The SWA works to safeguard the cultural heritage of business archives whenever the related inventory at companies, organisations or individuals is at risk. It reinforces this tradition with systematic documentation on organisations, individuals and general economic topics. The collections are currently housed on shelves 12 kilometres in length, with dossiers mainly being supplemented digitally and archive material being retro-digitised on a continuous basis.
The collections are made accessible via search interfaces, and documents are presented in the special reading room. Researchers and the general public receive support from staff in their research and in matters relating to the preservation of archives.