Email Archiving

Source: The CPA Journal

E-mails often change company policies and should, therefore, be preserved. It is important to determine which should be archived (it is impractical to save all e-mails), create storage facilities, develop a search mechanism, and incorporate e-mails into formal policies.

For example, an e-mail that alters a policy on firm travel rules could be marked, archived, and later incorporated into the firm's manual.

E-mail correspondence affecting a client should be saved under the client name.

E-mail can be stored under several different methods—on a hard drive, server, or storage area network.

A storage area network is the most advanced and also facilitates the search process.

Incorporating the e-mails into the policy manual can be daunting. A sophisticated, but effective resolution is to put the manual on line thus facilitating the addition of e-mails that change policy.

For the complete article, see The CPA Journal, February 2005 or go to http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2005/205/essentials/p66.htm