Business Records Retention Schedule


This schedule is a guide from the IRS, however, special
circumstances can alter the retention period.

1 year Retention Period

  • Bank reconciliation
  • Correspondence (routine) with customers or vendors
  • Duplicate deposit slips
  • Purchase orders (except purchasing department copy)
  • Receiving sheets’
  • Requisitions
  • Stenographer’s notebooks
  • Stockroom withdrawal forms

3 year Retention Period

  • Correspondence (general)
  • Employee personal records (after termination)
  • Employment applications
  • Insurance policies (expired)
  • Internal audit reports (in some situations longer retention periods may be desired)
  • Internal reports (miscellaneous)
  • Petty cask vouchers
  • Physical inventory tags
  • Savings bond registration records of employees

7 year Retention Period

  • Accident reports and claims (settled cases)
  • Accounts payable ledgers and schedules
  • Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules
  • Checks (cancelled but see exception in permanent section below)
  • Contracts and leases (expired)
  • Expense analysis and expense distribution schedules
  • Inventories of products, materials and supplies
  • Invoices to customers
  • Invoices from vendors
  • Notes receivable ledgers and schedules
  • Option records (expired)
  • Payroll records and summaries, including payments to pensioners
  • Plant cost ledgers
  • Purchase orders (purchasing department copy)
  • Sales records
  • Scrap and salvage records (inventories, sales, etc.)
  • Subsidiary ledgers
  • Time books
  • Voucher register and schedules
  • Vouchers for payments to vendors, employees. etc. (includes allowances and reimbursement of employees, officers, etc., for travel and entertainment expenses)

Permanent Retention Period

  • Audit reports of accountants
  • Capital stock and bond records; ledgers, transfer registers, stubs showing issues, record of interest coupons, options, etc.
  • Cash books
  • Charts of accounts
  • Checks(cancelled for important payments, i.e., taxes, purchases of property, special contracts, etc.)•
  • Contracts and leases still in effect
  • Correspondence (legal and important matters only)
  • Deeds, mortgages and bills of sale
  • Depreciation schedules
  • Financial statements (end-of-year, other months optional)
  • General and private ledgers (and end-of-year trial balances)
  • Insurance records, current accident reports, claims, policies, etc.
  • Journals
  • Minute books of directors and stockholders, including by-laws and charter
  • Property appraisals by outside appraisers
  • Property records-including costs, depreciation reserves, end-of-year trial balances, depreciation schedules, blueprints and plans
  • Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents’ reports and other documents relating to determination of income tax liability
  • Trade mark registrations