In every establishment that process daily transactions like banks, manufacturing companies and businesses, they always keep a record. It may be in paper. But mostly, records are now stored digitally. The purpose of keeping of records is done for inventory, for inspection, and for backup.
For manufacturing companies, for example, the government monitors their quality of products through records such as inspection plans. This is proof that the company is indeed working within the boundaries of the law. Other purposes is by comparing financial data through the years which should be reported transparently to the shareholders and the customers.