An event rule allows a document or record to fall under a path in a policy based on an event.
You define event rules using one or more of the following conditions: custom properties, document or record keys, and task properties.
For example, consider a retention policy for contracts. "Contracts," the document or record type assigned to the policy, is associated with the custom property, "Approval status." An approval status is either "Approved" or "Denied." You want to retain approved contracts for two years and denied contracts for one year. To meet these requirements, you create an advanced policy that contains a single phase and two paths, one for each approval status. The first path you define is for approved contracts. For this path, you create an event rule using the custom property, "Approved." To address denied contracts, you create a second path and create an event rule using the "Denied" custom property. Retention Policy Designer evaluates the event rules to determine the appropriate path for the contracts.
You configure an event rule for event based and event and time based policies. When you create an event rule, to determine when the disposition action can occur, you must also define a time rule.
The following example shows a simple policy with start date based on an event.
Nick is the records manager at the University of Washington. Nick wants to enforce retention policies for curriculum documents. At the end of each semester, the university requires students to fill out course evaluations. The university needs to retain these evaluations for three years after the end of the current quarter.
Nick creates a simple policy for the evaluations. He creates an event rule that uses the custom property, "End of quarter date." This custom property is associated with the document type, "Course evaluation." To set the duration of the retention period, Nick creates a time rule based on the custom property, "End of quarter date," and sets the duration to three years from this date. Nick sets the disposition action to "Destruction." To complete the policy, Nick then assigns the "Course evaluation" document type to the policy.
The following example shows an advanced policy with multiple paths and an event based start date.
Stephanie is the records manager at the University of Kentucky. The Psychology Department receives grant applications from students who want funding for their graduate studies. Stephanie wants to create a retention policy for applications that are granted funding and those that are not. The document type "Grant application" is associated with the custom property, "Application status." This status is either "Funded" or "Not funded."
Stephanie creates an advanced policy that contains a single phase and two paths. The first path is for funded applications. Stephanie creates an event rule for applications with a custom property set to "Funded." She then creates a time rule for this path that retains the application for three years after final termination of the grant. The "Grant termination date" is the custom property date Stephanie selects for the time rule. This custom property date is associated with the document type assigned to the policy. Stephanie creates an event rule for the second path. This path is for applications that are not funded. In addition, Stephanie creates a time rule that retains applications that are not funded for two years after the student terminates his or her studies at the university. The termination date is a custom property date and is associated with the document type assigned to the policy. Stephanie sets the disposition action for each path to "Destruction." To complete this policy, Stephanie then assigns the document type, "Grant application," to the policy.