Retention Monitoring
CoralLedger Comply enforces per-business data retention policies through scheduled enforcement runs. The default retention period is 7 years, as required by Value Added Tax Act, 2014, s. 26. Operators can review retention schedules, preview upcoming enforcement actions, and investigate detected violations before data is affected.
Accessing Retention Monitoring
Navigate to Platform Ops > Data Operations > Retention. This feature requires PlatformAdmin access.
Default Retention Policy
All businesses are subject to the platform-wide default:
| Setting | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum retention period | 7 years | Value Added Tax Act, 2014, s. 26 |
| Applies to | Transactions, VAT returns, audit records, uploaded files | — |
| Enforcement | Scheduled; runs on a scheduled basis | — |
Records that are within their retention window cannot be permanently deleted, regardless of operator action or approved deletion requests.
Per-Business Retention Policies
Operators can configure a custom retention policy for each business:
- Navigate to Platform Ops > Data Operations > Retention > Policies
- Select the business
- Adjust the retention period (minimum 7 years; longer periods are permitted)
- Click Save Policy
Custom policies can only extend the retention period beyond the 7-year minimum. Reducing a business's retention period below 7 years is not permitted.
Policy Summary
The Policy Summary table lists all businesses with their configured retention settings:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Business | Business name |
| Policy | Custom or Default |
| Retention Period | Configured retention window |
| Records in Window | Count of records currently within retention |
| Upcoming Purges | Records scheduled for purge in the next 90 days |
| Violations | Count of active policy violations |
Enforcement Preview
Before retention enforcement runs, operators can preview which records are scheduled to be purged:
- Navigate to Platform Ops > Data Operations > Retention > Preview
- Select the business (or view all)
- Set the preview window (e.g., next 30, 60, or 90 days)
- Click Run Preview
The preview shows:
- Record Type — Transaction, return, file, etc.
- Record ID — Unique identifier
- Created Date — When the record was created
- Retention Expiry — When the record is eligible for purge
- Legal Hold — Whether a legal hold is blocking purge
Use enforcement preview before each scheduled purge run to ensure no unexpectedly critical records are about to be removed.
Violation Detection
The system continuously monitors for retention policy violations — records that should have been retained but were prematurely deleted, or records past their retention window that have not yet been purged.
Viewing Violations
Navigate to Platform Ops > Data Operations > Retention > Violations to see:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Violation ID | Unique identifier |
| Business | Affected business |
| Record Type | Type of affected record |
| Record ID | Affected record identifier |
| Violation Type | Premature deletion or retention overrun |
| Detected On | When the violation was flagged |
| Severity | Low, Medium, or High |
Resolving Violations
- Review the violation details to understand the cause
- For premature deletion violations, check the Audit Trail for the deletion event
- Mark the violation as reviewed once investigated
- If data recovery is required, contact support
Enforcement Run
When the enforcement schedule triggers (or an operator manually initiates a run):
- Records past their retention window are identified
- Records under a legal hold are skipped
- Records within an active deletion grace period are skipped
- Eligible records are permanently purged
- A summary report is written to the Audit Trail
To manually trigger an enforcement run:
- Navigate to Platform Ops > Data Operations > Retention > Enforce
- Select the scope (single business or all)
- Review the enforcement preview
- Click Run Enforcement
Enforcement purges are permanent and cannot be undone. Always run and review an enforcement preview first.
Best Practices
- Review the enforcement preview monthly — Avoid unexpected purges of important records
- Set longer retention for high-risk businesses — Businesses under audit or with litigation should have extended periods
- Resolve violations promptly — Unresolved violations may indicate a compliance gap
- Coordinate with legal holds — Ensure that any records subject to litigation are held before enforcement runs
- Export before purge — Use Business Data Export to archive records before they are purged if needed