Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies

CHAPTER 3

Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles®

Charmaine Brooks, CRM

Records and recordkeeping are inextricably linked with any organized business activity. Through the information that an organization uses and records, creates or receives in the normal course of business, it knows what has been done and by whom—if records management best practices and information governance (IG) policies are followed. This allows the organization to effectively demonstrate compliance with applicable standards, laws, and regulations, as well as plan what it will do in the future to meet its mission and strategic objectives.

Standards and principles of recordkeeping have been developed by records and information management (RIM) practitioners to establish benchmarks for how organizations of all types and sizes can build and sustain compliant, legally defensible records management (RM) programs.

The Principles

In 2009 ARMA International published a set of eight Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles®, known as “GAR Principles” or “The Principles”,1 to foster awareness of good recordkeeping practices. These principles and associated metrics provide an IG framework that can support continuous improvement.

The eight Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles are:

1.Accountability. A senior executive (or person of comparable authority) oversees the recordkeeping program and delegates program responsibility to appropriate individuals. The organization adopts policies and procedures to ...