Retaining Collateral

In all my time mystery shopping, I have NEVER had a company reach out to me about mailing in hard copies of collateral over a month after the shop -- until tonight! Generally, I'm very good at keeping things around, but I really thought I might have thrown this one out! Thankfully, I still had it, but it was definitely a reminder about how important it is TO keep everything for at least three months, or even longer if that's what the instructions stipulate.

Just thought I'd post this as a reminder to others, too!

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

Good reminder, I toss too quickly.

Carol

I just find that a month of collateral is about an inch thick file folder, so a full year is less than a cubic food of space. A file folder for each month, the current month's folder next to the computer so that as I finish entering the report I throw the collateral into the front of the file folder and it is there if/when called for. Means I don't need to have a panic attack if asked for something from a job done in Feb 2010.

And I just keep the stuff as long as my tax return could still be audited because it also is my backup for that. IRS has 3 years from the time you file your return to audit it, so 2010 materials I will keep until I file my 2013 return. Material that is scanned I will keep a lot longer because it takes no physical space to speak of at all. It too is stored and I still have it going back to when I started shopping. This includes the financial records of my business.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

Retaining Collateral

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine