Filing receipt preservation should happen before a company mailbox is retired or an employee account is removed. Locate official acknowledgements, save complete records in approved company storage and test that an authorised colleague can retrieve them. Forwarding a few messages to another inbox may miss attachments, transaction references and unresolved correspondence.

Hands signing a document at an office desk
Illustrative photograph by Pavel Danilyuk.

Define the records to recover

Ask the company secretary which filing periods and transactions need coverage. Include accepted acknowledgements, official correspondence and relevant attachments. Separate these from draft emails or internal promises to file. A message saying submitted should be checked against the actual transaction outcome.

Use a period-and-transaction index rather than copying an entire mailbox into an unrestricted shared folder. Messages may contain personal identifiers, client information or unrelated correspondence. Apply the company’s authorised retention and access process.

Preserve context, not just screenshots

Keep the sender, recipient, date, subject, reference and attachments where available. A screenshot may be useful context, but it can omit pages or make a reference difficult to search. Record which format was exported and where the complete record is held.

ACRA’s annual-return guide explains the filing and post-submission process. The company’s archive should make it possible to identify the accepted return and relevant financial period without depending on one person’s inbox.

Example: an attachment link stops working

A filing email contains a temporary link rather than the acknowledgement itself. Before closing the mailbox, ask the authorised person to retrieve the official record through the proper service. Preserve the accepted document and reference. A broken link in a saved email does not provide the same evidence.

Test the handover

Have a second authorised person retrieve a sample record from each important period. Check attachment completeness and readability. Keep an exception list for missing acknowledgements and allocate an owner to resolve them. Do not label the archive complete merely because an export file exists.

Retire access only through the approved process

The company should coordinate mailbox closure, forwarding and account access separately from records recovery. This checklist does not authorise deleting an account or changing security permissions. Retain the recovery index and sign-off so later filing enquiries can be answered from company-controlled records.

Related practical guidance

For the surrounding records and responsibilities, see maintaining statutory records, the company secretary role, company recordkeeping.

Official guidance: ACRA official guidance.

Help with your company records

For corporate secretarial and company administration support, contact Raffles Corporate Services at [email protected] or WhatsApp +65 8501 7133. Tell us which records or process need attention so we can discuss the relevant next steps.