Retention Schedule Management
The schedule engine behind everything Versatile governs, backed by more than 184,000 verified legal citations across 170 countries, maintained by Zasio's own attorneys and researchers, and delivered to every employee who needs an answer.
Trusted by
- City & County of Denver
- University of Washington
- Highmark Inc.
- Inter-University Council of Ohio
- …and a global pharmaceutical company
What is retention schedule management software?
Retention schedule management software is where an organization writes, approves, publishes, and maintains its records retention schedule: the policy that says how long each type of record must be kept and why. Versatile Retention Schedule Management, from Zasio, pairs that software with the legal research behind it. Every retention period links to the laws and regulations that require it, drawn from more than 184,000 citations across 170 countries that Zasio's attorneys and researchers keep current.
Records managers, legal and compliance teams, privacy officers, and information governance leaders use it to build a legally defensible retention schedule, keep it up to date as laws change, and show an auditor or a court exactly what the policy was on any date.
A schedule you can defend, not just publish
Versatile 2026 with Retention Schedule Management is the must-have tool for confident compliance: know what the regulations are, apply them to a well-managed retention schedule, and know what systems those record types map to. Keeping up with compliance requirements isn't getting easier: data privacy, jurisdictional differences, handling requirements and varying data formats all add complexity, even with AI. Zasio's curated, vetted repository of more than 184,000 citations spanning 170 countries keeps you up to date and focused on what's relevant.
But legal requirements are only part of the story: information is risk. A strong retention and disposition schedule mitigates it by categorizing data, assigning minimum and maximum retention periods, tagging vital and sensitive information, and mapping where it all lives. A well-managed, well-communicated schedule supports cyber, privacy, legal and IT teams while reducing exposure. With three citation subscription models, two deployment options (SaaS or on-premises), and both power-user and end-user interfaces, we offer a Versatile solution to fit your budget and technology constraints. Choose from three subscription packages — International, North America, or U.S. — with no per-country fees. Versatile is built to scale with your organization.
Curated legal research, vetted by industry experts
Zasio employs full-time legal research experts and licensed attorneys who continually research legal citations. A subscription gives you access to our U.S., North America or international database, covering records for general businesses and major industries and supplemented by jurisdiction-specific research, including retention, privacy, location, format, and signature requirements. Our database covers 170 countries and 184,000+ citations.
Security and audit control
Ensure the right people are doing the right things by defining allowed or prohibited functionality and controlling access by company, business function or country. Manage schedule updates and the approval process confidently, knowing every change is fully audited. Create a change request, propose modifications, and click send to notify the pre-defined authorizers. All reviews and feedback are done within the system, so you know exactly where things stand at any moment, and you'll have the history of those changes in case there are ever questions in the future about who approved what.
Intuitive and easy to use
Versatile 2026 is intuitive and easy to use. The interface is easy to navigate and comes included with AI-searchable help for users to access at any time. Tailor the screens to meet the specific needs of your organization and add user-defined fields to capture all the important details about your records. We provide in-depth online training for users and provide access to our full-time support personnel.
Create and maintain multiple retention schedules
Ability to create records retention schedules at the global, company, or business function level in addition to multiple levels within the schedule items. Our exclusive Smart Search allows you to search for citations and link them to schedule titles to show legal backing for retention rules.
Retention schedule management features
Citations do the arguing
Every retention rule links to the legal citations behind it: searchable, categorized, with history. Show the legal driver for any record, instantly.
Updates arrive as batches
Check, prepare, install: the citation update service pulls vetted change batches from Zasio's research team, shows which of your schedules each change touches, and installs on your say-so, from the desktop or the browser. Subscribe to the scope you need: U.S., North America, or International, a superset of both. There are no per-country fees. Citation batches are published on a regular basis and are available to SaaS users as part of their monthly subscription fee or to on-premises users as part of their annual maintenance and support fee.
Multi-jurisdiction by design
Build schedules at the global, company, or business-function level, with country-based retention layering for regional exceptions.
Change management with teeth
Propose, review, approve, authorize: every schedule change routed through your named approvers and captured in the audit trail.
Retention schedule history
View your records retention schedule as a point-in-time snapshot or view the history of changes using multiple search criteria: the answer to "what was our policy when this record was created?"
Ask VIA
Describe a record in plain language; VIA suggests the matching schedule and cites its sources, and asks a clarifying question when it isn't sure.
System mapping
Keep track of the systems where records are managed, and link those systems to your records retention schedule. When a retention rule changes, you know which repositories the change lands in — the question every privacy and IT team asks first.
Robust reporting system
Create unlimited custom reports or use one of the many default templates. Customize retention schedules so you only see the data you need. Build a basic report with a few clicks of your mouse, or build it out with logos and dynamic formatting when it has to leave the building.
The schedule feeds other systems
Versatile 2026 works on its own, but it can also be integrated with other repositories so you can update the retention schedule in one place and let those changes flow downstream to other applications. Zasio developed its own middleware, Versatile Fuse, to allow connections to virtually any API, including platforms such as SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and publisher/subscriber middleware systems. See the connector catalog →
Versatile Information Assistant (VIA)
Ask in plain language; VIA answers from the schedule and the citation database behind it.
Versatile's embedded AI tool can help in three ways: finding the right citations for your retention schedule, providing recommendations on new schedules for core business functions, and guiding you through the use of the application. In each scenario, you need only ask a question using natural language, and VIA will provide the answer, often with clarifying questions to ensure accuracy.
What the video shows
Inside Versatile 2026, a user opens Schedules and asks the Versatile Information Assistant: “What do you recommend for yearly audit files from our external accountant?” VIA lists the schedules that match, among them Compliance & Risk: Audits and Investigations (External, Financial) and Accounting & Finance: Financial Audit, Tax Audits, Appeals and Revenue Rulings, and Financial Statements. Displaying the full results opens the suggested schedules with their supporting citations by jurisdiction. The user adds the Financial Audit schedule: Versatile maps its business function, title, retention (final resolution plus 10 years) and description into the company's own schedule, the user adjusts the retention to 11 years and keeps seven of the citations, and saves. The new schedule then appears in the company's schedule list with its citations attached. The video has no sound.
The loop behind the content
Software and legal expertise, one system.
The same consultants and attorneys who maintain the citation database can build and optimize your schedule. And when a change request needs research you'd rather hand off, it can be sent from inside Versatile to Zasio's consultants and come back into the same schedule: software and services, one loop.
Explore consulting →Delivered everywhere
The schedule works in a browser: Versatile's web client (GA since June 2026) carries schedules, as-of history, citation research, and change requests with nothing to install. A Windows client is available for teams that prefer one. And through Corporate-Wide Access, any employee can search the schedule, open the title that governs their record, and submit a change request that lands in your approval queue. One schedule, every audience.
See the web client →When the law changes, your schedule keeps up
A retention schedule is only defensible while it is current. Versatile connects four things most organizations manage in four different places, so a change in the law becomes a reviewed, approved, and recorded change in your policy.
1. The research arrives
Zasio's attorneys and researchers track new and amended laws and deliver the changes to you as reviewed updates.
2. You see what it touches
Versatile shows which of your schedules each legal change affects and flags them for review, so nobody has to read a statute to find out whether it matters.
3. The right people approve
A change request goes to the authorizers you have named, by schedule, country, business function, or job title. They compare the current and proposed wording, comment, and decide.
4. The history is kept
Every revision is saved. View the schedule as it stood on any past date, with who approved each change and the citation that prompted it.
Build the schedule, not just store it
Records inventory interviews
Capture what each department creates and keeps, with supporting documents attached, and turn the findings into schedule entries.
Suggested schedules
Review suggested schedules and accept the ones that fit, instead of starting every entry from a blank page.
Merge and bulk change
Consolidate duplicate schedules after a merger or a reorganization, and apply a change to many schedules at once.
Ask a Zasio consultant from inside the product
Send a question to Zasio's consultants with the schedules and citations attached, and read the answer in the same place.
Questions about retention schedule software
How many legal citations back Versatile’s retention schedules?
More than 184,000 verified legal citations across 170 countries, maintained by Zasio’s own attorneys and researchers. Every retention rule links to the citations behind it.
How do citation updates reach my schedule?
As vetted change batches from Zasio’s research team: the citation update service shows which of your schedules each change touches and installs on your approval, from the desktop or the browser. Subscriptions cover U.S., North America, or International scope.
Can I see what the schedule said on a past date?
Yes — point-in-time history shows the schedule exactly as it stood on any date, answering “what was our policy when this record was created?”
Does the schedule support multiple jurisdictions?
Yes. Schedules can be built at the global, company, or business-function level, with country-based retention layering for regional exceptions.
What is VIA?
VIA is the built-in assistant: describe a record in plain language and it suggests the matching schedule and cites its sources, asking a clarifying question when it isn’t sure.
Part of one platform
The schedule you maintain here is the one that governs electronic records, physical records, and content managed in place. There is no second copy to keep in step. See how Versatile works together →