Records Retention

Office Management

In the course of operating a dealership, many different types of business records, in addition to the book of account, are created. Examples are vehicle invoices, repair orders, parts counter tickets, paid checks, paid invoices, and there are many more. Storage should be provided for these records only as long as they are needed, as determined by the internal requirements of the dealership or by legal or tax requirements. Legal and tax counsel should be consulted in determining the time periods the various types of documents should be retained. At the end of the specified retention period for a given type of document, the office manager should be authorized to destroy the documents that have become eligible for destruction.

Through the operation of a program such as this, the dealership will be assured that:

• All records needed by the dealership will be available as determined by legal & tax counsel.
• Records not required will be destroyed, thus insuring that necessary storage space will be kept to a minimum.