Information All Around You
The many formats and places in which an office creates and holds information.
8 min
Activities: 0 of 2
More than paper files
When people hear "records", they often picture filing cabinets. Today most office information is digital, and it is spread across many places: email, shared drives, cloud storage, finance and HR (human resources) systems, chat apps, phones and paper files.
This course is for anyone who creates, files or looks after information at work, especially in administrative roles. It starts with the basics of where information lives and who is responsible, then covers organising, keeping, protecting and disposing of records, and ends with realistic cases.
Where office information lives
Signed contracts, original certificates, delivery notes, the accident book and older files in storage.
Two examples
Example 1. A manager approves an urgent repair by chat message. Months later, an auditor asks who approved the spending. The message is still in the manager's phone, but the manager has left. The approval should have been saved with the repair records.
Example 2. A facilities officer photographs a damaged ceiling before repair and saves the photos in the building's maintenance folder with the date in the name. When an insurance claim is made, the evidence is found in minutes.
Match the information to where it is usually found
- Signed original contract
- Supplier's agreement to a new price
- Payroll data
- Photo of a site problem
A manager approves a purchase by chat message. Can this be a record?