When your charity closes, it is useful to keep minutes of all meetings, in particular trustee meetings for the life of the charity. You may need to refer back to them to confirm approval and adoption of decisions.

As a charity, the actual period your records are kept will depend on a number of factors, including:

• legal requirements
• storage costs
• your own need to access the document
• historical value

The accounting records you must keep include:

• cash books
• invoices
• receipts
• any similar types of record

You and the trustees should follow the Retention of accounting records recommendations for the documents most commonly held by charities.

• Retention of accounting records

If your charity closes, you and the trustees must arrange for its accounting books and records to be kept for:

• three years for a charitable company
• six years for an unincorporated charity

See also: 214

• How long should we keep our charity records?

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