Where to store?

I know I keep writing about topics and saying things like "it depends" and, fair warning, I'm about to do that again. Where to store information, whether financial, proprietary, or just basic documentation, is worth thinking about. When the company is small, finding anything, is relatively quick, even if you have to go through all the files. This is mostly because there's not that many files, but what happens when there are a massive amount of files and you need that very specific file and you need it yesterday? This is where planning and organization come into play.

What does this look like?
First off, there's no way to cover this topic in depth in an article this size. Therefore, this will be a brief overview with general guidelines. Regardless, these principles are good for any size company or organization.

• Financials? This depends a lot on how risk averse you might be. For instance, disk space is cheap, so holding on to information (assuming it's organized properly) is not a problem. Of course, you will want to hold on to anything reported to the IRS, but for how long? Again, with space and secure offsite backups being so cheap, I would say there's no reason to get rid of the information. Simply organize it by year and then leave it alone. Here comes the risk aversion part. Off-site backups generally require an internet connection, which, let’s be honest, is there most of the time, but an external drive does not. So do you also save the financial information to an external drive? If so where do you store it? Preferably in a safe behind a locked door. At the end of the day, it depends on whether this seems important enough for you to take the extra step.
• Proprietary Information: Again, how risk averse are you? In some cases a secure file on an internal sever will suffice, but what if you need them and cannot access the internal server? A little planning and preparation using a thumb drive could solve this problem for the occasional instances (assuming this isn't too risky for you). However, there are plenty of companies that simply increase their security protocols or pay for an off-site server that has the appropriate security in place for their particular circumstance.
• Basic documents? This one is a little easier. The recommendation would still be to organize the files in an appropriate way and to have an offsite back up. The offsite backup is less critical in this instance, but still good to have and is very cheap insurance. With options like Google drive, not only do you have a backup, but all files can be accessed from anywhere. This is a great option for when someone is at a conference, customer site, or working from home. Also, collaboration becomes more efficient because location doesn't matter any more.

What to remember: Decide how risk averse you are and then set out from that point designing, organizing, and, of course, backing-up.