The document management buzz continues to grow in the funeral industry. But do you really know what document management is? Document management systems let you scan paper documents or print electronic documents directly into an online filing cabinet and add index values ​​(tags) to documents so you can easily retrieve them by searching for a person’s name, date of service, or other custom index values. Document management can make a difference to your funeral home by offering time and money savings, as well as increased compliance.

While all businesses are required to keep certain records on file, funeral homes (especially those with cemeteries) have detailed and extensive guidelines for record retention. In Kentucky and Alabama, for example, the record retention guidelines look like this:

Record retention period

kentucky alabama

License Renewal Cards – Permanently Active 15 years
Complaints and Permanent Investigation Reports 15 years
License applications 50 years
Apprentice training report 3 years 3 years
Examination documents 2 years 3 years
Minutes of the board of directors meeting Permanent Permanent
Quarterly license bulletins Permanently Permanently

And that is just the beginning. All businesses are required to keep certain financial and human resources documents on file for a certain number of years, depending on the state. The following list provides a general guide on the amount of time that various types of records should be retained:

· Shareholder agreements, bylaws, minutes and other corporate governance documents: These documents must be permanently retained. Ideally, the copies should also be in the hands of your lawyer.
· Contracts, leases and other key agreements, including insurance policies: These records must be kept for at least 10 years after they expire. Funeral home owners should also keep insurance policies permanently, as claims can occasionally arise for acts that occurred many years ago. (This is particularly true in the case of environmental claims.) Keep a copy of the policy to establish coverage potential.
· Tax returns, financial statements and related documents: These documents must be permanently retained.
· Payroll records: Also keep these documents permanently.
· Financial and accounting records, including journals, ledgers, and depreciation schedules: Typically, these must be retained for 10 years after they are created. However, in the case of assets that may be long-lived or sold at a much later date, invoices or other documents establishing their cost will be required to establish a taxable base. These documents must be kept indefinitely.
· Personal records: Employee records, including applications, I-9 forms, and performance reviews, must be retained for at least seven years after the individual’s employment ends. In the case of a charge of discrimination, documents must be retained for four years after the resolution of the charge, if it is more than seven years after termination of employment. With respect to job applicants who have not been employed, applications, resumes, and responses must be retained for one year after completion.
· Bank statements and canceled checks: These can usually be disposed of after seven years. However, if the canceled checks could be required to establish a tax base or to evidence other significant transactions, the copies must be kept indefinitely, preferably with the other documents related to the transaction in question.

Rules and Regulations for Funeral Homes (and Other Businesses)

In addition to record retention regulations, there are other laws and acts that may affect your funeral home and the way you store your records.

Gramm–Leach Bliley Act

If your funeral home routinely enters into retail installment contracts with your families, you are subject to the Gramm-Leach Bliley (GLB) Act as a financial institution. (If the majority of consumers pay you by check, credit card, insurance assignment, or probate payment, your funeral home will not be considered a financial institution simply for occasionally allowing consumers to pay over time.) To comply with the GLB Law, you need:

• Hire or designate a records retention manager to oversee the disposal of records containing nonpublic personal information
• Store confidential records in such a way that only authorized employees can access them.
• Shred or recycle paper-based customer information
• Erase all data when disposing of computers, diskettes, magnetic tapes, hard drives, or any other electronic media containing customer information.
• Effectively destroy hardware
• Quickly dispose of outdated customer information

FTC Red Flags

The Red Flags Rule is an anti-fraud regulation that requires “creditors” and “financial institutions” with covered accounts to implement programs to identify, detect, and respond to warning signs or “red flags” that could indicate identity theft .

To further prevent the likelihood of identity theft at your funeral home, you should take the following steps to protect customer identification information:

• Carry out the complete and secure destruction of paper documents and computer files containing customer information.
• Make office computers password protected and provide computer screens to lock after a set period of time
• Keep offices free of paperwork containing customer identification information.
• Require and retain only the types of client information that are necessary for the funeral home’s purposes.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration: Right to Know Act

Officially known as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200, the Right-to-Know Act was designed to ensure that chemical hazards in the workplace are identified and evaluated, and that information about these hazards is communicated to both employers and employees. This transfer of information must be accomplished through a comprehensive hazard communication program that includes container labeling and other forms of warning, including Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and employee training. According to OSHA, MSDSs must be readily accessible to employees when they are in their work areas during their work shifts.

How document management can help

The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), which was adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1999, ensures that electronic transactions are as applicable as their paper counterparts. UETA states that: “the legal effect or enforceability of a contract cannot be denied solely because an electronic record was used in its formation.” The law states that any law that requires a physical record will be met with an electronic record and that any signature requirement can be met with an electronic signature.

Translation: In the United States, an electronic document is considered the same as the original document. This allows business owners to shred the corresponding paper files after they have been scanned into an electronic format or into a document management system. And it leads business owners to document management systems.

Permanent record keeping.

Using a document management system, your funeral home records can be permanently stored online. Once a document is scanned into the system, only the owner of the cabinet can delete it. This will help you comply with state record retention guidelines. To comply with OSHA regulations, your staff can scan your MSDS into a document management system for immediate retrieval from any computer with an Internet connection. And by scanning all the paper that comes into your office, you’re keeping desks clear of personal information, which is an important discovery for identity theft.

Password protected access.

A document management system is much more secure than your standard filing cabinet. Your employees will need user IDs and passwords to access the system and authorities can be set so that users can only view documents that are relevant to their jobs. This feature of most document management systems will help you comply with the GLB Act and the Red Flag Rule.

Audit trails.

Once a user is in the document management system, audit trails track which documents they have scanned, viewed, edited, and even deleted. This gives you the ability to see what your employees are looking at, as well as where and when. This adds another level of security to your documents and again helps with compliance.

Access from anywhere.

An unwanted benefit: In the event of an audit, planned or unplanned, users of the document management system can provide auditors with secure access to all documents stored in the system, eliminating the need for auditors to be on site and greatly speeds up the audit process.

By going paperless at your funeral home, you’ll also be able to improve compliance, eliminate files and filing cabinets, and create a central repository for all your records. In the process, you’ll save time and money and create a better experience for your employees and customers. The only question that remains is, when can you start scanning?