Electronic Records Management Checklist: Scanning, Posting, Redacting and Getting Your Data Back

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

• Checklist
• Published September 26, 2026
• Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
• Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
• Applies to: Condominiums · HOAs · Cooperatives

Running records electronically solves the storage problem and creates two new ones. The association now publishes some of its records to hundreds of people, which makes redaction a permanent job rather than an occasional one. And the records usually sit on a system the association does not own. This checklist covers scanning, posting, redaction, board e-mail and getting your data back when the manager changes.

The posting thresholds and deadlines are chapter-specific and they are not parallel. A condominium with 25 units has an obligation an HOA with 90 parcels does not, and a cooperative of any size has none at all. Work the items marked for your chapter. See our pages on condominium electronic records and electronic records management.

Decide what the record is

• For each category on your chapter's records list, write down whether the association's record is the paper original or the scanned file.
• Adopt the electronic version as the record of the association by board resolution, and reflect it in the minutes.
• Decide what happens to the paper after scanning, and keep originals of anything recorded, notarized or bearing a seal.Recorded declarations, amendments, deeds, plats and bonded instruments stay in paper. Convenience is not a reason to give up an original.
• Confirm that whatever you adopt still satisfies the requirement that official records be maintained within the state for at least 7 years.Where a cloud provider physically stores a file is not a question most boards can answer. Put it to the vendor in writing rather than assuming.§ 718.111(12)(b); § 719.104(2)(b); § 720.303(5)(a)

Scanning standards and naming

• Scan to searchable PDF with optical character recognition, not to flat images.An unsearchable archive fails the first time a records request asks for everything about one vendor.
• Scan at a resolution that keeps signatures, notary stamps, engineering details and as-built drawings legible when printed at full size.
• Adopt one naming convention and write it down: date first in YYYY-MM-DD form, then category, then a short description.
• Give the notice, the agenda and the minutes of the same meeting file names carrying the same meeting date, so the set can be pulled together.
• Store by category rather than by who scanned it or which year the management company changed.
• Keep a scan log so an incomplete batch is visible rather than silently missing.
• Spot-check ten files a quarter against the source to confirm nothing was skipped, duplicated or scanned out of order.

The website or application obligation

• Condominium: confirm whether the association manages a condominium with 25 or more units that does not contain timeshare units. If so, the website or application obligation applies.§ 718.111(12)(g)1.
• HOA: confirm whether the association has 100 or more parcels. The threshold and the compliance date are not the same as the condominium's.§ 720.303(4)(b)1.
• Cooperative: Chapter 719 imposes no website or application posting obligation at all.This is the cleanest difference among the three chapters. If your cooperative posts anyway, every rule about what must not be posted still applies to what you chose to publish.
• Confirm the association owns or operates the website or application independently, or that a third-party provider gives the association its own dedicated, independent access.§ 718.111(12)(g)1.
• Confirm the site has a subpage, web portal or other protected electronic location that is inaccessible to the general public and accessible only to owners and association employees.§ 718.111(12)(g)1.b.; § 720.303(4)(b)2.
• Confirm log-in credentials are issued to new owners and revoked at closing when a unit or parcel changes hands.A former owner still holding a portal login is an access problem the statute does not solve for you.

What goes up and by when

• Condominium: post a document within 30 days after the association receives or creates it, unless a shorter period is otherwise required.§ 718.111(12)(g)1.
• HOA: do not import the condominium's 30-day rule. Chapter 720 sets document-specific timing instead, including the notice and agenda of an owner meeting 14 days in advance and documents to be considered or voted on 7 days in advance.Chapter 720 has no general posting deadline running from receipt or creation. That is not the same as having no deadlines.§ 720.303(4)(b)1.
• Condominium: work the posting list item by item — declaration, bylaws, articles and rules; board minutes and video-conference recordings for the preceding 12 months; lists of executory contracts and bid summaries; the annual budget and any proposed budget; financial reports and monthly income and expense statements; director certifications; contracts and conflict-of-interest documents involving directors; owner and board meeting notices and agendas; inspection reports; the most recent structural integrity reserve study; building permits; and required affidavits.§ 718.111(12)(g)2.
• Calendar posting as part of creating the record, not as a monthly cleanup task.
• Keep a posting log showing what went up and on what date.If the association is ever asked to prove a document was posted on time, the log is the proof. The site itself usually will not show you.
• Do not take anything down before its period runs; minutes and video-conference recordings must stay up for the preceding 12 months.§ 718.111(12)(g)2.

What must never be posted

• Run every document past your chapter's exemption list before it is posted.§ 718.111(12)(c)5.; § 720.303(5)(g)
• Never post records protected by the lawyer-client privilege or attorney work product.Posting counsel's memorandum to a members-only page still distributes it to hundreds of people. Treat the protected subpage as public for privilege purposes until counsel tells you otherwise. See confidentiality and privilege.
• Never post personnel records of association employees or medical records of owners.
• Redact before posting: social security numbers, driver license numbers, credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, telephone and facsimile numbers, and emergency contact information.§ 718.111(12)(g)3.; § 720.303(4)(b)4.
• Never post electronic security measures or passwords, or the association's software and operating systems.
• Redact bank account and routing numbers from anything financial before posting, including copies of cancelled checks inside a financial report package.The financial report is on the posting list. The check images inside it are the most common way account numbers reach a community website.
• Name one person responsible for the redaction pass and have a second person check it before anything goes live.Both chapters give the association a shield for disclosing protected information unless the disclosure was made with knowing or intentional disregard. A documented two-person redaction process is what that shield rests on.§ 718.111(12)(g)3.; § 720.303(4)(b)4.

Board e-mail, texts and personal devices

• Adopt a written policy that association business is conducted on association accounts, not on personal ones.
• Issue association e-mail addresses to directors and to the manager, and close them at the end of the term.
• Understand that no chapter says whether a director's personal e-mail or text message is an official record. The statutes are silent.Silence is not safety. If a message is the only record of how the association decided something, expect to have to produce it in litigation whatever its records status. See board e-mail and text messages.
• Tell directors not to decide anything by e-mail or group text.A decision reached in a group text is a board action taken without notice, and the thread is the evidence of it.
• Collect any association record a director created on a personal device when the term ends.§ 718.111(12)(f); § 719.104(2)(e)

The management company's system versus your own

• Read the management agreement for who owns the data, what format it is returned in, and how long the manager has to return it.Most agreements say the records belong to the association. Fewer say what format the export comes in, which is the term that matters. See management agreement review.
• Confirm the association is the account owner of record for the portal, the domain and the e-mail, with the manager as an authorized user rather than the owner.
• Take a full export at least annually and store it somewhere the association controls.
• Before you change managers, take the export first and open a sample of the files to confirm it is usable.The commonest way an association loses a decade of records is a management change nobody prepared for.
• Confirm backups are tested by restoring a sample, not by confirming that the backup job ran.
• Keep one backup copy somewhere other than the association's primary storage and the manager's system.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes helps Southwest Florida boards set up records systems that satisfy the posting rules, writes the redaction and electronic records policies that sit behind them, and reviews management agreements for who owns the data. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Official Records page.