What is archiving in the general sense? Put in a very cut and dry manner, it's simply the cataloguing and storing of something.

This is important for history, so we can learn about what happened before our own time. In the world of business, archiving is not done so frequently or at least not to a high standard.

Normally when you think of archiving you think of historical institutions that have kept a parchment of a declaration from hundreds of years ago. Although it's not that severe for businesses, an archive is your history. Why would you want to store your own history?

For the simple reason of making sure you’re learning from your mistakes, you’re logging good moments in your business, key strategies, the changing of procedures and processes but also your employee history too.

Your own pitfall

If you were allowed back into the historical rooms of banks from across the world, you will see how seriously some entities take archiving.

Banks that have been around for hundreds of years, have records of their performances, their buys, sells, employees and positions from years ago.

They have these old dusty records because if they are ever facing a monumental problem or need proof of something, they can always return to the matter with solid proof.

They in effect, have a way to keep their company culture and professional lineage intact even across multiple generations.

In fact they very often give interns and students a chance to learn about their banking history so their ethos and way of doing business can really sink in and help their new wave of employees think like they do.

A modern archive?

Okay so what if you don’t have a large vault to store all your contracts, invoices, financial records, quarterly performance reports and more? Well these days you have the ability to use online cloud storage systems. Here’s why you need G Suite today.

Firstly you get a massive 1 TB of storage for yourself which you will never really fill completely. There’s also anti-spam security which prevents your files and folders from being bombarded with useless content.

You have a full office web-based suite so you can use to create, collaborate, communicate and store your work. Your business has access to your files from anywhere and anytime.

The best part is you get your own business domain name so your emails look professional and your address is one of a kind.

Proof is in the archive

When you sign a contract and take it back to your office, where do you store it? Hopefully it's not just in any old file on your desk.

It should be in an archive room where you keep very important documents that may not be touched for many years to come.

However they can kept safe so you have proof that you do in fact have a contract with a client if a court of law or new regime in the other business wants to see it.

Archiving is a great way to pass on your company culture to new employees. You also document your contracts and other legally important things to show proof that your business does have power in a particular matter.