For a great many organizations, records now live in SharePoint (and the wider Microsoft 365 suite). SharePoint is powerful and includes real records features — but treating it as a records program by itself is a common, costly mistake.
What SharePoint gives you
SharePoint and the Microsoft Purview compliance tools offer genuine capabilities: retention labels and policies, records declaration, version history, and search. Used deliberately, these can apply retention and holds to content. They’re a useful foundation.
Where the gaps appear
The platform’s controls are only as good as how they’re configured and applied:
- Sprawl. Records scatter across countless sites, libraries, Teams-connected sites, and OneDrive — each potentially governed differently.
- Inconsistent labeling. Retention only works if the right labels are applied consistently; relying on users to label correctly repeats the old manual-filing problem.
- Convenience copies. Easy duplication multiplies copies and ROT.
- Cross-system holds and disposition. Records don’t live only in SharePoint; holds and disposition must reach every repository, not just one.
Doing it well
- Apply a file plan and retention schedule that span systems, mapped to SharePoint labels/policies.
- Drive labeling with automation (auto-apply policies, auto-classification) rather than user discretion.
- Capture sufficient metadata for findability and trust.
- Ensure holds and disposition are consistent across SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, Teams, and beyond.
- Address Teams and chat content, which has its own capture needs.
The bottom line
SharePoint can be an excellent place to manage records — but only as part of a deliberate program with a cross-system schedule, automated classification, and consistent holds. The platform is a tool; the program is what makes the records trustworthy and the retention defensible. For the broader cloud picture, see managing records in Microsoft 365 and the cloud.
Sources & further reading
Authoritative government and non-profit references.
- ISO 16175 — records in digital environments — International Organization for Standardization
- NARA — Universal Electronic Records Management Requirements — National Archives (NARA)
How to cite this page
APA
RM University Editorial Team. (2026). Managing Records in SharePoint. Records Management University. https://www.recordsmgmt.org/articles/records-in-sharepoint/
MLA
RM University Editorial Team. "Managing Records in SharePoint." Records Management University, 15 June 2026, www.recordsmgmt.org/articles/records-in-sharepoint/.