SignAndGoHow long to keep signed documents, and where the copies go.
Once a document is signed, the next question is what to do with it. Most New Zealand businesses have a mix of short-lived paperwork and agreements that matter for a decade. A simple keeping plan, agreed once, saves you hunting for a signed copy years from now.
Sort your documents into keeping groups
Start by listing the kinds of documents you send for signature and grouping them by how long they stay useful. A one-off event booking form is finished with in weeks. A supplier agreement matters until it ends, plus however long a dispute could take to surface. Employment records, leases and anything touching your accounts usually sit in the longest group.
Ask your accountant or adviser how long each group should be kept for your type of business, and write the answer down. The decision is yours to make; the point of writing it down is that everyone on the team applies the same rule.
- Short: event forms, one-off acknowledgements, internal sign-offs.
- Medium: client engagements and service agreements that end on a known date.
- Long: employment, tenancy, lease and shareholder paperwork, and anything your accountant may need.
Know what a finished envelope gives you
When the last person signs, SignAndGo emails the completed document to every signer and to anyone you copied in, together with a completion certificate. The envelope itself keeps its audit trail: each view and signature with the person's name, email address, time and IP address.
Every signed document also carries a verification ID that anyone can check online. That matters for long keeping periods, because someone picking up the file in five years can confirm it is the document that was signed without asking you.
Decide where the master copy lives
Pick one home for the signed copy of each group, rather than relying on whoever happens to have the email. For many businesses that is their accounting system. If you connect Xero, SignAndGo can file signed documents there automatically and add new signers as contacts, so the agreement sits next to the invoices it relates to.
For everything else, a shared inbox that you copy in on every envelope gives the office one place to search. Name the envelope clearly when you send it, because that title follows the document wherever it goes.
Review the plan once in a while
Put a recurring note in the calendar to look over what you are keeping. Check that new document types have been given a group, that people who have left the team are no longer the only ones who know where things are, and that copied-in inboxes still exist.
Common questions
- Does SignAndGo tell me how long to keep each document?
- No. How long you keep a record depends on your business, so ask your accountant or adviser and set the rule yourself.
- Who receives the signed copy?
- Every signer and everyone you copied in receives the completed document by email, with its completion certificate.
- Can I check an old signed document is genuine?
- Yes. Each signed document carries a verification ID that can be checked online.