Your Dealership Needs a Records Retention Schedule. Here's Why.

Many business owners wonder how long they need to retain certain documents or records. A comprehensive records retention schedule captures all the types of documents created and used by a company in the course of its business and indicates how long these records are required to be retained.

The Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association regularly publishes a helpful list of documents and the recommended time to retain them. For many documents, the recommended time to be kept is seven years.

When using a dealership management system like ASPEN Business Management System to track business information, the majority of business records including financial, communications with customers, inventory, and more are saved digitally, eliminating paper clutter. Paper documents can also be scanned and saved to a corresponding customer or unit records retention schedule. Most importantly, your data is tracked in real-time, which means the latest, up-to-date information is accessible at a moment’s notice. This can be a lifesaver when unexpected events demand that you produce records of your latest transactions or communications.

Records in ASPEN can be archived, which helps to eliminate the amount of data you need to sift through in your current or active records retention schedule. Archived data is also useful for inactive customers. If ever the need arises to research information regarding an inactive customer’s purchases, service history, communications, or other documents, the information can be easily accessed.