Record keeping is an important prerequisite for successful business operations in Canada. There are several record retention requirements for businesses in the country that all organizations should adhere to. These requirements are set by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Because your organization's human resources department handles sensitive employee information, the Canadian government has certain requirements for managing any related records. This requires you to do more than keep everyone's social insurance number a secret. The federal government has several requirements for this.

Complying with federal government record retention guidelines is critical for your business. It not only helps you keep your records in order, but it also helps to protect your company from the negative consequences that can result from poor preparations for government oversight measures such as tax audits. Though the volume of records that you have to manage can make compliance seem difficult, it can in fact be fairly simple if you know what to do.

It goes without saying that your company's financial records are very important. But how long should you keep them for? The required record retention period for financial records must be closely adhered to. Here are some reasons why not complying can have a seriously negative impact on your business:

Is your business meeting all of the record retention requirements that it should be? Records are critical for every business' operation, so if your answer to the above question is no – or you are not sure – then you have some work to do. You need to be 100 per cent sure that your business is handling its records the right way by making certain that you are meeting all of the record retention requirements for businesses like yours. To make sure that you are doing everything that you need to do in order to effectively manage records for your business, we are going to look at the record retention requirements that you need to follow.