Data Storage/Retention
The owner takes the remaining copy of the receipt from each order, staples it to
the order itself, and places them in a pile. At the end of the day, these orders and
receipts are gathered, attached to the credit card settlement report, and filed by day in a
file folder. Each month gets one or more labeled file folders, depending on volume;
each year gets one or more labeled file boxes in the garage.
At the end of the day, the owner also goes through the receipts from the
packages being shipped that day and moves the order files on the Big Mac into an
“Orders Shipped” directory. These are kept forever, sorted by year, then by month, then
by order date and customer last name.
The file boxes are kept on open wooden shelves in the garage for seven years,
the record retention time specified by the Business’s credit card service provider. At the
end of that time, the files are shredded.