business emails, how often do you delete them, if ever?
Discussion
I've had to increase the size limit for our emails twice now & wondered if I should start to delete the old ones. I am concerned that I might 'need' to access an old one at some point (perhaps I'm a worrier...). The increases have cost me nowt but I don't want to take the pish with server space.
Well the tax rules require you to keep business records for six years past the end of the current financial year so that should be a minimum. But there's also the new GDPR rules to consider as to whether you can store emails related to individuals within companies without their permission and whether emails are within the scope of those requirements.
951TSE said:
Well the tax rules require you to keep business records for six years past the end of the current financial year so that should be a minimum. But there's also the new GDPR rules to consider as to whether you can store emails related to individuals within companies without their permission and whether emails are within the scope of those requirements.
Thanks, i had wondered whether there was a legal requirement to consider.On the GDPR issues and similar, this has certainly prompted a difference in the way those gossipy intra open office emails are used, essentially not at all now.
The sort of emails I'm thinking of were those banteresque mails between friends usually concerning named 3rd parties. Women were the worst, as in "OMFG, what is X wearing this morning? Arse look massive or what?" Reply "Well did you see how many sausage rolls and glasses of booze she knocked away on the do last week, and two Krispy Kreme I note" and so on.
Which prompted an individual, who was and still is an utter bell end, having had a fall out over something or other, to request all emails stored on computers and the server where mentioned by name. That was tricky for a time and there was a lot of fan and brown smelly stuff interaction.
On the plus side all of my stuff, by the grace of good luck rather than judgement, proved to be innocent, work related and professional. Anything received that was a bit off had been deleted without response etc. On the downside the bell end then considered that I was therefore on their side. Thank heavens no longer there.
The sort of emails I'm thinking of were those banteresque mails between friends usually concerning named 3rd parties. Women were the worst, as in "OMFG, what is X wearing this morning? Arse look massive or what?" Reply "Well did you see how many sausage rolls and glasses of booze she knocked away on the do last week, and two Krispy Kreme I note" and so on.
Which prompted an individual, who was and still is an utter bell end, having had a fall out over something or other, to request all emails stored on computers and the server where mentioned by name. That was tricky for a time and there was a lot of fan and brown smelly stuff interaction.
On the plus side all of my stuff, by the grace of good luck rather than judgement, proved to be innocent, work related and professional. Anything received that was a bit off had been deleted without response etc. On the downside the bell end then considered that I was therefore on their side. Thank heavens no longer there.
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hstewie said:
hstewie said: Office 365 is pretty much a bottomless pit for very little money.
Or just archive out to a PST and stash the old ones somewhere safe.
What bOr just archive out to a PST and stash the old ones somewhere safe.
hy said... 
We used to have a limit of 200MB but since we moved to Office 365 the server always shows 99GB free.
It does tend to autoarchive them automatically after 3 months, including your to-do list and your calendar appointments, which is a bit confusing.
951TSE said:
Well the tax rules require you to keep business records for six years past the end of the current financial year so that should be a minimum. But there's also the new GDPR rules to consider as to whether you can store emails related to individuals within companies without their permission and whether emails are within the scope of those requirements.
In relation to business records - your Financial records need to be retained for a full 6 years but you wouldn't keep those on Outlook. They would be on a separate dedicated Finance system, surely?Countdown said:
951TSE said:
Well the tax rules require you to keep business records for six years past the end of the current financial year so that should be a minimum. But there's also the new GDPR rules to consider as to whether you can store emails related to individuals within companies without their permission and whether emails are within the scope of those requirements.
In relation to business records - your Financial records need to be retained for a full 6 years but you wouldn't keep those on Outlook. They would be on a separate dedicated Finance system, surely?Never
Whilst 'my employers' and not 'mine' I always archive
This become of use when I had an email from the segment director of a company I worked at stating that the customer I had previously been account manager for was refusing to pay an invoice on the grounds there was no evidence of approval of the works required.
The person who had approved the works for the customer had retired (two years previously)
The account manager who followed me into the role had left the company (a year previously)
The contract had been lost by my employer (a year previously)
The customer did not work on any form of purchase order.
I found the email from the original (and now retired) customer advising me to go ahead with the work in my archive and on receipt by their Accounts Payable team the invoice was paid. Bill was £20k+
Never delete an email!
Whilst 'my employers' and not 'mine' I always archive
This become of use when I had an email from the segment director of a company I worked at stating that the customer I had previously been account manager for was refusing to pay an invoice on the grounds there was no evidence of approval of the works required.
The person who had approved the works for the customer had retired (two years previously)
The account manager who followed me into the role had left the company (a year previously)
The contract had been lost by my employer (a year previously)
The customer did not work on any form of purchase order.
I found the email from the original (and now retired) customer advising me to go ahead with the work in my archive and on receipt by their Accounts Payable team the invoice was paid. Bill was £20k+
Never delete an email!
bhstewie said:
hstewie said: Office 365 is pretty much a bottomless pit for very little money.
Or just archive out to a PST and stash the old ones somewhere safe.
Having seen numerous corrupted PSTs or laptops nicked with years (10s of GBs) of carefully horded archives, I'd rather people left stuff in their mailbox on O365.Or just archive out to a PST and stash the old ones somewhere safe.
As mentioned above - many organisations are currently trading of the value of keeping everything forever, just in case, and the risk this brings if/when attempting to comply with GDPR.
If you are on top of GDPR and completed any data mapping, then you will know what personal data tends to be transmitted, and subsequently stored in emails. This would then influence both policies around the use of, and the time data can be stored in email.
This is all very specific to the business/data involved, so I would expect it to vary a lot.
An example - If my doctor is using email to communicate with the practice secretary, there will be some pretty sensitive email stored in the email system, and they should have a policy around it's use and deletion. However, if my widget supplier is emailing transactional emails about my company and theirs (no personal data), then there is less need.
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