Retention periods
Align retention with legal or contractual obligations, then purge what needs to be purged.
Glossary · EDM
Electronic archiving
Organised long-term storage of digital documents, with retention rules, accessibility and proof of integrity.
Also known as: digital archiving · electronic records retention
What is electronic archiving?
Electronic archiving means keeping digital documents in a durable, searchable and governed way — not just “not deleting them”. It involves retention periods, access rights, sometimes integrity requirements, and the ability to find the reference version years later.
Business and compliance stakes
Contracts, invoices, HR, disputes: the company must be able to produce the right document at the right time, without digging through forgotten drives.
Accessibility
An inaccessible archive is as much an operational loss as it is a risk.
Separating active files from archives
Ongoing files must not drown in the historical backlog — and vice versa.
Common pitfalls
Archiving without metadata
Thousands of PDFs named “scan_final_v2” do not make a usable archive.
Keeping everything “just in case”
Without a retention policy, volumes explode and search quality degrades.
Archiving in DocPilot
After approval, DocPilot keeps documents in a searchable repository, with a structured record and history — so you can find the binding version without rebuilding an inbox.
- Archive linked to the contract / document record
- Search by content and metadata
- History of actions and approvals
Related DocPilot pages
To learn more about the product and the guides.
Solutions by team
Pages built around each team’s priorities.
- Human resourcesCentralize employment contracts, payslips, ID documents and certificates: OCR, HR approval, role-based access and search. DocPilot for human resources.
- Executive managementOversee approvals, critical documents and cross-department responsibilities: dashboard, workflows, notifications and search. DocPilot for executive management.
“How-to” guides
Step-by-step methods to make real progress.
- Organise a DMSA guide to organising a company document management system (DMS): governance, types, access rights, workflows. A practical method, mistakes to avoid and rollout with DocPilot.
- Centralise documentsA guide to centralising business documents: source of truth, metadata, access and search. Steps, mistakes to avoid and the role DocPilot plays.
- Automate processingA guide to automating document processing: capture, OCR, classification, approval. Method, mistakes to avoid and DocPilot.
Related articles
DocPilot blog posts on the same topic.
- Document retention policy for businessesDefining a document retention policy: retention periods, responsibilities, archiving and destruction — for document management you can sustain.
- The lifecycle of a business documentThe stages in the lifecycle of a business document: capture, indexing, use, reference version, archiving — not to be confused with a file that has simply been filed away.
- Document governance in the enterpriseSetting up document governance in your business: roles, intake rules, decision-making and reviews — for a repository that lasts.
Terms and product pages
Related pages to refine your research.
- Document traceabilityThe ability to reconstruct a document’s history: creation, changes, sensitive views, approvals and archiving.
- Document managementMove from scattered storage to real business document management: upload, OCR, metadata, search and approval workflows with DocPilot.
- Business DMSDiscover a business DMS focused on document intake, OCR/AI, workflows and audit — designed for SMBs and mid-sized companies with DocPilot.
- EDMA system that centralises company documents, classifies them with metadata, manages access rights and supports their lifecycle.
Take action
Archive to find, not to pile up
Centralise your approved documents in DocPilot with the metadata that lets you find them again.