Businesses Can Take These Steps After a Disaster

When disaster strikes, many business owners might find themselves needing to reconstruct records. This will help them prove a loss, which may be essential for tax purposes, getting federal assistance, or insurance reimbursement.

Here are tips for businesses that need to reconstruct their records:

● For information about income, business owners can get copies of filed federal, state and local tax returns. These include sales tax reports, payroll tax returns, and business licenses from the city or county. These will reflect gross sales for a given period.

● To create a list of lost inventories, business owners can get copies of invoices from suppliers. Whenever possible, the invoices should date back at least one calendar year.

● Owners should check their mobile phone or other cameras for pictures and videos of their building, equipment and inventory. In the absence of photographs or videos, sketch an outline of the inside and outside of the location to show, for example, where equipment and inventory was located.