Policies
AutoRecords automatically assigns a Retention Category to objects on the system based on rules called Polices. These Policies eliminate the need for end users or records managers to assign retention manually to documents and objects.
Polices provide a set of criteria used to determine which documents and objects get assigned to a given Retention Category. Policies consist of the following properties.
Policy Name: Text field that is used to describe the rule. This can be any value and is manually entered.
Category: A Retention Category selected from the list of existing Retention Categories that the user has permission to.
Class(es): One or more classes of objects that can be assigned the Retention Category. Classes are required, and at least one Class must be specified. Each Class specified will be eligible to have the Retention Category associated to the Policy assigned to the documents belonging to that class. This can be thought of as a logical "OR" so if multiple classes are specified, documents meeting any of the classes specified qualify for the policy. (i.e."If the class of the document is Class1 or Class2 or Class3.") If no Policy Filters are specified, all documents/objects belonging to the Class(es) specified will get assigned the Retention Category designated.
Policy Filter: Policy Filters can be configured so documents or objects matching the filter conditions will be eligible to have the Retention Category assigned. Policy Filters are not required. Each Policy Filter specified further limits the eligibility of documents or objects that will qualify for the Policy. This can be thought of as a logical "AND" condition. "If Policy Filter A AND Policy Filter B AND Policy Filter C."
Policy Filters use the same object as Triggers since technically a Trigger is just a filter as well. So anything that's set up as a Policy Filter can be used as a Trigger and anything set up as a Trigger can be used as a Policy Filter.
Objects Modified Since: Date field that indicates how far back in time AutoRecords should apply the rule. This allows Records Managers to create a new rule that won't impact existing content on the system.
Include Templates: Templates are a special construct in M-Files. Templates have the Is Template flag set and in many cases a Template should not be included in standard retention policies because they are meant to remain on the system to be used in creation of new documents. The default value for this field is No.
If Retention is applied to a Document Template, documents derived from that Template will appear to inherit retention from the Template as documents are created. This is the default M-Files behavior. However, Policies will override the retention assigned to documents created from a template based on the properties on the document.
Policy Owner The Policy Owner is used when the Assign To Policy Owner Action is associated with an Event Template. The Policy Owner can be useful if you want certain people within the organization to be assigned to review all documents belonging to a policy.
It can be tempting to want to assign documents to people within the organization without realizing that doing so may create a significant amount of extra work and "noise" for them. Please reach out to TeamIM and we can discuss alternatives that may be a better fit.