Records are very important in modern business. The office is responsible for maintaining the records for future reference. A good and systematic preservation and maintenance of letters and records received and copies of outgoing correspondence, for future reference is known as filing.
Filing is nothing but systematic record keeping. Filing is concerned with the work of arranging and preserving the records or copies of records kept in an organization so that they are readily available when required. All the office communications are done orally or through correspondence.
Information received in the office may be in the form of enquiries, orders, invoices, complaints, contracts of business, etc., and includes the internal accounts, payments, progress reports, stock records, sales, purchases etc.
All the information so received is to be processed and arranged in the form of statistical statement, financial statement, returns etc. And these are to be preserved for future reference. All stages leading to the transactions are evidenced by written documents. Thus records management and filing is an important thing for an efficient office management.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Office work is basically concerned with the records of organization. The value of any record in business depends upon the speed and accuracy with which it can be made available and put to use. In the words of little field and Peterson, “Records management can be described as the management control of records.”
In the words of Denyer, “Modern records management involves much more than the methods of filing or the systems of classification, important though these are indexing, central filing, records retention, follow up and micro-photography, all these receive attention in the present day office.”