Governance
Record Keeping for Welfare Associations: What to Keep and for How Long
Receipt books, vouchers, minutes, contracts, member registers — a practical record keeping policy that tells your committee what to keep, where to store it, who is responsible and how to stop documents disappearing.
11 October 2026 4 min read
· Society Keeper Team
Ask a new committee where last year's vouchers are, and the answer is often "with the old treasurer" or "somewhere in the office cupboard". Records scattered across homes, phones and plastic bags make audits slow, handovers painful and member questions hard to answer.
Good record keeping for associations is not about paperwork for its own sake. It is about being able to prove what happened, quickly, years later.
Why record keeping for associations matters
Well-kept records let you:
- Answer any member's question about a payment or decision with evidence
- Pass an audit without a last-minute scramble
- Hand over to a new committee cleanly
- Defend the association if there is ever a dispute with a supplier, staff member or resident
Poor records do the opposite: even honest committees look careless, and careless can quickly be read as dishonest.
What records to keep
Group your records into five families.
1. Governance records
- Constitution or by-laws and any amendments
- Registration documents, if your association is registered
- Minutes of committee meetings and general meetings
- Notices of meetings and attendance sheets
- Policies the committee has approved
2. Financial records
- Receipt books — used, partly used and cancelled receipts
- Payment vouchers with supporting bills
- Bank statements, cheque stubs and deposit slips
- Cash book, bank book and ledgers
- Annual accounts, audit reports and budgets
3. Member records
- Member and flat or house register, with ownership changes
- Records of dues, waivers and agreed payment plans
4. Contracts and suppliers
- Contracts for security, cleaning, lift and generator maintenance
- Quotations and comparison sheets for major purchases
- Warranty cards and service reports
5. Staff and assets
- Appointment letters and salary records for staff
- A list of fixed assets — pumps, generators, CCTV, furniture — with purchase date and cost
How long to keep them
Retention rules can depend on law, tax requirements, bank requirements and your own constitution, so check these or take professional advice. As a practical approach, many committees use three categories:
| Category | Examples | Suggested approach |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | Constitution, minutes, registration, property documents, annual accounts | Never destroy |
| Long term | Vouchers, bank statements, receipt books, contracts | Keep for several years after the year ends; agree the period in a meeting |
| Short term | Routine letters, old quotations not accepted | Keep until the related matter is closed and audited |
Never destroy anything that relates to an ongoing dispute, regardless of age. Record any destruction of old records in the minutes.
Where and how to store records
- One place: all physical records stay in the association office, in a lockable cupboard — not in members' homes.
- Clear labels: one box file per year per family, for example "Vouchers — year X — January to June".
- Numbering: vouchers and purchase files numbered in sequence, with the number written on related documents.
- Register of records: a simple list of what is in each file and where it is kept.
- Scanned copies: scan minutes, contracts and annual accounts and keep the digital copies in at least two places.
Tip: Make one person, usually the general secretary, the custodian of governance records, and the treasurer the custodian of financial records. If anyone borrows a file, note it in a sign-out sheet.
Records at committee handover
At every handover, the outgoing committee should hand over records against the register, and the incoming committee should sign that they received them. Missing items should be listed, not ignored. This one step prevents most of the "the old committee took the files" disputes.
Go digital where it helps
Digital records do not get water-damaged, cannot be quietly removed from a cupboard and can be searched in seconds. Even if you keep paper originals, moving day-to-day accounts and member records into software makes the paper trail much easier to follow.
From the same team: Somity Keeper, cooperative accounting software for Bangladesh, and Somity Keeper Lite, a savings-group app for smaller organisations.
How Society Keeper helps with record keeping
Society Keeper keeps your houses, flats, members, bills, receipts and full double-entry books in one place, with each association's data kept separate. Every receipt is numbered with a verifying QR code, reports such as the day book, ledger and balance sheet can be exported to Excel, and the association website has a documents section for minutes, policies and annual accounts. Try it through the free demo.
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