when to delete accounting data

[SMSMART]

I attend a small church and have been helping with the accounting for approximately two years. The person who trained me said she backed up the accounting at the end of the year on a disc and then deleted it from the computer. I have not done this. I felt that we used so little of this program and that it would be best to leave as much as possible on the computer. Just wanted to get some input from others on this.

I appreciate all of the responses I have gotten on other subjects! Thanks!

[JohnDMeyers]

I find it is handy to be able to look up data from previous years, and to make year-to-year comparisons.

Not sure what benefit there is in deleting last year's data. There is no "cost" as far as memory or processing time.

It is good to purge old data when it is full of unused vendors or unused accounts.

Usually that is data that is three or more years old.

[SMSMART]

Thanks Mr. Meyers!

[NeilZ]

FWIW ... the IRS advises that "records of revenue and expenses, including payroll records should be retained for at least four years after 'filing the return' to which they relate". I take that to mean, as I believe John does, that nothing should be deleted from the database for at least four years. I also believe this covers contribution statements for members.

There is a revised Tax Guide for Churches dated April 2014, its a good idea to have a copy : http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf