Archiving and Retention Policy Part 2: Using Checklists and Flags
BY IT GLUE | April 02, 2019
A while back, I wrote a post about archiving and retention of old documentation. In that post, I went over three main options: archive, delete and export. That’s the how, and every MSP is still going to have their own approach from among these different options. But what I didn’t cover was the when and the what, so let’s talk about those questions now. In fact, IT Glue has added features since I wrote that article that make determining the when and what a lot easier than before.
How do I know what to archive?
Some stuff you want to archive is pretty obvious, like churned accounts. Keep the information for when they call you up in six months, complaining about how the grass wasn’t actually greener on the other side.
But even for current clients, documentation gets stale-dated and must be dealt with. IT Glue’s Flags feature can help with that. If you’re going through documentation and spot something that needs to be either archived, deleted, or at least looked at, flag it. You can create each of those flags individually, or a generic “needs review” flag.
You might have someone who is in charge of the documentation for particular organizations, and they would then need to review the document. Or you might have someone in a more administrative role – a larger MSP might have an IT Glue-certified technician who, among other things, keeps all the documentation in IT Glue up-to-date.
Either way, a system of flagging documents can serve to organize the process of updating documentation.
How do I know when to archive?
When a document is flagged for review, or flagged as something to be archived, make sure a notification is set up. Whoever you’ve designated as responsible for that organization, or for your documentation in general, will then receive a notice. By leveraging IT Glue’s Workflows feature, your team will always know when a piece of documentation needs work.
Organizing the work of archiving
IT Glue also has a Checklists feature, which can help organize all this work. For teams that prefer periodic reviews of documentation, instead of ongoing, Checklists is an especially valuable tool. We recommend building a checklist template for “Documentation Review” that helps you map out the ideal process for performing such a review.
Map out what you want your team to do when they are looking at a document that’s been flagged. Make sure that each task is assigned to a team member. Your team will have a much higher degree of transparency regarding documentation archiving projects, which not only makes management of such projects easier but also helps to foster a stronger documentation culture, by putting documentation front of mind more often.
Documentation is at its most effective when it’s easy to find. And of course, we have an awesome search function. But keeping the folders tidy and archiving all that stale-dated documentation is also a recommended practice, and some of the features we’ve introduced the past couple of months make archiving a much more structured, systematic process than ever before. Happy documenting!
If you’re interested in learning more about what IT Glue can do to help you manage your documentation, sign up for a demo below or get in touch with your Account Manager.
IT Glue is an award-winning documentation platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation you need to help your MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, we can help increase your efficiency, and reduce onboarding times by even more. By eliminating wasted time from your business, IT Glue gives you more time to focus on what matters – growing your business.
