EMAIL RETENTION POLICY WORKSHEET
Yenra | September 5, 2026
Companion guide: https://yenra.com/e-mail-retention-policy/
Annotated planning sample; not an approved policy or legal retention schedule.
Durations must be determined for the organization and applicable jurisdiction.

1. POLICY SCOPE
Organization / business units:
Jurisdictions and regulated activities:
Systems: mailboxes, shared accounts, archives, exports, CRM copies, attachments:
Linked-document and version-preservation requirements:
Excluded systems and separate governing policy:

2. RESPONSIBILITY
Policy owner:
Legal / records / privacy reviewers:
Technical administrator and backup:
Preservation escalation contact:
Approval date, version, and next review date:

3. REPEAT THIS BLOCK FOR EACH RECORD CATEGORY
Category name and examples:
Business purpose:
Applicable authority (direct source and exact provision):
Jurisdiction / applicability reasoning:
Required period (TO BE DETERMINED):
Triggering event and how it is recorded:
Authoritative system and duplicate-copy treatment:
Category owner:
System rule or documented manual procedure:
Access and retrieval requirements:
End-of-period action and disposition reviewer:
Preservation exceptions and hold-check procedure:
Approved by / date:

4. PRESERVATION PROCESS
Who decides that a hold is required:
How scope, custodians, dates, and systems are documented:
How automated deletion and account closure are suspended where needed:
How acknowledgments and verification are recorded:
Who authorizes release and checks for other continuing obligations:
How the ordinary schedule is reassessed after release:

5. IMPLEMENTATION TESTS
Use nonproduction records and preserve test evidence.
Test ordinary aging, attachments, linked documents, and exports.
Test user deletion, employee departure, and retrieval under a hold.
Test conflicting rules, hold release, and disposal review.
Record propagation / processing time and observed system behavior.
Expected result / actual result / evidence / reviewer:

6. STAFF GUIDANCE AND REVIEW
Where records are filed:
What user deletion does and does not do:
Where to escalate a preservation question:
Review triggers: migration, licensing, new systems, law, or business changes:
Training owner and date:

SOURCE STARTING POINTS (not universal durations)
US tax records:
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/how-long-should-i-keep-records
US federal civil procedure, Rule 37(e):
https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/document/federal-rules-of-civil-procedure.pdf
UK GDPR storage limitation:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-protection-principles/a-guide-to-the-data-protection-principles/storage-limitation/
Microsoft Purview implementation concepts:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/retention