Organization of the circulation of correspondence and types of correspondence.

Office instructions

All these issues related to correspondence in the enterprise are regulated by the chancellery instruction, i.e. a set of internal regulations governing the manner in which all organizational links of the enterprise perform activities related to the circulation of letters and the procedure of formal handling of letters and files.
The chancellery instruction regulates the following issues:

• rules for the circulation of documents (basic circulation links, stopping points, etc.),
• principles of the adopted office system,
• activities of the company’s postal unit (secretariat, office) in receiving and sending letters,
• mode of sending and delivering letters within the company (internal mail),
• the mode of viewing and assigning letters to be dealt with,
• registration and marking of letters,
• acceptable forms of dealing with cases,
• scope of pre-approval and signature rights,
• principles of timeliness and control of handling matters,
• rules for keeping current files and the procedure for transferring files to the repository.

The chancellery instruction is usually divided into three parts:

• detailed provisions on the procedure for dealing with letters and files (receipt of letters, opening and checking, separating and delivering, – viewing and assigning to be dealt with, to the appropriate person or cell, registering cases and marking letters, approval, signing, sending),
• preliminary provisions (the purpose of the instructions, explanation of the terms used, rules of document circulation and division of files),
• special provisions (procedures in special cases, timeliness of matters, control of settlements, etc.).

In addition, the office instructions are accompanied by a diagram of the circulation of letters, a list of files and templates of printed forms and forms used (e.g. stamps of receipt, control of the receipt of important items, list of cases cards, delivery notes for courier and postal items, etc.). The chancellery instruction is implemented by an internal order of the director of the institution. It is essential to ensure proper compliance with the provisions of the chancellery’s instruction to appoint one functional unit (e.g. organizational or administrative and economic department in the enterprise), and in it a strictly defined person responsible for supervising compliance with the provisions of the instruction.

Correspondence flow

Circulation of letters – it is the way of a letter from the moment it is received by a given organizational unit, until the matter is settled and the reply is sent.
Principles of proper document circulation
The circulation of documentation is of great importance for the proper functioning of a given organizational unit. It is the way of a letter from the moment it is received by a given organizational unit, until the matter is settled and the reply is sent. Activities related to the acceptance of correspondence, distribution, assignment, handling the case, rewriting the draft, sending a letter, are performed by employees of various organizational units. We call these cells in circulation stop points.
At each detention point, one or more activities related to the settlement of the case are performed. The letter at the point of detention waits shorter or longer. Many manipulative actions are performed in the various phases of the circulation of letters and at the detention points.
In order for the document / letter circulation to be as rational as possible, the following principles should be followed:

• the number of detention points through which the letter passes during circulation should be as small as possible and limited only to what is necessary,
• the circulation of the letter should be consistent with the mode of settling the case,
• the path of circulation of the letter, from the moment of its receipt to the moment of sending the reply, should be as short as possible,
• the letter should pass through a given detention point only once, technical measures should be used to shorten the time of performing manipulations.

The organization of document circulation should enable the control of the letter handling at every stage of circulation.
Good organization of document circulation is extremely important to ensure quick and proper settlement of matters. That is why the office instruction is so important, as it defines the applicable system of correspondence circulation.