Document Retention & Archiving

Keep every legal document in the right place, held for exactly as long as required, without manual tracking.

24 hrs
Time saved/month
6
Companies have mapped
Map This Automation

About This Automation

Document retention and archival requires paralegals to manually review metadata, cross-reference retention policies, and move files to cold storage. This scattered, repetitive work consumes significant time and creates compliance risk when deadlines are missed.

Automation reads document metadata, applies retention rules automatically, and orchestrates the transfer to archive storage while maintaining a complete audit trail. The result is faster archival, zero missed deadlines, and instant retrieval of archived documents.

Key features
Automatically extract document metadata and match it against retention policy rules
Calculate archival deadlines and flag documents subject to legal holds or regulatory freezes
Prepare documents for cold storage and transfer them without manual download and upload
Log all archival events in the retention register with timestamps and confirmation codes
Alert supervising attorneys when documents approach their retention deadline

How The Automation Works

The full workflow, from trigger to completion.

1. Document Reaches Retention Deadlinetrigger

The automation platform monitors all documents and checks their creation date against the retention policy rules stored. When a document's deadline arrives, the workflow is triggered.

2. Retrieve Document Metadata

The automation reads the document's creation date, matter code, document type, and any applied tags metadata.

3. Look Up Retention Rule

The automation queries the retention policy table to retrieve the correct retention period for the document type and jurisdiction.

4. Check Legal Hold Status

The automation cross-references the legal hold register to confirm no active litigation hold or regulatory freeze applies to the document.

5. Prepare Archival Metadata

The automation creates a structured metadata record with the document ID, archival date, retention rule applied, and archive destination, then tags the file.

6. Move to Archive Storage

The automation transfers the document from the active folder to a designated archive folder and updates the file status to archived.

7. Log Archival Event

The automation appends a new row to the retention register with the archival date, document ID, archive location, and confirmation timestamp.

8. Send Notification to Attorney

The automation sends a message to the supervising attorney summarizing the archival action and listing any documents approaching their retention deadline in the next 30 days.

4 reasons to map this process

1

It's completely free

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2

You get a complete build plan

A visual process map, automation spec, delivery timelines, and everything needed to build it, customized to your workflow and tools.

3

You see your real numbers

Custom pricing, ROI projection, and payback timeline based on your actual process, not industry averages.

4

There's no obligation to build

Your build plan stays in your workspace with no expiry. Move forward whenever the timing is right.

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Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know before mapping this process.

This template is a starting point based on how other businesses handle this type of work. When you map your process, you describe exactly how your team does it and the automation is built around your workflow, not a generic template.

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Estimated Time Saving
24hrs/month
Process pain:7.8/10
Mapped by:6 Companies

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