Every department/unit in any organization must manage the paper and electronic records it uses in the course of business on a daily basis. Records are retained or disposed of according to the organization’s official Records Retention Schedules.

It is also important for every department/unit to set aside time to do an “annual purge” of appropriate paper and electronic records according to the official Records Retention Schedules. This is typically done either at the end of the fiscal year, or the end of the calendar year, because many retention and disposition instructions follow the format of “at fiscal year end, dispose of all records X years old or older.” Departments/units should choose the time period that works best for their workflow, staffing, and type of records to do this annual purge.

Role of the Coordinator for the Annual Records Purge

 The management of the department/unit will usually assign a person to oversee and ensure that this annual purge is undertaken and completed by the entire department/unit. The person assigned this role could also happen to be the official Records Coordinator for a records retention area/sub-area, in which case that person would also perform that role as outlined above. However, not every person assigned to oversee the annual purge for their own department/unit’s records, is also an official Records Coordinator.

Learn more about the role of a records coordinator.