The Document Retention Period in Signority defines how long finalized documents are stored before they are automatically deleted. By default, this period is set to 90 days but can be changed by a billing or super admin.
After the defined period has passed Documents are moved to the Purge queue which you can find on the Documents page. They remain in the Purge queue for 14 days before permanent deletion. During this 14-day period, documents can still be downloaded or saved if needed.
Note: During the document retention period, users are still able to delete documents themselves. To prevent this, you can enable an additional setting (see below).
Set up Document Retention Period
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From the user dashboard, navigate to the Admin Console by selecting Admin on the left sidebar menu.
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In the Admin view, select Settings > Global Settings on the revised side menu.
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In the Global Settings pop-up, scroll to Retention and Backup or select Retention and Backup from the tab navigation.
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If it is not already enabled, toggle on Enable Document Retention.
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Adjust the number of days before a document is permanently deleted.
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Click Save in the top right of the pop-up to apply these changes.
After the defined period has passed, the document will be sent to the Purge queue for 14 days before Signority permanently deletes the document. Signority will send an email notifying you that Signority will purge the document seven days and three days before it is permanently deleted.
Prevent Users from Deleting Documents Early
To stop users from deleting documents before the retention period ends:
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Ensure Document Retention is enabled
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Locate the setting Prevent documents from being deleted by users until deletion date
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Toggle this option ON
This ensures documents cannot be manually deleted before their retention period expires.
Managing Changes to Retention Settings
Increasing the number of days in the retention policy
If you increase the number of days in the retention policy, any documents that are in the Purge queue will have their deletion date extended. If the increase is greater than the number of days that a document has been in the Purge queue, then Signority will remove the document from the Purge queue, and update its expiry date.
For example, suppose today is November 1, 2021. There is currently a document that has been in the Purge queue for four days, meaning that in 10 days, on November 10, 2021, the document will be deleted permanently. If you increase the retention period by 16 days, the document will be removed from the Purge queue. It will be moved back to the Purge queue in 12 days on November 12, 2021. Signority will delete the document permanently 14 days after this, on November 26, 2021.
Decreasing the number of days in the retention policy
If a user shortens the retention period by X number of days, then any signed documents not yet in the Purge queue will have their expiry date shortened by the same X number of days. If the updated expiry date for a finalized document has already passed, the document will be placed in the Purge queue, where Signority will permanently delete them after 14 days. However, for documents that are already in the Purge queue, shortening the retention period does not change how much longer a document will stay in the Purge queue before being permanently deleted.
Turning off the retention policy
If you turn off the retention policy for your account or team, then all documents in the Purge queue will be removed from the Purge queue, and all signed documents will be displayed and accessible as usual. All documents will continue to remain in your Signority account until explicitly deleted.