Genie Snap^® Records Retention and Legal Holds

Retention rules decide how long each form's closed submissions are kept and what happens then. Legal holds keep specific submissions from being deleted. Both are managed by the team owner, and every change is recorded in a downloadable audit record.

Records Retention

From the Forms list, the team owner selects on the form's row to open Records Retention, and sets:

• Retention rule: On or Off. Off means nothing is listed or deleted for this form.
• Keep each submission for: a number of years, months, or days, counted from the date the submission was closed (its Completed date). Reopening a submission stops its clock; closing it again starts a new one.
• At the end of the period:
  • List it for me to review and approve deletion: the submission appears in Retention Review and the team owner is emailed once. Nothing is deleted until the owner approves it.
  • Delete it automatically, after a warning email: the team owner is emailed a list of the submissions due, the set number of days before deletion (14 by default). Each is deleted on its due date, and never sooner than that many days after the email. The owner is then emailed a list of what was deleted.

Select Save Rule to apply it. Submissions on legal hold are never deleted by a retention rule.

Rules are applied by a background check that runs every few hours (every 6 hours by default), so a submission can reach Retention Review, or be deleted, up to that long after its due date.

A deletion removes the same things as Delete Submission: the record, its data, documents, signed files, attachments, and comments.

Every deletion is recorded in a deletion register (what was deleted, when, by whom, and under which rule), and every change to a rule is recorded with who made it. Both are in the audit record downloaded from Retention Review.

Legal Holds

Place a hold:

• Step 1: In the Submissions list, tick the Select checkbox on each submission to hold.
• Step 2: Select Legal Holds at the top of the list.
• Step 3: Enter the Reason, such as the matter or case number.
• Step 4: Select Hold Selected Submissions. Each held submission shows the Legal hold badge.

Release a hold: open Legal Holds, enter the reason for releasing it in the Reason box, and select Release next to the hold. The dialog lists every current hold, with its reason and who placed it.

While a submission is on hold, these are refused:

• Delete Submission, Bulk Delete, and the API's delete operation
• Deleting the submission's attachments
• Deletion by a retention rule
• Deleting its form, deleting its team, and Account Delete for the team owner

If a held submission is reassigned to another team, the hold stays with it, and the new team's owner can release it. Every hold placed and released is recorded with who did it, when, and why, in the audit record downloaded from Retention Review.

Retention Review

Select Retention Review at the top of the Submissions list to see the submissions that have reached the end of their form's retention period, for the teams you own. Each is shown with its form, rule, description, requestor, and closed date, and one of these statuses:

• Awaiting your approval (review rules): tick the submissions and select Delete Approved, then confirm. Each one is checked again first: it must still be closed, past its due date, and not on hold.
• Deleted automatically on or after a date (automatic rules): no action is needed. To keep one, place a legal hold on it before that date.
• Legal hold, kept: the submission is held and won't be deleted until the hold is released.

Download Audit Record (CSV) exports, for the teams you own, every submission deleted under a retention rule, every legal hold placed and released, and every retention rule change, with the date (UTC), who, the form, the submission, and the reason or rule.