When analysing your records it is important to inspect the document and classify it as one of the following:

• Vital record – a vital record is essential for the effective, continuous operation of the company. These documents would be required to re-establish or continue an organisation in the event of a disaster happening.  These documents are usually irreplaceable e.g. leases, legal documents patents, property deeds, trademarks.  If these documents have not been stored correctly and are lost, the company will be unable to start up the company again in the event of a disaster.  Think of the various businesses that had branches in the Twin Towers.  All the records, both paper and electronic, would have been totally destroyed.  If vital records were not stored off-site or at other branches of the company, where possible, it would be unlikely that the company would be able to continue the business elsewhere without considerable time, cost and effort.

• Important records – these records contribute to the smooth running of the company and can be replaced or duplicated if lost or destroyed from other places inside or outside of the organisation, but it would take considerable time and money to replace them e.g. case files, customer orders, financial records (could get them from your accountant) and tax records (SARS).

• Useful records – these are documents that can be easily replaced. If they are mislaid, they will not disrupt the routine operations of the company e.g.  business reports, complaint letters, customer requests.

• Nonessential records – these records are not necessary for the restoration of the business and have no predictable value e.g. subscriptions, survey results, telephone messages.

Once records have been identified, it is necessary to consider the natures of potential disasters – the likelihood of them happening and the consequences of what would happen should they occur.  All kinds of disasters should be taken into account.  People often have the attitude – ‘it will not happen to me‘ and have had to eat their words at some stage or another.  We may not be at risk of a Tsunami hitting us, but we can have severe rains and buildings can be flooded out.  If records are stored in cardboard boxes directly on the floor or stored in the basement, the records could be extensively damaged!

Think of your own personal records e.g. Identity document, birth certificates, mortgage papers, car papers, wills etc.   Try and group them into the above classifications.  In the event of your house burning down, your handbag stolen or your house burgled, how quickly would you be able to replace any of those documents?  Do you have certified copies of documents, do you have duplicates etc.  Have you considered any of these as records?