Consulting/ Retention Schedules
Consulting · Retention Schedules
Records Retention Schedule
From big-bucket functional schedules to granular record series strategies — the primary objective is adoption and adherence. From a very big-bucket functional approach to more granular record series strategies, Zasio possesses extensive records retention policy experience and a demonstrated history of leading innovation across many industries. The schedule should be simple and approachable in its administration and for end-users, so it can be easily maintained and regularly updated — a schedule people can actually follow is the one that keeps you compliant.
Is your records retention schedule effective?
The primary objective underlying a records retention schedule is adoption and adherence. In other words, the schedule should be simple and approachable in its administration and for end-users, so it can be easily maintained and regularly updated. We work with clients to create or develop a records retention schedule consistent with their organization's objectives and risk profile.
How we build schedules that get followed
Creation
We're experienced in creating schedules from scratch and updating existing ones. We'll identify and classify records through surveys and interviews to create schedules catered to your needs and objectives. We also help harmonize jurisdictional requirements if you have a global retention schedule.
Optimization
We'll help analyze your schedule's coverage, fill gaps, consolidate, and simplify schedules for a more functional approach. We will also reassess the organizational makeup of your schedules.
Research
Our in-house team of legal professionals have researched a combined 303 countries, states, provinces, territories, self-regulated organizations, and supranational unions for a total of 183,000+ substantive citations and counting.
Application
Using relevant laws and regulations, we will align record-keeping requirements to specific records series captured on your retention schedule — and help put the schedule to work across your organization and systems, including Versatile, if you run it.
Recommendations
We'll consider applied record-keeping citations and make recommendations for retention period adjustments based on our research — practical, prioritized guidance matched to your objectives and risk profile, not a binder that goes on a shelf.
What the research covers
A defensible schedule rests on more than retention statutes. For every in-scope jurisdiction, our research spans four bodies of law — because the requirement that surprises you is rarely the one you went looking for.
Retention mandates
Laws and regulations that expressly prescribe how long records must be kept — the retention drivers your baseline periods stand on.
Privacy maximums
Laws limiting how long personal data may be kept. Some don't merely permit disposal — they compel it, and your schedule has to resolve both directions at once.
Handling requirements
Mandated destruction methods, storage location and cross-border movement restrictions, and required media or formats — mapped to the record series they affect.
Statutes of limitation
Select statutes of limitation for commonly requested categories — contracts, personal injury, workers' compensation, wage claims, construction, real estate, tax — mapped as context, and recommended as retention drivers only where a jurisdiction commonly treats them that way.
Regulated by more than a regulator? Research extends past federal and state law into the self-regulated organizations that bind specific industries — FINRA, NACHA, NYSE, NASDAQ, MSRB, and PCI DSS in financial services; ICH, PIC/S, WHO, and OECD guidance in pharmaceuticals; NERC and NARUC in utilities and energy.
Final schedules are delivered in the Versatile Retention Schedule Management application, or in Excel, Word, or PDF. Zasio is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.