Running the Business · Part 7

Record retention: what to keep, for how long, and where the clocks come from

Every rule in this track leaves a record, and each record has a clock set by a different agency: ten years for the job folder because of the CSLB complaint window, three for payroll because of the Labor Code, four for employment taxes because of the IRS, three after termination for the I-9. This lesson is the retention schedule for a plumbing contractor in one place, organized by the folder the record lives in, with the section each clock comes from, and the one rule that simplifies most of it: keep the job folder ten years, the money records seven, the people records three after they leave, and destroy nothing while a complaint, a claim, or an audit is open.