recordkeeping

[ rek-erd-kee-ping ]

noun

1. the maintenance of a history of one's activities, as financial dealings, by entering data in ledgers or journals, putting documents in files, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of recordkeeping¹

First recorded in 1960–65; record + keep + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

Attorneys for VAS, Pham and Do have denied any wrongdoing, and allege the organization was guilty only of sloppy recordkeeping.

From Los Angeles Times

The agency found that San Diego Unified had failed to show it followed through on Title IX investigations of alleged sexual misconduct toward students by other students and by staff, kept poor recordkeeping of cases and failed to train employees on Title IX, among other things.

From Los Angeles Times

The warming that has occurred in the region, an increase of more than 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit since recordkeeping began more than a century ago, has intensified the dry conditions, making the latest megadrought significantly more severe than it would be without climate change.

From Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Police Department has stopped posting crime numbers to its public website after rolling out a new recordkeeping system and changing the way it counts burglaries, assaults and other crimes.

From Los Angeles Times

The Police Department has stopped posting crime numbers to its public website after rolling out a new recordkeeping system and changing the way it counts burglaries, assaults and other crimes.

From Los Angeles Times

More About Recordkeeping

What does recordkeeping mean?

Recordkeeping is the act of keeping track of the history of a person’s or organization’s activities, generally by creating and storing consistent, formal records.

Recordkeeping is keeping records, or ”units of preserved information in some permanent form (written documents, photographs, recordings, etc.).” Record can also refer to a collection of such items or a history in general. Recordkeeping is typically used in the context of official accounting, especially for businesses or other organizations.

Example: The company’s recordkeeping was very extensive, with each employee’s hiring, pay, and job performance thoroughly documented.

Where does recordkeeping come from?

The word recordkeeping goes back to at least the 1820s. It was originally spelled with a space (record keeping) and is also often spelled with a hyphen (record-keeping). Recordkeeping is a compound word, meaning it is made by combining two separate words without making any changes to them.

Although the etymology of recordkeeping is straightforward, record itself comes from the Latin recordārī (“remember”). It is composed of re- (“again”) and cor (“heart”)—a reference to the idea that the heart is responsible for memory (as in I know that by heart).

Every (non-shady) business does some form of recordkeeping, and government agencies often check companies’ recordkeeping through audits. Although recordkeeping is most often associated with financial records (how much money is made and spent, among other things), the records being kept can be of any type: a school’s recordkeeping involves information about enrollment and test scores; a police department’s recordkeeping deals with crime rates and how many arrests are made.

Did you know ... ?

What are some other forms of recordkeeping?

• recordkeeper

What are some synonyms for recordkeeping?

• bookkeeping
• accounting 
• documentation

What are some words that share a root or word element with recordkeeping?

• accord
• concord
• beekeeping

What are some words that often get used in discussing recordkeeping?

• books
• accounting
• document
• financial
• audit

How is recordkeeping used in real life?

The term recordkeeping is usually reserved for formal, professional contexts, especially involving organizations. Individual people more often use accounting or filing (for things like saving documents for their taxes).

Interesting development in the college retirement plan lawsuits: Cornell workers want to revive part of their case based on late-filed evidence they say contradicts the school's expert witness and shows other schools paid *much* lower recordkeeping fees https://t.co/HpvVTjy4Us

— Jacklyn Wille (@JacklynWille) December 19, 2019

#MedTech #Bioengineering: scientists created a platform to encode medical information under the skin, using biocompatible, near-infrared quantum dots. The method could lead to applications for intradermal on-person vaccination recordkeeping – https://t.co/Q72ALizICs pic.twitter.com/Ig8COkNudX

— The Royal Vox Post (@RoyalVoxPost) December 18, 2019

How long do I keep this? This video describes the Federal recordkeeping guidelines. Let us help you set up your filing system for tax documentation with our client vault! https://t.co/VYC55TeLRS

— Rudy Garcia (@RWFTaxServices) December 17, 2019

 

 

Try using recordkeeping!

Which of the following is NOT an example of recordkeeping?

A. keeping financial records
B. documenting policy decisions
C. fixing the copy machine
D. recording employee performance