The following suggested retention period (permanently) is based on legal requirements as well as practical considerations:

• Accident reports and claims
• Annual budgets
• Annual report
• Audit reports
• Bank statements
• Baptismal records
• Board minutes
• By-Laws/charters
• Cancelled checks for important items
• Capital stock and bond records
• Cemetery records
• Chart of accounts
• Church bulletin (historical copy)
• Constitution
• Contracts and leases (current)
• Construction records
• Correspondence of a legal nature and other important matters
• Deeds, mortgages, and bills of sale
• Employee’s personnel file (application, interview form/notes, references, background checks)
• Employer identification numbers (Federal and state)
• Financial and employee benefit policies
• Financial reviews
• Financial statements (end of year, other months optional)
• Fixed asset purchases
• Funeral records
• General ledger books
• Government correspondence
• Handbooks
• Incorporation records
• Inherited property valuations
• Insurance records, claims, and policies
• Journals
• Marriage records
• Minutes
• Mortgages
• Non-profit status determination letter 501(c)(3)
• Patents
• Photographs
• Property records
• Retirement plan document 403(b)
• Trade mark registrations

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