Records Management
Records retention policy and schedule (data retention policy)
The industry’s most compliant, comprehensive, and easy-to-execute records policies and schedules.
How we help
Organizations today are inundated with both paper and, especially, electronic information. At the same time, they face legal and regulatory recordkeeping rules and new and increased privacy data minimization requirements. Adding to these challenges, many employees habitually hoard electronic information, convinced they need to save everything forever despite the risks, costs, and impacts on productivity. Finally, many companies are finding that their information management practices are holding back effective and compliant use of generative AI.
We have worked with hundreds of companies, including 30% of the Fortune 500, to develop records retention policies and schedules that are defensible and easy to execute.
Explore our records management services
Global Records Retention Policy and Schedule
Create or update your records retention policy and schedule (data retention policy).
Global Citations Index
Policy and Schedule Ongoing Updates
Ongoing, regular updates reflecting legal and regulatory changes and new information types.
Schedule Privacy Enablement
Synchronize records retention requirements with privacy data minimization rules.
Information Types Inventory
Create a detailed listing of all information types across the enterprise.
M365 Records Portal
Set up M365 to provide a user-friendly, customized, searchable, and secure view of records policies, accessible through a browser.
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What We Do
Our records management services
We develop the industry’s most compliant, comprehensive, and easy to execute global record retention policies and schedules (data retention policies) that ensures you save only what you need to save, for as long as you need to save it, to meet legal, regulatory, privacy, and business needs.
Our records retention policy and schedule services help your organization meet legal and regulatory requirements, comply with personal information disposition rules, mitigate risk ,and address business needs.
Global Records Retention Policy and Schedule
We develop modern, legally compliant, and defensible records retention policies and schedules.
Many organizations are finding that traditional records retention schedules are no longer effective at driving consistent retention and defensible disposition. While these schedules were adequate in a paper-based environment, they do not easily scale to today’s digital, data-heavy operations.
Our innovative approach builds a consensus across key stakeholders, business units, and departments on what information should be saved and for how long (and what not to save), producing a modern schedule/data retention policy that is tailored to your organization’s legal and global regulatory requirements, risk appetite, litigation profile, and business needs, as well as being easier to execute and automate.
Compliant and defensible
Designed to meet global legal and regulatory requirements, including federal, state, provincial, country-specific, industry-specific, and international obligations.
Establishes defined roles and responsibilities for records management and includes enforcement provisions for policy violations.
Clearly defines minimum retention periods, trigger events, and the specific record categories maintained in the ordinary course of business.
Attorney-validated accuracy
Legal and regulatory citations are researched and validated by attorneys to ensure the highest level of accuracy and defensibility.
Ensures requirements are up to date, accurate and do not misclassify or mismatch a regulatory requirement with the specific record type.
Captures all records
Captures all record types across every format — including email, files, structured databases, paper, and physical records.
Identifies both common industry records and company-specific (even unique) record categories tailored to your organization.
Identifies and protects high-value information
- Distinguishes high-value business information from expired, redundant, or low-value data.
- Clarifies what must be retained to run and protect the business and what can be confidently deleted (and when).
- Enables productivity, innovation, and collaboration by reducing unnecessary information clutter.
Builds organizational consensus
Developed collaboratively across business units to drive alignment and shared ownership.
Creates practical buy-in that supports long-term adoption and compliance.
Clear, practical, and easy to use
Written in plain language with clear definitions and realistic examples of records and non-records.
Organized by business function so employees can quickly and confidently find the right retention guidance.
Integrated with broader compliance programs
Aligns with privacy, eDiscovery, information security, and intellectual property requirements.
Supports defensible deletion, regulatory readiness, and litigation response.
Client-owned and open format
Delivered in an open, non-proprietary format.
No ongoing subscription or maintenance fees, no schedule “lock in”.
We perform ongoing, regular updates reflecting legal and regulatory changes and new information types through records retention policy and schedule refresh and update.
Global Citations Index
We create a detailed listing of legal and regulatory requirements supporting retention.
Effective records management depends on maintaining accurate and detailed citations. Our citations index is a detailed listing of legal and regulatory requirements supporting retention for each record class listed in the schedule, with the ability to determine specific requirements by country, province, or region according to your areas of operation. The citations index:
- Maintains clear citation language to support defensibility during audits, regulatory inquiries, or litigation.
- Enables organizations to demonstrate a documented, research-based rationale for their retention schedule.
- Simplifies updates when laws change by centralizing and organizing all supporting authority in one structured index.
Policy and Schedule Ongoing Updates
We provide ongoing refresh and update services for records retention schedules/data retention policies.
A records retention schedule or data retention policy is a living framework that must evolve as your organization and the regulatory landscape change. New record types emerge, legacy records become obsolete, legal citations are updated, and new recordkeeping and privacy laws take effect, all of which require thoughtful review to avoid creating unintended risk.
Our structured review identifies new and revised legal and regulatory requirements, emerging privacy obligations, newly created or received record categories (including personal information), and records that are no longer generated. We also reassess retention periods based on current business value and operational needs.
- Identify and incorporate new or revised legal and regulatory requirements across all applicable jurisdictions worldwide.
- Capture new record types created by evolving business activities and technologies (e.g., generative AI and other emerging platforms).
- Add records from newly acquired entities and eliminate or revise record categories associated with divested business units.
- Reassess business value and adjust retention periods upward or downward based on actual operational needs.
- Ensure records retention policies, employee training, and operational procedures are aligned with updated requirements.
Ongoing, risk-aware updates preserve defensibility, protect business value, and ensure the retention schedule remains aligned with both regulatory obligations and organizational realities.
Schedule Privacy Enablement
We identify which records contain personal information and synchronizes legal and regulatory recordkeeping rules with privacy data minimization rules.
Global records retention requirements establish minimum retention periods based on legal and regulatory obligations. At the same time, privacy laws and data protection frameworks increasingly require that personal information be retained only as long as necessary to fulfill a legitimate business purpose. These two regimes can conflict if not thoughtfully aligned.
Rather than maintaining separate and potentially inconsistent records retention schedules and privacy data minimization policies, organizations should “privacy enable” their retention schedules. This means integrating privacy principles directly into the schedule itself, creating a single, harmonized governance framework that satisfies both recordkeeping obligations and data minimization requirements.
Privacy enablement strengthens defensibility, reduces regulatory risk, and ensures the organization can clearly articulate why personal information is retained and when it will be deleted.
Identification of personal information
Maps and flags which record classes contain personal information (e.g., employee, customer, vendor, patient, or consumer data).
Documented business justification
Clearly articulates the legitimate business purpose for retaining personal information, particularly when retention extends beyond the minimum legal requirement.
Alignment with data minimization rules
Synchronizes record retention periods with applicable privacy regulations to ensure personal data is not retained longer than necessary.
Jurisdictional harmonization
- Accounts for global privacy requirements (e.g., country- or state-specific rules) while maintaining a practical, enterprise-wide schedule.
Defensible deletion integration
Embeds deletion triggers and disposal guidance for personal information to support compliance and reduce unnecessary data exposure.
Cross-functional governance
Coordinates legal, privacy, compliance, security, and records management to avoid siloed or conflicting requirements.
By privacy-enabling the retention schedule, organizations move from reactive compliance to proactive governance, creating a unified framework that protects personal information, supports regulatory readiness, and reduces unnecessary data risk.
Information Types Inventory
Establishes a comprehensive inventory of the information types maintained across the organization.
Through structured stakeholder interviews, document sampling, and cross-functional workshops, we develop a practical and operationally grounded inventory that reflects how the business actually creates and manages information. The resulting inventory serves as the foundation for records retention schedules, defensible disposition programs, privacy compliance alignment, data minimization initiatives, and broader information governance strategy.
- Develops a working catalog of record and information types across all departments and functions.
- Collects representative document examples to validate classifications and ensure real-world accuracy.
- Distinguishes official records from transitory or non-record materials.
- Surfaces duplicative, high-risk, or legacy information categories requiring further action.
M365 Records Portal
We design and deploy a browser-accessible, fully searchable online records retention schedule.
Leveraging native Microsoft 365 capabilities, we design and deploy a browser-accessible, fully searchable online records retention schedule. Built using Microsoft Power Apps and existing M365 functionality, the solution delivers a modern, user-friendly interface for viewing retention policies, schedules, legal citations, and related governance information without requiring the purchase of additional software.
- Develops a secure, web-based retention schedule using native Microsoft Power Apps
- Provides customized, role-based views by department, function, or user group
- Simplifies access by presenting users with only the record categories relevant to their department or role
- Enables keyword search across record types, retention periods, and legal citations
- Ensures employees always access the most current, centrally managed version
- Eliminates the need for separate third-party retention management software
- Using existing M365 security, easy to administer.
- No ongoing subscription or maintenance fees
- Eliminates risk of employees using outdated PDF schedule
By publishing the schedule within the organization’s existing Microsoft 365 environment, companies improve usability, increase compliance, reduce user friction, and preserve prior technology investments, all while maintaining centralized governance control.
Connect with a member of the Contoural team to learn more about our information governance consulting services.
As an independent provider, Contoural does not sell or resell any products, take product referral fees, or provide discovery services such as matter-specific document identification, document collection, or document review. Our advice is based solely on the needs of our clients and is not driven by the sale of products.