The Retention Period

The Active Retention and Total Retention boxes on the Record Series screen tell the system how to determine when records in the series are to be transferred to an inactive status (active retention), and when records are to be changed to a destroyed status (total retention).

The length of time a record is in active or total retention is determined by a combination of two factors:

• Retention Abbreviation:  The retention abbreviation determines whether or not disposition dates are to be calculated automatically by the system, and if so, the date upon which the calculation is based. When you assign one of these abbreviations to a record series, the system knows how to calculate retention for any record in the series.

Before setting up retention for any record series, you must set up your retention abbreviations (see Retention Abbreviations).

• Period of Time:  When you attach a retention abbreviation to a record series, you can also specify a number of years and/or months to be used in the calculation. This period of time is added to the date specified in the retention abbreviation.

The combination of the retention abbreviation and the period of time results in a mathematical formula.

Example: