Principles and Objectives of Records Management

The records management should be effective and successful. For which, the records management should be based on certain fundamental principles. They are listed below.

Principles of Records Management

1. Justification: The purpose for which records are maintained should be justifiable. There is no need of keeping all information on the ground that they may be useful in future. If the records are maintained in the light of the principle of purpose, there may be many records which have no purpose and should not be preserved at all.

2. Verification: A record should be capable of verification. A record has no value if the concerned record cannot be verifiable.

3. Classification: Records should be properly classified according to its requirements in future. If the facts of a business are recorded chronologically, it is very difficult to analyze the facts of a business. In certain cases, classification itself is a form of analysis of the recorded facts.

4. Simplicity: Records should be maintained in a simple manner and according to the requirements of the business office.

5. Availability of Information: The desired information should be available when required. All the records are not necessary at one time. Hence, there is no need of instant availability of all the records. But, the required records should be available in the shortest possible period of time.

6. Accuracy: Records should be maintained accurately so as to minimize the chances of errors and fraud.

7. Reasonable Cost: The expenses of records management should not be ignored. All types of records have no equal importance. More safety arrangement is necessary to keep valuable and important documents. Some records are more important than others. Hence, safety lockers may be used to keep such records. Under strict control of the office manager, less important and less valuable records are also maintained.

8. Flexibility: The systems of records maintenance should be elastic. The system may be changed as and when on account of changing requirements of the business organization with out difficulty.

Objectives of Records Management

The records management has the following objectives. They are

1. To keep the accounts of progress in an order.

2. To facilitate the preparation of financial statements.

3. To know the true condition of the business organization

4. To facilitate in business plans and decision making particularly in the context of changing environment.

5. To facilitate comparisons between one period of time with another.

6. To facilitate comparisons between different product lines.

7. To facilitate comparisons between two similar business firms.

8. To detect errors, prevent frauds and avoid wastage.

9. To facilitate the performance of the business functions.

10. To keep the various records under various laws and fulfill the legal requirements.

11. To use the records as written proof of the every business transaction.

12. To bring and keep the efficiency in office operations.