Managing a Records Management Program
Now that you have implemented a records management program that stores all contracts for seven years, you can now just walk away and ignore it for seven years, right? Wrong! A records management program needs regular care and feeding to ensure that it is operating properly and routing content appropriately.
Reviewing and resolving unclassified records
Unclassified records are records that were submitted to the records center but do not match a record routing entry. Documents that end up in the unclassified records library need to be reviewed regularly and moved to the appropriate location. In addition, the records center administrator needs to determine if another content type is necessary to manage regularly submitted documents that result in unclassified records.
To move records from the unclassified record repository to the appropriate record library, follow these steps:
1. | Select Unclassified Records from the left navigation of the records management site. |
2. | Click through the folder created for the day until you find your unclassified document. |
3. | From the pull-down menu, select Send to and then Other location. |
4. | Enter the path to the appropriate records management library in the Destination document library or folder field. |
5. | Click OK. |
6. | After the file copy shows that it is finished, click Done to return to the unclassified document library. |
7. | Select Delete from the pull-down of the document that you just copied to the correct records management folder. |
Tip
The documents in the records management libraries will most likely appear to have been last modified by the System Account because of the method used when moving them to the records management site. If you want to view the properties for a particular document, navigate to the records management document library, select the Properties folder, and click the XML document for the document that you want. This XML document shows all the original author information for each record.
Managing missing metadata
If your records management library requires particular columns of metadata and records are submitted without that metadata, the records will not be routed to the records library but will instead be placed in a temporary document library until the records receive the appropriate metadata. If you are using the manual method of submitting records to the records management location, you do not need to be concerned about missing metadata because SharePoint will prompt the user submitting the content for the appropriate metadata. However, if you are using a programmatic method to push content to the records repository, it is possible for the content to be pushed without the right metadata.
To fill in the appropriate metadata for your documents, follow these steps:
1. | Open the records management site and select View All Site Content from the left navigation. |
2. | Select the Missing Properties document library. |
3. | For each title presented in the list, select Edit Properties from the pull-down menu. |
4. | Fill in the missing metadata fields and click OK. |
Reviewing hold reports
Holds are key to legal compliance. You should regularly review the hold orders for your records to make sure that they are sufficient for the compliance issues that are active in your organization. In addition to a hold, you should regularly review the hold reports for the holds that you have implemented to make sure that the necessary items have been added to the hold. Because holds suspend the disposition of your records, you should also regularly review whether all hold orders are still required.
On your records repository site, you can review the hold reports by following these steps:
1. | Select the Holds list from the left navigation of your record center. |
2. | Select View Item from the edit menu of the hold order. |
3. | Select View hold report in the Hold Status section of the hold order. |