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Tutorial: Checking Retention Compliance

This tutorial demonstrates how to verify document retention compliance for your jurisdiction and entity types.

Objective

Check which documents are approaching or past their retention deadlines, and understand your compliance obligations.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Understand Retention Rules

Records Manager includes built-in retention expertise for several jurisdictions:

Country Authority Typical Retention
Australia ATO 5-7 years (tax), Permanent (trust deeds)
United States IRS 3-7 years (tax), Varies by state
United Kingdom HMRC 6 years (tax), 10+ years (legal)

Australia-specific examples:

  • Tax documents: 5 years from EOFY

  • Trust deeds: Permanent

  • Family Trust Election: 5+ years from FTE date

  • Employment records: 7 years after termination

Step 2: Check Overall Retention Status

Get a summary of retention compliance across all documents:

# Via PAI
records-manager retention check

# Or directly
bun run src/skills/RecordsManager/Tools/RecordManager.ts retention check

Expected output: 

📊 Retention Status Summary

Total Documents: 247
Compliant: 231 (93.5%)
⚠️  Review Required: 12 (4.9%)
❌ Overdue: 4 (1.6%)

Documents Approaching Deadline:
*   Invoice #12345 (expires in 30 days)
*   Receipt ABC-999 (expires in 45 days)

Overdue Documents:
*   2020 Tax Return (expired 180 days ago)
*   Employment Contract (expired 365 days ago)

Step 3: Check Specific Entity

Filter retention check by entity:

records-manager retention check --domain corporate_acme-corp

Expected output: 

📊 Retention Status: ACME Corporation

Entity Type: corporate
Jurisdiction: Australia
Total Documents: 89
Compliant: 87 (97.8%)
Review Required: 2 (2.2%)

Approaching Deadline:
*   2020-06-15: Vendor Invoice #INV-2020-089 (30 days)
*   2020-07-22: Expense Receipt (45 days)

Step 4: Get Detailed Document Report

Generate a detailed report including document types and specific retention periods:

records-manager retention check --detailed --format markdown

Expected output: 

# Retention Compliance Report
Generated: 2025-01-20

## Summary by Document Type

| Type | Total | Compliant | Review | Overdue |
|------|-------|-----------|--------|---------|
| Invoice | 45 | 43 | 2 | 0 |
| Receipt | 78 | 75 | 3 | 0 |
| Tax Return | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Contract | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2 |

## Overdue Documents

| Document | Type | Entity | Expired |
|----------|------|--------|---------|
| Employment Agreement | contract | corporate | 2024-01-15 (365 days) |
| Lease Agreement | contract | household | 2024-06-01 (232 days) |

## Recommended Actions

1. Review 2 overdue contracts for archiving or extension

2. Process 5 documents approaching 60-day threshold

3. Archive expired documents following deletion workflow

Step 5: Export Retention Report

Save the report for audit purposes:

# Save as Markdown
records-manager retention check --detailed --format markdown > retention-report.md

# Save as JSON for processing
records-manager retention check --format json > retention-report.json

# Save as CSV for spreadsheet analysis
records-manager retention check --format csv > retention-report.csv

Step 6: Understand Retention by Country

Check retention requirements for your configured country:

records-manager retention rules --country AU

Expected output: 

🇦🇺 Australian Retention Requirements

Income Tax Documents: 5 years after EOFY
*   Tax returns, assessments, notices
*   Payment summaries
*   Business activity statements

GST Records: 5 years
*   Tax invoices
*   Credit/debit notes
*   Accounting records

Employee Records: 7 years after termination
*   Tax file declarations
*   Payment summaries
*   Superannuation contributions

Trust Documents: Special rules
*   Trust deeds: Permanent retention
*   Family Trust Election: 5+ years from FTE date
*   Distribution minutes: 5 years from EOFY

Source: Australian Taxation Office (ATO)

Expected Outcomes

After completing this tutorial, you should be able to:

  • ✅ Run retention compliance checks
  • ✅ Identify documents approaching expiry
  • ✅ Export reports in multiple formats
  • ✅ Understand jurisdiction-specific requirements
  • ✅ Take action on non-compliant documents

Troubleshooting

Issue: "No documents found"

Solution: Ensure documents are uploaded:

  1. Check documents exist in paperless-ngx

  2. Verify document dates are set correctly

  3. Confirm entity configuration

Issue: "Jurisdiction not configured"

Solution: Set your country in environment variables: 

# Add to .env or shell profile
export MADEINOZ_RECORDMANAGER_RECORDS_COUNTRY=AU

Issue: "Incorrect retention calculated"

Solution: Verify document metadata:

  1. Check created date is accurate

  2. Ensure document-type is correctly assigned

  3. For trusts, verify trust-deed-date is set

Best Practices

  1. Run monthly retention checks to stay ahead of deadlines

  2. Export reports for audit trails and compliance evidence

  3. Set calendar reminders for quarterly reviews

  4. Archive, don't delete - use the deletion workflow for confirmation

  5. Keep trust deeds permanently - they should never expire

Taking Action on Non-Compliant Documents

When documents are overdue or approaching deadline:

  1. Review required (30-60 days):

  2. Determine if document should be kept longer

  3. Check if legal/tax obligation extends retention

  4. Document reason for extended retention

  5. Overdue (past retention):

  6. Verify no active legal/tax requirement

  7. Use deletion workflow for confirmation

  8. Archive if uncertain rather than delete

  9. Trust documents:

  10. Never delete trust deeds

  11. Keep FTE documents for 5+ years from FTE date

  12. Maintain distribution records

Next Steps