Do I have to keep every draft and old version of an electronic document?

The short answer is no. Keeping every draft and old version of an electronic document is rarely required, and doing so can actually create more risk and cost than it solves. What matters is whether a given version meets your organization’s definition of a record and whether a retention requirement applies to it.

Records vs. non-record drafts

Not everything you create is a record. A record is information you make or receive in the course of business that documents a decision, transaction, or activity and that you need to keep for evidence, accountability, or legal reasons. Many working drafts are convenience copies or transitory material with no lasting value once the final version exists.

A draft generally should be retained when it:

• Reflects a significant decision, edit, or approval not captured elsewhere
• Was circulated, relied upon, or formally acted on
• Is required to be kept by a law, regulation, or your retention schedule
• Falls under a legal hold or is potentially relevant to litigation, an audit, or a public-records or FOIA-type request

A draft can usually be discarded when the final, official version supersedes it and no rule or hold requires the intermediate steps.

Let the retention schedule decide

Retention is driven by the content and purpose of the information, not its format. Apply the same approved retention schedule you would use for paper. Once the official version is captured into a recordkeeping system, redundant earlier versions can typically be dispositioned as transitory or duplicate material under your policy.

A few practical cautions

• Legal holds override everything. If a hold or investigation is in place, stop routine deletion and preserve all relevant versions.
• Version control is not hoarding. Capturing the authoritative version with a clear audit trail is far more useful than retaining dozens of near-identical files.
• Be consistent. Ad hoc deletion looks worse than disposing of material routinely under a documented, defensible policy.

When in doubt, keep the official record version, follow your schedule, and honor any holds. For more on managing digital content, see the electronic records topic hub.