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Every document is kept for the period you promised in the request, you are asked 15 days before a fixed period ends, and unless you renew or keep it, it is deleted when its date arrives and the deletion is recorded.

The promise

The retention rule you set on a request is the promise. It is either a fixed period or for as long as the person stays your client. It can add a further period a law requires after that. The same rule is written into the notice the person reads, so what we do afterwards is what they agreed to. No period can be longer than 10 years.

The clock runs per document and per answer, not per request. For a fixed period it starts on the day the item arrives, so two documents uploaded a week apart have deletion dates a week apart. A fixed period counts in plain days, 365 for each year. For "as long as they're a client" there is no date until you mark the relationship as ended in the person's folder. Without a law period, the documents are then deleted in the next nightly run. With one, the law's period starts from the end date you enter.

15 days before

15 days before the earliest date on a person's request, a row opens in your Retention queue: one row per person, per request. Everyone whose role can decide retention cases is told by email and in the app, every admin included. Only a fixed period opens a row. A request kept for as long as the person is your client, or one that names a law, never does. The exception is a request that only records consent for documents you hold. With a law, its row opens 15 days before the law's period ends. Kept while they are your client, its row opens when you mark the relationship as ended. The row offers three actions:

  • Renew asks the person to extend the period. What happens next depends on your consent renewal settings: you send the link yourself, we prepare it for you to send, or we email it to the person and remind them up to 3 times. A renewal you have not sent is flagged twice before the date. You can also offer a renewal from the person's folder up to 30 days before the date, without waiting for the row.
  • Keep records a basis of your own and a review date. The basis is either a law that requires it, with the provision named, or that the person is still your client. For a law, you enter the date it sets. For a client who stays, the review date starts at 12 months from the day you decide, and you can change it. Either way, a new row opens 15 days before the review date. Neither can push the date past 10 years.
  • Delete now deletes the person's items on that request at once.

If you do nothing, or the person declines the renewal or does not answer, the items are deleted when their date arrives and the row closes as expired. The row moves to the Outcomes · 90 days tab either way.

Deletion

Deletion is permanent. The key that protects the file is destroyed, so every copy of it becomes unreadable, including any inside our backups. The file itself is then removed. Deletion runs once a night, so an item goes in the first run after its date and time, which can be early the next morning. What stays is the record that the document existed and was deleted: its fingerprint, its size, the dates, and the entry in your audit trail. That record is what lets you show a person or an auditor that the promise was kept.

When a law says keep

If the request named a law and a period, the law's period starts when the first period ends. A request that names a law never opens a row and is never offered a renewal, because the date is the law's, not yours. The items are deleted when the law's period ends. A person who withdraws consent has their withdrawal recorded. The documents stay until the law's period ends, as the notice told them.

For example

Amaltas Deshmukh & Co sends Anita Deshpande a request on 1 July 2027 with a two-year retention period. She uploads her documents the same day. The two years count as twice 365 plain days, and 29 February 2028 falls inside them, so each document is due on 30 June 2029. 15 days before that, a row for her opens in the Retention queue and both admins are notified. If they choose Renew with the same two years and she agrees, her documents are kept until 30 June 2031. The new period counts from the date they were due, not from the day she agreed. If they choose Keep on 20 June 2029 because she is still a client, the review date starts at 20 June 2030 and a new row opens 15 days before it. If they do nothing, her documents are deleted in the first nightly run after 30 June 2029. Her folder keeps the fingerprint of each document and the record of its deletion.