How long submissions are kept, and what happens when the time is up.
Retention decides how long your clients' documents and answers are kept in Cartenda. By default, nothing is deleted automatically. If you set a window, anything older than it is permanently deleted, with warnings well before it goes.
Only the workspace owner can change retention.
The window counts from each client's last reply. Which window fits depends on the rules for your kind of firm. SEC Rule 204-2 asks an SEC-registered adviser to keep its books and records for five years from the end of the fiscal year they were made in, and six years from a client's last reply covers that. Tax preparers, lenders, and real estate and insurance agencies each have their own rules, often set by their state. See Retention and your books and records. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Some of your documents may be records you're required to keep, so check how long with your compliance officer before choosing a window. For more on choosing, see Retention and your books and records.
If you shorten your window, the page warns you how many submissions are already older than the new window. Those are deleted that night, without further warning, so Save asks you to confirm before it goes ahead. Emailed documents and PDFs filled with a client's Social Security number aren't in that count, so they wait to be named in a weekly warning like everything else.
The record of what happened stays, even after the documents are gone:
A client's signature is deleted with the answers it vouches for. Your audit log can't be altered, and keeps its entries.
A form a client started but never sent is deleted once they have gone 90 days without typing an answer or adding a document, whatever you choose, or sooner if your window is shorter. On a request several people answer, nothing is deleted on this clock once anybody has sent their part. The parts already sent go on your window instead, counted from the last one sent, even if somebody else never sends theirs. What somebody typed or uploaded without sending is thrown away once they have gone 90 days without touching it, or sooner if your window is shorter; the request stays open, and their link starts their part afresh. A client still working through a long packet keeps their draft however long ago they opened it. It was never sent to you, so it isn't part of your records. Documents the client emailed you about the same request were sent to you, so they stay, on your window like everything else.
When a client's unsent draft is deleted, the request it belonged to is closed, so its link and reminders stop. The request's page says the draft was deleted and the request closed, not that documents were deleted, since you never had them. If you still want the documents, click Send again on that page. It sends a new request for the same form to the same client, using the contact details you have on file now. Anyone else who had a part in the old request is sent their part again, for each role the form still has, unless they can no longer be reached or already have the form open; their part then falls to the client. Once it has, the page links to the new request instead, so the client isn't sent a second one. A form that fills in a document for the client is sent again from the form instead.
A reply through an open link from somebody who isn't your client waits for you to confirm them. If nobody decides, it is deleted 30 days after it arrived, whatever you choose here, including Keep indefinitely. You had not read it, so it isn't part of your records. It isn't named in the weekly warning. The Requests page and your morning summary email say when each one will go. See Open links.
By default, a client's name and contact details stay after their documents are deleted, so you keep the history of who you have worked with. If you rely on this, tell your clients.
To remove those too, turn on Delete client details along with their documents. When a client's last submission is deleted, their client record goes with it, along with any PDF you filled for them that no one else shares. A client whose vault still holds files is kept, since the vault is never deleted on this schedule. Past requests and file shares keep the name and address they were sent to, as your record of what you sent, and your audit log keeps its entries.
With Keep indefinitely, nothing is deleted automatically, so the amount you store only grows. Storage past your plan's allowance is metered. See Usage and allowances.
Retention runs on its own schedule. When something can't wait, such as a submission sent by mistake or a client asking to be forgotten, an owner or admin can delete a submission or erase a client by hand. Erasing a client whose records are still inside your window is limited to the workspace owner. See Clients and client groups.
Only the workspace owner can change the retention window, because it decides how long every client's documents are kept. Owners and admins receive the warning and report emails.
Still stuck? Write to hello@cartenda.com and a person will answer.