Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices

BENEFITS OF BUSINESS RECORDS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES By: Fathiah Nasuha Binti Lukman [email protected] Faculty of Information Management UiTM Campus Puncak Perdana ABSTRACT It is necessary to keep the important records which able to be as evidence of transaction done. Good record keeping competent to commit with business needs and provide information for future decision. Record is a document regardless of form created, received, maintained and used by organizational or individuals in fulfillment of legal compulsions or transaction as providing evidence. Decision of keeping records require the system to manage that records in ensuring records kept are relevant as evidence and available when there are demands from individuals or organization. Records management principles are capable to equip the records professional to manage their records in a secure and efficient manner. This paper highlights on the benefits of business records management practices which allow the readers to recognize more details about managing the business records are compliance with legal and regulatory, bring significance influence on administrative of organization and capable to reduce expenditure in keeping all the records created. Keyword: Record, record keeping, records management, evidence, business 1.0 Introduction Every business in this world doing transaction with creation of records either in paper based or electronically. Keeping good and significant records is very important to business because every record created shows accountability. Without records there can be no rule of law and no accountability (IRMT, 2000). Tough (2011) said that it is helpful to have a definition of accountability that is more directly related to record keeping concerns. The organization must recognize that records kept are the most important management tools for their business transaction. Records can be in any format where is information created, received and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business (The National Archives of United Kingdom, 2010). Furthermore, they added that records are created not for the sake of it but to provide information about what happened, what was decided, and how to do things because individuals cannot be expected or relied upon to remember everything clearly.

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices Record keeping is the most significant responsibilities for business either as public/ private sector and small / large scale of business development. The creation and management of effective records keeping and management system help the organization to accomplish the goal’s company. Besides that, record keeping helps the health care organization in operation of managing many patients’ records. Many of the Royal College of Physicians’ record keeping standards may verify beneficial to psychiatric practice (Galappathie, Jethwa & Andonovska, 2008). According to Hamilton, Round, Sharp and Peters (2003), high quality record keeping is useful for continuity of care, and may be essential for legal aspect of practice of medicine purposes. Even records keeping is vital to ensure that the organizations keep the records which support their daily transaction, however it is important to make sure that all the records kept are managed with effectively and economically. Managing the records effectively makes the individual’s work easier to retrieve and use the records when there are needs. State Library and Archives of Florida (2009) indicated proper records management ensures that information is available when and where it is needed, in an organized and efficient manner, and in an appropriate environment. Failure to manage records properly would be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to an efficient South African justice system and lead to the length of time it takes for cases to appear and be resolved in court (Saurombe, 2014). Generally records management can be defined as management of records and documented information for the entirely of record’s lifecycle. The record’s lifecycle includes from the creation of records to the disposal of records in efficiency and economy ways. State Library and Archives of Florida (2009) mentioned that records management seeks to manage and control records throughout their life cycle, from their creation and distribution, through their filing and use, and ultimately to their final disposition or permanent retention. There is a need to establish an effectively and economical methods for managing the important records as providing the authority to create, use and maintenance and dispose of records. 2.0 Benefits of Business Records Management Practices. As records are valuable information assets for an organization, by then there is responsibility of organization to manage records effectively with minimum costing and maximize the profit. Records management is responsible to ensure that the information is retrievable, authentic, static and accurate when there are needs. According to Ngoepe and Makhubela (2015), records can serve as critical proof that a particular action or transaction took place and can be admitted as evidence in a court of law. This shows that the necessity of doing the records keeping and management of business records as records uses are very important as act as proof, evidence or references for future uses.

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices Generally there are some benefits of business records management practices stated. This is because majority organizations start to realize the importance of management their business records that they created every single day. Day by day, records that support their business transactions keep more increasing, by then their organizations need the business records management practices. Referring to Acquisition Guide Records Management issued by the National Archives and Records Administration, NARA (2006) that records management provides a rational basis for making decisions about recorded information which these decisions are necessary to support the legal, fiscal, administrative, and other needs of the government owned. According to Lipchak, 2002 (as cited in Ajiboye et al.,2016) good records management is essential for good administration. It provides the vital information and essential evidence to enable administrators to identify and understand problems and issues, make decisions and take actions. The benefits of an effective records and information management are many which include compliance with legal retention requirements, faster retrieval of information, space savings, fewer lost or misfiled records, and reduction of expenditures for records filing equipment (State Library and Archives of Florida, 2009). In making a simple ways to understand the benefits of business records management practices, there is a diagram to solely illustrate the benefits that are stated in this paper.

Legal and regulatory compliance Benefits of business records management practices

Significant influence on administrative of organization

Reducing expenditure

Figure 1: Benefits of business records management practices,

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices 2.1 Legal and regulatory compliance Records are capable to be as evidence legally for any organization transaction or court case. This shows that the accountability of records towards providing main or supportive proof for a case that related with law cases. According to Ngoepe and Makhubela (2015), legal records provide evidence of contractual obligations, duties and human rights agreed upon by governments, organizations or individuals. With the accountability of legal records, records are kept as to defense other’s rights or any fixed regulatory and obligations. One of the reasons for keeping records is that organizations use records to support accountability when they want to prove that they have met their obligations or complied with best practices according to the established policies (Shepherd, 2006). Besides defending, records that are effectively managed capable to prevent the fraud of business transaction which may some of individuals have intention to do something bad. Obura (2012) clearly stated in the study that good records and information management plays a significant role in deterring corruption. According to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (2010), ‘‘corruption is dishonest or illegal behavior, especially of people in authority. Trustworthy records when they are able to serve as evidence of any illegal actions of individuals. It is a good records management practices if are done based on the investigation of record’s legal values. This is because the records may have values which make themselves as are required in law case. With records management practices being applied in organizations, by then the record’s legal can be kept manageable. State Library and Archives of Florida (2009) highlighted that the assurance of a good records management program is the establishment of retention requirements based upon an analysis of the records’ legal, fiscal, administrative, and historical requirements and values. All the records can be used as evidence and so have a legal value, some records are generally specifically form the legal process which from the work of the courts, police and public prosecutors (IRMT, 1999). According to NARA (2006), legal records are including legal opinions, litigation files, and documents covered by the attorneyclient and attorney work product privileges. It can be said that legal records is a written account of all the acts in a lawsuit. Therefore, it seems that records have legal value when come to be as evidence for any case. By managing the business records which have legal value help the organization to solve any law problems that required the legal records as evidence. Thus, records management practices beneficial to organization as legal and regulatory compliance.

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices 2.2 Significant influence on administrative of organization Record keeping and records management can be said bring the positive impact and encouragement of the whole managerial of organization. Based on study conducted by Ajiboye et al. (2016), the study indicated that records management practice has the most significant influence on the administration of the church of Nigeria. The finding revealed that administrators of Church of Nigeria have awareness of the importance of records management practices related to their records in their churches. Easing the accessing to records show there is good administration practices of organization. Records help the individuals to make an important decision by providing the information needed by clients who refer to the records. Silvestri (2016) stated that production of records for different administrative purposes such as financial, judicial, diplomatic and others) which storage for these administrative records are useful for government with developing new strategies to facilitate the organization and consultation of records themselves. Records contain information as sources to be referred in managing the administrative of organization. The records bring significant influence on administrative of organization as the works become easy and manageable with the existence of records needed. Administration of organization refers to how the business transactions are managed for that organization. By keeping the important records and applying the business records management practices, this action help to ease the work of administration of company because of the records and information management are understood. Wamukoya (2000) highlighted that record keeping is a fundamental activity of public administration and records support all aspects of public administration need to have access to accurate, reliable, timely and complete information in order to provide efficient services. The importance records that are supporting the business transaction and act as evidence should be kept and managed properly as allowing to be referred when there is a need. The loss of records shows that the administration of organization is having critical problem. Frequent loss of court files seriously undermines the efficient administration of justice causing unnecessary adjournment of court hearings (Wamukoya, 2000). Thus, business records management practices show significant in positive way as to influence the administrative of organization in working more effectively and efficiently.

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices 2.3 Reducing expenditure When there are effective records management practices for all the records kept, this is absolutely will able to reducing the costing to manage the bulk volume of records. According to Bailey (2011), his study provides proof that investment in improvements to records management can realize significant and sustained financial. Furthermore, from the study, he indicated that the impact of records management related to reducing expenditure in term of reduced staff costs, reduced consumables costs, or reduced storage costs. This is because through good records keeping and effective records management practices, only the important and valuable records will be kept as to support transaction and as evidence. Studies have also shown that a functional records management system reduces the cost of administering an organization as well as good decision-making (Ajiboye et al. , 2016). The expenditure is directly able to be reduced through effective records management. Poor records management may increase the cost to keep the records as evidence for future references. This is because cost involved in keeping the records longer than they are needed require big amount of costing. Appropriate and effective records management practices can greatly reduce the storage media, additional filing cabinet and file as the organization only keep and manage records which currently needed. As said at IRMT (2000), one of the benefits of an integrated records management program is that it encourages the efficient use of equipment and supplies, which reduces both costs and waste. University Archives (2007) stated that the costs can be reduced or eliminated with the application of records management principles. In addition, records management allow money to be saved on filing cabinets, file folders, and the cost of employee time spent filing and retrieving records. In general, through management of business records allows the organization to reducing expenditures in equipment and staffing. Using minimum cost in managing the records in organization show that this situation is a good records management practice.

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices 3.0 Conclusion For short, records created must be protected from destruction because they offer direct evidences of legal status, ownership, account receivable and particular responsibility. This paper shows that the benefits of business records management practices since nowadays majority organization start to realize the accountability of records created and received in their organization. Mainly, the objective of record keeping and records management practices is to prevent the loss of information or important records which is critical to the enduring operation of an organization. For private sectors, records play vital responsibility as evidence for supporting the transaction thus making profits. Meanwhile the public sectors records are accountable to protect public interest and ensure maintenance of individual rights. The benefits of business records management practices are compliance with legal and regulatory, significant influence on administrative of organization and reducing or minimize the expenditures.

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Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices REFERENCES Abioye, A. (2014), “Court records management and efficient administration of justice in Nigeria”, African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 27-39. Ajiboye, B. A. et al. (2016). Records management practices in the administration of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion). Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-01-2015-0005 Bailey, S. (2011). Measuring the impact of records management. Retrieved on October 25th, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09565691111125107 Galappathie, N., Jethwa, K. & Andonovska, B. (2008). An audit of basic record keeping standards: lessons learnt from the Royal College of Physicians. Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from msl.sagepub.com/content/48/2/155.full.pdf Hamilton, W. T., Round, A. P., Sharp, D. & Peters, T. J. (2003). The quality of record keeping in primary care: a comparison of computerised, paper and hybrid systems. Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314745/pdf/14960216.pdf IRMT. (1999). Managing Legal Records. Retrieved on October 23th, 2016 from www.irmt.org/documents/educ_training/public_sector_rec/IRMT_legal_r ecs.doc IRMT. (2000). Managing Records as the Basis for Effective Service Delivery and Public Accountability in Development: An Introduction to Core Principles for Staff of the World Bank and Its Partners. Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTARCHIVES/.../Core% 20Principles.pdf Kargbo, J.A. (2015). Primary records: what future? Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/LR-08-2015-0082 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). 2006. Acquisition Guide Chapter 9 Records Management. Retrieved on October 24th,2016 from https://www.archives.gov/files/records-mgmt/toolkit/pdf/ID189.pdf Ngoepe, M. & Makhubela, S. (2015). “Justice delayed is justice denied” Records management and the travesty of justice in South Africa. Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-06-2015-0023 Obura, C.O. (2012). Effective records and information management as a catalyst for fighting corruption. . Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from DOI: 10.1177/0266666912451847 Saurombe, A. (2014), “Towards the adoption of e-justice in South Africa and the developing world: prospects and challenges”, ESARBICA Journal, Vol. 33, pp. 83-95. State Library and Archives of Florida. (2009). The Basics Of Records Management. Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from dos.myflorida.com/media/31105/basicsrecordsmanagement.pdf

Benefits Of Business Records Management Practices Tough, A. (2011). Accountability, open government and record keeping: time to think again?. Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09565691111186894 The National Archive of UK. (2010). Guide 1 What is records management? Retrieved on October 28th, 2016 from www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/foi-section-46-code-of-practice.pdf Wamukoya, J. (2000). Records and archives as a basis for good government: implications and challenges for records managers and archivists in Africa. Retrieved on October 25th, 2016 from http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM 00000 00007254