What Should Accountants Look for in a Shredding Company?

As an accountant, you know the importance of keeping your client’s financial information confidential and protected. Financial information and statements are an incredibly valuable commodity to identity thieves, so the protection of that information is vital. Secure destruction of discarded financial information is a must, so it is critical to find the right shredding company to accomplish that important task for you. Here are some recommendations for what consider when you are seeking the services of a professional shredding company.

1. A Company That Protects Your Client’s Financial Information

The protection of your client’s financial information remains your responsibility right up to the point when it is securely destroyed. When you use an outside organization to securely shred financial documents, you significantly reduce the risk of that information being seen, lost, stolen, or misused within your place of business.

It’s vital that the shredding company you choose invests the same level of protection and care as you do. Your clients chose your accounting company because they trust you, so you need to do the same thing when choosing a shredding company.

2. A Company That Screens and Trains Their Staff

Before you entrust the secure destruction of your clients’ financial information to a shredding company, check to ensure they conduct background checks on their staff and provide regular training on the proper procedures of handling your information. Also check to make sure they are knowledgeable with current privacy laws that affect your information, like the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA), Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Are they well trained about document retention period requirements and dates, destruction procedures and how those things affect your specific financial information?

3. A Company That Provides Shred Collection Containers

While waiting to be picked up for shredding, your discarded documents need to be protected and not lying around to be seen, lost, or stolen. A professional shredding company will provide locked and secure shred collection containers to protect those documents until they are picked up by their authorized shredding technicians.

4. A Company That Provides a Certificate of Destruction

To protect your clients and yourself, proof of compliant destruction is a valuable thing to have. A Certificate of Destruction provides exactly that. Make sure your chosen shredding company provides one after every completed shredding job.

5. A Company That Recycles Your Shredded Material

Discarded paper generates a lot of unnecessary landfill material. By recycling your shredded documents, this material can easily be repurposed into recycled products and resold. This protects both the environment and the economy. It also saves trees, which protects our land, animals, and watersheds. Look for a shredding company that is earth friendly and add that requirement to your list of important features to consider.

Wiggins Shredding provides secure routine shredding, purge, and drop-off shredding to accountants throughout Pennsylvania and the Tri-State area of Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware. Our secure shredding service includes locked shred collection containers to fit your accounting needs. Give us a call at 610-692-TEAR (8327) or complete the form on this page so we can help protect your financial documents.