June 3, 2020

EOFY is Almost Here! – Helpful Tips for Filing & Archiving

It’s that time of year again – the end of another financial year!

Get in early and start preparing all of your financial paperwork for personal and business tax returns. It's fun, we know. As the years progress, the paperwork keeps multiplying so don't let this years files get on top of you.

Now is ample time to get on top of your paper archives too to help keep you sane in the next few weeks and months:

Check The Age of Your Documents – you only need to keep most of your financial documents for 5 years (some possibly 7 years). You should securely destroy anything older than this. Click here to confirm how long you need to keep your financial records for, and get destroying!
Destroy Your Documents - either shred your documents yourself or get in touch with a specialised company to securely destroy your documents for you. If you are based in VIC we recommend Smart Storage. It's important you do not throw documents with personal or sensitive information in the bin without shredding – this is a huge risk for identity theft.
Assess Your Space - Now that you have destroyed and sorted all previous years documents, you can assess how much space you will need for adding the latest financial year to your filing. Make sure you have enough new archive boxes on hand - order yours now.
Keep One Copy Of Documents - Before you box up the latest financial year’s documents – ensure that you only keep one copy of everything. This will ensure you reduce the storage space you need. Ensure you destroy additional copies safely.
Clearly Mark Your Boxes - Ensure you mark your archive boxes clearly with the financial year it holds, and which part of the documents are kept in that particular box. This will ensure you do not have to search through every box in a financial year if you need any of the documents in there. Checkout our handy archiving software which may help you with this!
Stay Calm and Keep Focused – soon you'll be on top of all your paperwork and you'll thank yourself for focusing on it!

Remember to order your archive boxes in advance to ensure sure you're prepared. We recommend our A4 Plastic Archive Boxes - they can store your archive files in a sturdy acid free box which won't collapse or break up when carried. Click here to get ordering now!