Key Records
Introduction
Bills register of the 1930s. Image courtesy of HSBC Archives
The records that companies generate vary across sector, business type, size, structure and scale, and of those records only a select fraction will be useful as archives. The list provided on this website is not exhaustive, and should be used as a guide only, and adapted to your individual needs and experience.
This list may exclude some record types that are unique to your business and it may include some ‘old-fashioned’ records created and kept by companies trading at least 30 years ago. In addition to paper records, the categories will include multi-media records such as audio-visual, photographic and film and electronic records.
As a rule company archives are kept permanently and so should only contain information that explains and illustrates the key development and activity of your business over time. Think about how you want to exploit your archive [see example case studies] and the information you will need to save to do so.
The list contains some statutory records that all companies must keep. They give you essential information such as when and where your company first started trading. This information is useful for parent companies as well as subsidiary companies. Smaller companies may find that much of their eventual archive is made up of statutory records, with additional specialist records representative of their particular sector or niche skills base.
If you want to discuss your own company’s records or need
advice on the selection process to create your own archive please
contact the Business Archives Advice Manager at The National
Archives asd@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk
; telephone 
020 8392 5270.