These are questions that we often are asked and would like to answer here.  If you have others you would like to see addressed, please email us at scan at compactfiling.com

How long should I keep documents?

The Seattle Times answered this question in the paper several days ago in an article about paper shredding.   “The state Attorney General’s Office suggests good candidates for such disposal include tax records more than 7 years old, pay stubs and bank statements more than 1 year old and home-purchase or sales information more than 6 years old.”

Are electronic records legal in the state of Washington?

According to Washington state

 Alternative storage. Records may be stored on permanent storage media, such as optical disk or microfilm, provided the retrieval process does not permit modification of the documents.

What type of file format does Compact Filing use? 

We usually scan files in a multi page .tiff format for documents and .tiff and/or .jpg for photos. We can also into scan other formats  including .pdf . Please contact us if you have specific needs or questions.

I don’t want my paper documents back after they have been scanned.  What should I do with them?

We work with a commercial shredder who will shred all documents when we hear from you that the scanned documents meet your expectations.  There may be a small additional charge for this service.

How much information can I expect to get on one CD or DVD?

As many as 15,000 pages (the equivalent of a four drawer filing cabinet) can be contained on a single CD-ROM disc or up to 70,000 images on a single DVD-ROM disc.