Every car deal leaves paper behind. Sales contracts, financing agreements, bills of sale, trade-in information, service records, warranty claims and employee files all pass through a dealership, and much of it carries personal and financial information. This guide lays out the auto dealership records management Michigan stores can put in place, covering what to store, what to scan, what to protect and what to shred.
Corrigan Record Storage is a Michigan-based family company that has handled records since 1987. It is NAID AAA certified, and its facility undergoes several unscheduled inspections each year. Here’s how its services fit together into one plan for a dealership.
Why Dealerships Need a Records Plan, Not Just a Shredder
A dealership’s paperwork doesn’t follow a single path. Some documents, like loan and lease agreements, have to be kept for a set period. Others, like internal memos and old reports, should be destroyed once they’re no longer needed. Without a plan, both kinds end up stuffed in the same back office.
Corrigan’s car dealership page notes that dealerships handle information covered by the FTC Safeguards Rule, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and state privacy laws. It recommends shredding records systematically once their retention period ends. A full plan covers each stage of a record’s life, from active file to final destruction.
Off-Site Storage for Deal Jackets You Have to Keep
Deal jackets and other closed-deal files take up space fast, and space at the dealership is too valuable to use as an archive. Off-site document storage [https://corriganrecords.com/records-management/document-storage/] moves inactive and archival records out of the building while keeping them easy to reach. Corrigan’s facilities are gated and alarmed, with video surveillance and climate control, and the company stores more than 1,000,000 cartons.
Getting a File Back When You Need It
Deal jacket storage only works if retrieval is fast. Corrigan offers two-hour rush delivery and 24/7 access, and its web-based software lets you schedule pickups and deliveries online. If you’d rather see a file in person, you can book a time in a secure viewing room and staff will have it waiting.
The car dealership page also describes indexing and retrieval systems for finding documents quickly, plus a chain-of-custody audit trail for each document.
Vault Storage for Backup Media
Dealership data doesn’t live only in filing cabinets. If your store keeps backup tapes or other media, Corrigan’s vault storage [https://corriganrecords.com/records-management/vault-storage/] holds tapes, cases and boxes in a space where software keeps temperature and humidity at optimum levels, with fire protection included.
You can set a custom tape rotation schedule, and staff are available 24/7/365. Corrigan also helps clients test their disaster plans and recover vital information after a disaster.
Scanning to Cut Paper in the F&I Office
Not every file needs to stay on paper. Corrigan’s document scanning services [https://corriganrecords.com/records-management/document-scanning/] turn hard copies into digital files, and its scanners can handle nearly any file, chart or record. Scanned files are stored in the cloud, where your team logs in with a username and password and can reach them 24/7.
Those digital files sit on servers in a data center with fully redundant connectivity, SSL, monitoring and fire suppression. The data center is connected to three separate power grids and has on-site backup generators. After scanning, you choose whether Corrigan stores the originals securely or returns them to you.
Two Scanning Options Worth Knowing
Redaction scanning blacks out sensitive information during scanning, so the people who view the document can’t see it. Scan-on-demand lets you view a stored record digitally without pulling the physical box from storage. That’s useful when you need a single page from an older deal.
The Shredding Side of Auto Dealership Records Management Michigan Stores Need
Daily paperwork needs a simple, secure way out of the building. With scheduled shredding [https://corriganrecords.com/secure-shredding/scheduled-shredding/], Corrigan places 65- and 95-gallon locking shred bins, or locking shred consoles, in your dealership. Trained staff empty the bins on a flexible rotation you choose, then take the documents to Corrigan’s secure shredding facility.
Documents are shredded according to federal and state regulations, and the scheduled shredding page notes that destruction follows HIPAA and FACTA requirements. A certificate of destruction is issued for your official records, and all shredded material is recycled. The car dealership page also lists on-site, witnessed destruction at your location as an option.
One-Time Purges When Retention Periods End
When a batch of old deal files reaches the end of its retention period, a one-time purge clears it out in a single visit. Corrigan’s Certified Customer Service Technicians arrive with secure containers, collect the documents and take them to the shredding facility. If those files are already in Corrigan storage, storage-to-shred is another listed option.
You don’t need to remove staples, paper clips or binder clips first, because the industrial shredders handle them. Old hard drives and SSDs from retired office computers can be destroyed too, and e-waste recycling covers the rest of the equipment.
Support If a Breach Happens
Even a careful dealership needs a plan for the worst case. Corrigan’s breach management service [https://corriganrecords.com/records-management/breach-management/] runs through uRISQ, a privacy and security program management tool. Its Breach Support module helps you work through a suspected or actual breach, guiding you through analysis, review and regulatory reporting, including government, sectoral and consumer-level reporting.
Your customers trust your dealership with their personal and financial information long after they drive off the lot. A plan that covers storage, scanning, shredding and breach support keeps that trust intact.
To build a records plan for your dealership, call 248-344-9185 or contact Corrigan Record Storage [https://corriganrecords.com/contact-us/].