A record is an individual document stored in a record folder. A record can contain data, metadata, or both.
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Note:Annotations are not metadata. They will not be saved if metadata is preserved when a record is destroyed, as they are merged with the image/text data.
In Laserfiche, records are grouped into two lifecycle categories: active and inactive.
- Active: Records must be easily accessible in order to be useful, and in their active phase, records must be organized so people can quickly find and retrieve a needed piece of information. You must organize your records to ensure that all users at the site (both records managers and other types of users) can retrieve and use them.
- Inactive: Inactive records are 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. Depending on your retention policy, some records may never become inactive.
Records are created with the same life cycle properties (such as cutoff instructions and retention schedules) as their parent record series, and so will usually have the same properties as their parent record folder and parent record series. (If the properties on the parent record folder or series are changed, however, the changes will not propagate to the child records.) In addition, usually the records within a record folder will be at the same stage of their life cycle. Record management actions, such as cutoff, are generally performed on the entire record folder.
There are two exceptions: first, individual records that have been placed under a hold will not continue through the life cycle with the rest of the records in their folders, and second, it is possible (although uncommon) to set record properties on individual records, or to perform record management actions on individual records, in which case those records will move through their life cycle separately from the rest of the record folder.
Tip: Laserfiche can also help track physical records that do not reside in the Laserfiche repository by creating empty records in Laserfiche that represent physical records and assigning metadata to them. You can then perform records management actions on the Laserfiche files as the corresponding actions are taken on the physical records.
A record's metadata may be maintained in the Laserfiche repository even after the record has been destroyed. This option is configured in the record's retention schedule by users assigned the Records Management privilege.
Note: If the record is destroyed with metadata retained, the version history will be deleted. This ensures that page and electronic file contents are entirely removed, even in the history. The Retain metadata information setting for final disposition does not retain the version history.
To create a record
Any document created in or moved into a record folder is automatically a record. This is the case regardless of how the document arrives in the folder, whether it is scanned, imported, or moved from elsewhere in the repository. No further actions are required to make the record part of that record folder or series.
A document not in a record series can be converted to a record folder by assigning a cutoff instruction or retention schedule to the record. To do so, select or open the document and then select the Records tab in the details pane. Select Edit Properties to specify a filing date, cutoff instruction, and/or retention schedule. It is not necessary to set both a cutoff instruction and a retention schedle, but at least one must be set for the document to become a record.
Note: Administrators can prevent users from creating record folders outside of record series.
By default, a record will inherit record properties from its parent record folder. Although an individual record cannot have a different cutoff instruction or vital status than its parent folder, you can assign a different retention schedule for individual records, if your regulatory compliance requires it. Properties are assigned through the Record Properties dialog box.