Looking after the records behind your rights

A file called “final-final-new2” makes sense while the project is fresh. Two years later, a client asks which version they approved, and the name tells you nothing. Keep your records so that anyone, including you in two years, can connect the work, the agreement, and the approval without relying on someone’s memory.

Keep the context with the file

Do this for every project that matters:

1. Give each important file a name that says what it is: project, content, version, and status. For example, harbor-cover_v3_client-approved.tif instead of final2.tif.
2. Put a short note in the project folder: what the project is, who contributed, the key dates, and where the agreements are kept. The Library of Congress recommends descriptive file names, a clear folder structure, and a short written description of the folders and what they contain.1
3. Keep the drafts that show a real change or an approval, not only the final version. Drafts can hold details that do not appear in the final.1

For an illustration commission, that means the signed agreement, the delivered artwork, the approval message, and a note saying which version was published. Delete duplicates that explain nothing.

Distinguish originals from convenient working copies

Never edit the original signed document or source file. Make a copy and put your notes and edits on the copy. When you scan a paper agreement, write down where the paper original is kept.

When an agreement or approval lives in email, save the message as its own file together with its attachments. Keep the header that shows the sender, recipients, date, and time, and use an open format if your mail program offers one.3 Keep the whole exchange, not a summary: in a disagreement, people read the original wording and the messages around it.

If someone has threatened a claim or a dispute has started, stop deleting and ask the lawyer handling it what you must keep before you clean up anything. Saving evidence while the facts are still available covers what to capture.

Make sure the records remain accessible

A tidy folder is useless if it sits in an account nobody else can open. Decide who administers shared storage, and change access the day someone joins or leaves. Give sensitive files only to the people who need them.

If your records live in a personal Google Account, set up Inactive Account Manager: choose up to 10 trusted people who receive the data you select if the account is inactive for the period you set. Without a plan, Google can delete an account that has been inactive for at least two years.4

Keep at least two copies on different storage media, for example one on your computer and one on an external drive or in cloud storage, and keep them in separate physical locations, as far apart as practical.1 2 Once a year, open your important files from each copy to check they still work. Move your copies to current storage media about every five years.1 2

Give someone else a usable starting point

Write a one-page index that says where the agreements, creation files, permissions, official records, and deadline calendar are kept, who maintains each, and what is still missing. Keep a copy of it with your important papers, as the Library of Congress suggests for your folder description.1 Leave passwords and confidential terms out of it: the index says where things are, not what they say.

Good records do not register a right or prove who owns it. They let you, or anyone helping you, check the story quickly. When a question about the work comes up, you spend your time on the answer instead of hunting through old devices, inboxes, and former colleagues.