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You set one retention rule on each request, each item's clock starts when it arrives, you are asked 15 days before its date, and an item you do not renew or keep is deleted on its date and the deletion is recorded.

The rule gives each item a date

The retention rule on a request gives every document and every written answer its own date. For a fixed period, the date is the day the item arrives plus the period. The first period counts in plain days, so 1 year is 365 days and a leap day inside it makes the date fall one calendar day earlier. Two items that arrive a week apart have dates a week apart. The notice your client agreed to states the rule.

For As long as they're a client, an item has no date until you mark the relationship as ended. It is then deleted in the next nightly run, or kept for the law's period from that date if you named a law. No row opens for it.

If you named a law, its period is a second stage. It starts when the first period ends, and a whole number of years counts as calendar years. A request that names a law never opens a row and is never offered a renewal, in either stage. See keeping documents under a law.

The prompt

A daily run checks every item. For a fixed period with no law, when the earliest item for one person on one request is 15 days from its date, a row opens in your Retention queue. We notify the people whose role can decide retention cases, and admins always. Nothing has been deleted at that point.

The row offers three actions. Each applies to every item still held for that person on that request:

  • Renew asks your client to extend the period. They see a fresh notice and agree or decline item by item. For the items they agree to, the new date is the date on the row plus the new period.
  • Keep records a basis of your own and a review date. For a law, you enter the date it sets. For a client who stays, the review date starts at 12 months after your decision and you can change it. A review date cannot be more than 10 years away.
  • Delete now deletes the items at once.

The actions need the Decide retention cases and renewals switch, which admins hold by default.

The deletion

If you do nothing, or your client declines the renewal or does not answer, each item is deleted on its date. Deletion runs once a day, so an item is deleted in the first run after its date and time arrive, which can be early the next morning. The row then closes and moves to the Outcomes · 90 days tab.

Deletion is permanent. The key that protects the file is destroyed and the file is removed, so it cannot be read again. A written answer is cleared. What stays is the record that the item existed and was deleted, with its fingerprint, its size and the dates. That record sits on the proof record and in your audit trail.

For documents you hold yourself, recorded as consent only, we delete nothing. The row asks you to choose Confirm deleted once you have deleted them.

For example

Amaltas Deshmukh & Co sends Anita Deshpande a request on 1 July 2027 with a retention period of 90 days. She sends her documents the same day, so each has the date 29 September 2027. On 14 September 2027, 15 days before, a row for her opens in the Retention queue. If an admin chooses Renew with 90 days and Anita agrees, her documents move to 28 December 2027. That is 90 days after the date on the row, not after the day she agrees. If an admin chooses Keep because she is still a client, a review date 12 months after that decision is recorded, her documents carry that date and the row opens again 15 days before it. If nobody acts, her documents are deleted in the first daily run after 29 September 2027.