Records Retention Schedule
What you keep, for how long, where, who may read it and what you destroy on purpose — plus the one instruction that stops all of it.
What it is
Turns "we keep everything, just in case" into a governed instrument: the record classes that actually exist in the business, each with an owner, a period, a stated reason and a confirmation trail; the storage and archive mechanics including backups and the copies on personal drives; the annual destruction run with its certificate; and the legal hold that overrides all of it. For owners and operations leads, and for anyone just asked by an auditor or a lawyer what the company's retention policy is.
What you receive
a retention schedule you can actually run — every record class the business holds with a named owner, a period carrying its reason, its clock-start event and who confirmed it, the storage and access rules per class, the annual destruction run with its certificate, and the legal hold that suspends all of it the moment a claim becomes foreseeable
Delivered as a single, complete .md skill file — open it, paste it into any capable chat model, and work. No installation, no account with anyone but us.
Supported models
- Claude (Opus/Sonnet)
- ChatGPT (GPT-4o/5)
- Gemini
- any capable chat model
People reach for it when
- “how long do we have to keep employee records and invoices”
- “records retention schedule template small company”
- “what documents are we allowed to delete and when”
- “legal hold policy stop deleting emails litigation”
- “we kept everything for ten years how to start deleting safely”
Record
lineage: first-party house build
gates passed: demand-evidence · function-fit · beats-the-blank-page
status: IN THE COLLECTION
Sale-time bench runs and the fix-or-refund log attach to this record when the payment room opens.
In the collection. The sale room is being fitted; this work goes on sale when it opens.
Join the house — be written to when sales openBack to the collectionLicense
Free-shelf works ship under the DolceDrago House License — use the outputs freely, personal or commercial; the work file itself stays with the house.