Retention

The Retention module is where your organization governs the lifecycle of records: how long things must be kept, when they need to be reviewed for disposition, what counts as a legal hold that overrides retention, and who authorizes the eventual disposal. It applies across documents, evidence, monitor outputs, findings, party records, asset records — anything in the workspace that has a stated retention obligation.

This module is the discipline behind defensible deletion. Keeping records longer than required creates legal exposure; deleting them earlier creates compliance exposure; deleting them under a legal hold can be sanctionable. Retention is where those decisions are made visibly and recorded permanently.

When you would reach for this

You set up retention when:

A regulation or statute requires specific record types to be kept for specific durations.
Customer contracts include retention or destruction commitments.
A legal matter requires a hold on records that would otherwise be deleted.
The end of a record’s retention period requires an authorized disposition decision (archive, delete, transfer).
An auditor wants to see “show me your retention rules and your evidence of disposal compliance.”

You don’t reach for this for the storage of records (that’s the underlying systems — DMS, storage, databases) or the execution of deletion (also the underlying systems). Retention is the governance layer that defines the rules and records the decisions; the actual deletion happens elsewhere with retention’s authorization in hand.

What lives in retention

Four record types:

Retention rule is a durable rule applied to a class of records. It carries:

A title and a stable key.
The subject the rule applies to (a document kind, an evidence kind, a record type, a scope, an asset class).
The retention period (calendar duration from a trigger date).
The trigger that starts the clock (record creation, last activity, contract termination, event-based).
The end-of-life action (archive, delete, transfer, anonymize).
The rule source (statute, regulation, contract, internal policy).

Legal hold is a temporary override that prevents records from being deleted regardless of retention. It carries:

A title and a stable key.
The scope of the hold (which records are held).
The legal matter reference (case number, investigation reference, litigation hold reason).
The start date and (when known) the release date.
The custodian (the responsible party at the organization).

Disposition requirement is the actionable obligation that materializes when a record reaches its retention end: “this set of records, having reached end-of-life under rule X, requires a disposition decision.”

Disposal authorization is the recorded approval that authorizes the disposition action. It captures who authorized, when, the action taken, and any post-disposal certificate or evidence.

A worked example: a professional services firm governs client and project records

A professional services firm provides advisory and consulting services to enterprise clients. Its records span engagement documents, client correspondence, advisory work product, financial records, employee records, and supplier contracts. Each has its own retention obligations, and the firm is occasionally subject to legal holds tied to client matters. The compliance partner, Sven, sets up Retention like this.

Step 1: catalogue retention rules per record class. Sven defines rules:

engagement-files — kept for 7 years after engagement closure (firm policy on the standard side; longer for engagements involving regulated industries). End-of-life: archive then delete.
client-correspondence — kept for the engagement lifetime plus 7 years.
advisory-work-product — kept for 10 years (intellectual property + reference for follow-on work).
financial-records — kept for 10 years (statute on financial records).
employee-records — kept per local employment law (the rule snapshot captures the applicable basis without baking it into product schema).
supplier-contracts — kept for 7 years after contract end.

Each rule has its trigger (engagement closure, contract end, employee separation, etc.) and end-of-life action.

Step 2: apply rules to the underlying records. Through the relevant modules (DMS, evidence, party engagements, etc.), records pick up the applicable rule when they’re created. New engagement files automatically inherit the engagement-files rule.

Step 3: live operation. The system tracks each record’s clock. As records reach the trigger date plus retention period, they show up in the disposition queue. The accountable owner reviews each and authorizes the disposition action.

Step 4: legal holds. A client matter goes into dispute. The general counsel issues a legal hold on all engagement files and correspondence relating to that client. Sven creates a legal hold record:

Scope: every engagement file and email thread on the named client.
Legal matter reference: the case identifier.
Custodian: the engagement partner.
Start date: today; release date: unknown.

The hold suppresses any disposition action on the held records. If a disposition was already queued, it’s blocked. Attempts to delete held records (whether from the disposition queue or from anywhere else with retention awareness) fail.

Step 5: hold release. Months later, the dispute concludes. The general counsel releases the legal hold. The held records return to normal retention; records past their disposition date appear in the disposition queue.

Step 6: disposal authorization. Each disposition is authorized explicitly:

Sven (or a delegated owner) reviews the queued record.
Confirms there’s no active legal hold.
Confirms the end-of-life action.
Authorizes; the underlying system executes the action.
A disposal authorization record captures the actor, timestamp, action taken, and (where available) the certificate of destruction.

After a year:

The retention register is the firm’s single source of truth for “what’s our retention regime?”
Active legal holds are visible end-to-end with their scope and custodian.
The disposition queue is the operational view of what needs decisions this period.
Every disposal has an authorization trail; if a regulator or counterparty asks “did you destroy this record?”, the answer is “yes, on this date, authorized by this person, under this rule.”

What you’ll see in the product

Retention lives under Governance → Retention in the workspace.

Four top-level tabs: Rules, Legal Holds, Disposition Queue, Disposal Authorizations.

The Rules list shows every retention rule with its subject, period, trigger, end-of-life action.

The Legal Holds list shows every active and historical hold with scope, matter reference, custodian, start and (where known) release date.

The Disposition Queue is the operational workspace: records that have reached end-of-life and need a decision, sorted by urgency.

The Disposal Authorizations view is the historical record: every authorized disposition with actor, timestamp, action, post-disposal evidence.

Every change is captured in the workspace Audit Log.

Legal hold semantics

A legal hold is non-discretionary: while a hold is active on a record, no disposition can occur on that record regardless of retention. The block is structural; the system refuses the action and surfaces the hold as the reason.

Attempts to delete held records from anywhere in the platform that participates in retention enforcement fail with the hold cited. This is why the Retention module is the source of truth: the underlying systems consult it before any destructive action.

When a hold is released, the records return to normal retention. Records that were past disposition during the hold are immediately surfaced in the queue.

End-of-life actions

Action	Meaning
`archive`	Move the record to long-term archival storage where it remains recoverable but inactive.
`delete`	Permanently delete the record.
`transfer`	Transfer the record to another party (typically a successor party or the data subject themselves).
`anonymize`	Remove identifying information from the record while preserving aggregate or statistical content.

Some retention regimes mandate specific actions; others give the organization choice. The rule captures the action.

Common workflows

Defining a new retention rule

Retention → Rules → New rule. Pick the subject (which record class), the period, the trigger, the end-of-life action.
Capture the rule source (statute, contract, internal policy).
New records of the subject class pick up the rule automatically.

Issuing a legal hold

Retention → Legal Holds → New hold. Define the scope (what records are held).
Capture the matter reference and the custodian.
The hold becomes active; any disposition activity on the held records is blocked.
Notify affected parties as required by the matter.

Releasing a legal hold

From the hold, transition to released with rationale.
The hold is lifted; affected records return to normal retention.
Any records past their disposition date appear in the disposition queue.

Authorizing a disposition

From the disposition queue, open the record.
Confirm there’s no active legal hold (the system surfaces this).
Confirm the end-of-life action.
Authorize; the underlying system executes.
Record the post-disposal evidence (a certificate, a system log, a confirmation).

Document Governance - documents carry retention requirements that originate here.
Evidence - evidence claims have retention periods.
Audit Log - every retention rule change, legal hold action, and authorization is captured.
Findings - retention violations or missed dispositions surface as findings.