How long do you keep paper work?

[icanshootwell]

Not so much vat because i know thats about 7 years, but take sheep movement licenses for one, i must have 2 big folders full up,i went through the office yesterday and the amount of crap that just fills every orifice. Old NFU paper work, do they really need to use so much paper!!!

 

[Fish]

Still got great grandfathers accounts

 

[Gone Shooting]

Heaps here - always worried if you chuck stuff and may need it one day! Biggest office filler is box files taking up a lot of space with IACS paperwork for each year - could this be chucked ?

 

[Goweresque]

Old NFU paper work, do they really need to use so much paper!!!

A word of warning to definitely keep your insurance documents as long as you are in business, a claim can come out of the blue many years even decades after the event. I know of someone who has faced such a claim and they couldn't find out who their insurer was at the time, due to having lost or disposed of their insurance documents, and the broker who arranged it having been taken over, or retired, and all those records being lost too. They face paying a large claim with no insurer to pick up any of the bill.

 

[jendan]

Still got great grandfathers accounts

Ive got some of my grandfathers.Fascinating reading.

 

[Mercury]

Do you have a document scanner? Just scan all your paperwork and keep it on computer.

 

[steveR]

Do you have a document scanner? Just scan all your paperwork and keep it on computer.

That'll be a fair old job....

 

[Still Farming]

Year dot.
I know obligatory 6-7 yrs HMRC and Custom and Excise VAT but we got old receipts ,old cheques , rent ,letters , Unions books, MMB Wool board , Variable premium slips etc etc. back generations.

Museum not got a mark on it ?

 

[JohnGalway]

I have some stuff from the late 90's.

 

[MattR]

Keeping stuff is one thing. Finding it when you need it is another.

 

[Still Farming]

Keeping stuff is one thing. Finding it when you need it is another.

Big shelf on the floor or Attic, simple non cloud system.

 

[Al R]

Do you have a document scanner? Just scan all your paperwork and keep it on computer.

My mother printed every email and document so she had a paper copy, hard drive copy and a cloud copy. I have the printer which isn’t very old and I could see the other day it was on 49,000 pages printed
I’m glad we have a cellar, no idea age of some of the paperwork, there is some interesting items from 100+ years ago like when multiple (15 or so) farms were all for sale at once and the full particulars for every farm is in one sale brochure document, @JLLM there isn’t many farms in the area which arn’t on there - I’ll have to dig it out sometime

 

[Highland Mule]

I have some stuff from the late 90's.

I have stuff back to the 80s. 1880s, that is.

 

[JohnGalway]

I have stuff back to the 80s. 1880s, that is.

You're obviously much older than me

 

[deleted user 837354]

Scan it all into OneDrive and shred the physical copies.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Not so much vat because i know thats about 7 years, but take sheep movement licenses for one, i must have 2 big folders full up,i went through the office yesterday and the amount of crap that just fills every orifice. Old NFU paper work, do they really need to use so much paper!!!

Put it this way... brother in law received a letter this week from Capita about a missing sheep movement doc from 2014...

 

[DaveGrohl]

Heaps here - always worried if you chuck stuff and may need it one day! Biggest office filler is box files taking up a lot of space with IACS paperwork for each year - could this be chucked ?

Defo hang onto IACS but some of your early CID "spare" docs and ear tags could prob go, at a push.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Put it this way... brother in law received a letter this week from Capita about a missing sheep movement doc from 2014...

And what Earthly reason could there possibly be for asking such a question in the first place? Tell them to do one.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I asked this question during a recent inspection. I'd hoped I could get rid of a lot but was told I needed to keep records going back at least as far as the oldest animal on the premises so that its history could be traced. With a few old sucklers about that means still keeping movement records from twenty years ago.

 

[Frodo]

Do you have a document scanner? Just scan all your paperwork and keep it on computer.

What happens to all the information/photos when we inevitably stop paying our 79p/month to google or OneDrive?