Why Finance Teams Struggle With Email Retention (And How to Fix It)

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Discover why finance teams struggle with email retention and how to fix it. Learn how harmon.ie simplifies compliance by enabling Outlook-based email filing with metadata and retention labels.

When audit season hits, finance teams scramble to assemble documentation—email trails, invoice approvals, and client instructions. But disorganized inboxes and skipped metadata steps make it harder than it should be.

Email retention isn’t just a to-do item—it’s a compliance risk.
And in many organizations, it’s broken.

Why Email Retention Fails (Even in Microsoft 365 Environments)

Even with SharePoint and retention policies in place, finance professionals still struggle to retain emails properly.

Problem 1: It’s a manual burden

Saving emails into the right SharePoint folder and tagging metadata takes time. When deadlines loom, users skip those steps.

Problem 2: Outlook and SharePoint don’t flow together

Finance teams live in Outlook. SharePoint is the “official” system of record. Switching between them causes friction and results in lost or duplicated emails.

Problem 3: Metadata isn’t applied

Without enforcement, critical context is missing. Emails get filed inconsistently—or not at all. That’s a nightmare during audits.

Problem 4: Compliance becomes a guessing game

Retention policies often rely on users manually tagging or saving emails. That’s a risky bet when regulations are strict and audits are looming.

What If Email Retention Was Automatic?

With harmon.ie, it is.

Your finance team can:

No SharePoint tabs. No forgotten steps. Just clean, compliant retention from the inbox.

Why Finance Teams and IT Both Choose harmon.ie

For Finance Leaders:

  • Make filing fast and consistent

  • Prepare for audits with confidence

  • Keep sensitive info out of inboxes and in SharePoint

  • Reduce human error in retention workflows

For IT & Compliance Admins:

  • Centrally deploy harmon.ie across the organization

  • Enforce metadata, content types, and retention policies

  • Boost Microsoft 365 adoption with minimal disruption

What Our Customers Say

“harmon.ie enables our team to collaborate more efficiently on the documents, and with a high degree of confidence they have all relevant correspondence at their fingertips.”
Frédéric Guinet, IT Director, Federal Banking Federation

Read the Federal Banking Federation case study →

The Bottom Line

Manual email retention leads to gaps, delays, and risk. Most tools force users to do too much—and that’s where the process breaks down.

harmon.ie solves the problem by embedding email filing and metadata tagging into the tool finance teams already use: Outlook.

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