Records are often talked about as being either active or inactive. These two states classify the value of the record to the company. Active records are editable and are still currently useful to the organization whereas inactive records are read-only and are maintained for historic purposes. A record can become immediately inactive, can have an active period followed by an inactive period, or can remain active for its entire life cycle, depending on its cutoff instructions and retention schedule.
Active Records
Records that are being actively used in the organization should be easily accessible to users who need to quickly retrieve information from them. Records that are active should be organize in a way that ensures all users at the site (both records managers and other types of users) can retrieve and use them.
Inactive Records
An inactive record is a record that is no longer frequently accessed in the organization's everyday activities. You may need to retain an inactive record for a specific period of time, however, to meet legal or audit requirements.
Because retaining obsolete records is an unnecessary drain on resources, it is important to determine how long recorded information must be kept, and to determine the appropriate method of disposal for obsolete records.