When you sign off a contract you want to make sure it is safely put away. We doubt that you will leave it lying around somewhere for any third parties able to access it or even steal or copy it without any approval.

As a general rule and common practice all contracts are safely stored in a deemed location – either a safe or other similar locked container where only authorized personnel has access to. This access should always be monitored in a way to ensure only those with everyday and job description based need have access to them. For an example, the purchase manager should have access to supplier contracts whereas employee contracts should be accessible by human resources apartment and none other.

In addition to keeping contracts safe, you also want to make sure they are nicely and neatly organized in those containers. As a general rule according to local legislation you are obliged to keep all accounting source documents for 5 to 10 years (varies according to local legislation obviously), but since it is a considerably long time you need to make sure they are all in order and stored in a way that no harm will come to them. You have to make sure they are readable (keep away from sun or water obviously), all intact (i.e. not broken or torn up so that they are unreadable) and of course separated from other contracts in a way that it is not possible to mix the pages of different documents etc.

All those guidelines are common knowledge and sound so obvious, yet there are still offices where contracts are lying around, everyone has access to them and they are in no way kept safely to ensure their usefulness in say 7 years. So make sure all your contracts are stored taking those above made points in mind.