of items the organization acknowledges to be records.ĭescribe what broader category of records the items belong to.ĭelineate who is responsible for managing the various kinds of records. The file plan is the primary records management planning document in SharePoint Server. APPLIES TO: 2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition SharePoint in Microsoft 365
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