About Record Retention

Retention records are used to keep documents for a specified length of time and then purge them. Retention holds are used to keep documents that are Obsolete but, they must not be purged.

A retention record object defines how long a document must be kept after it is determined to no longer be relevant. For example, when a product model becomes Obsolete, all the associated documentation for that product also becomes Obsolete. The retention record defines the length of time to keep a document before it can be purged. Purging does not delete the document object; purged records remain in the database and can be referenced as required. Purging deletes the files checked into the Document object and changes the object type to Purged Document.

A retention hold object contains all those data that need to be stored indefinitely. This data is usually statutory or legal and must never be purged or deleted from the database. If at some point your company does want to delete those documents, you can promote them to the Released state and then delete them.

You can only add documents to the retention record or retention hold when it is in the Active state. Once it is promoted to the Scheduled state, you can remove documents, but you cannot add additional documents.

You cannot delete a document in a retention hold object unless it is promoted to the release state. You can, however, remove the document and then delete it if required.