Vital records
What this page is — the overdue-review queue for documents your organisation could not operate without, and the button that records each review.
What it is for — so the insurance policies, founding documents and key contracts a business would need after a disaster are confirmed current on a schedule, instead of checked for the first time when needed.
The problem it solves — the documents a business needs after a disaster are found to be missing or out of date only when that day comes.
Route: /org/papers/records → Vital Records · Permissions: View file plans, record series, retention status, legal holds, disposition and vital-review queues. to see
the queue; Manage record series/file plans, apply/release legal holds, execute disposition and stamp vital reviews. to mark reviews.
1. What it is
Vital is a property of a record series, not of a document. A series marked Vital with a review cycle in months makes every document classified into it part of the programme.
A document appears in the queue when all of these hold:
| Condition | |
|---|---|
| Its series is marked Vital with a review cycle | Set on the File Plan |
| It has never been reviewed, or its last review is older than the cycle | Overdue |
The queue shows only the overdue. Documents reviewed on schedule do not appear. Never-reviewed documents sort first, then the longest overdue.
| Column | Holds |
|---|---|
| Document | Opens the workspace — where the actual review happens |
| Series | Its vital series |
| Review cycle | The series' cycle in months |
| Last reviewed | A red badge: the last review date and when the next was due, or Never reviewed |
2. Why you would use it
- A vital-records programme is evidence, not a list. The review stamp is the deliverable: proof somebody confirmed the record is current, accessible and correct.
- Policy decides what is vital, once. Marking a series is a single decision; classification does the rest.
- The queue is self-clearing. A reviewed document leaves and returns exactly one cycle later.
- Nothing costs anything. No AI runs on this page.
3. Step by step
- On the File Plan, tick Vital record series on a series and set its review cycle.
- Classify documents into it.
- Open Vital Records. Work top-down.
- For each row, open the document and actually review it — is the policy current, the certificate attached, the signatory still with the company?
- Come back and press Mark reviewed.
Mark reviewed stamps the date and writes a vital_reviewed event. Do the review first.
4. Field reference
| Setting / control | Rules |
|---|---|
| Vital record series | On the series |
| Review cycle (months) | 1 to 600 — review_cycle_months must be between 1 and 600 |
| Mark reviewed | Stamps the review as now; the row leaves and returns after one cycle |
| Refresh | Re-reads the queue after reviews done elsewhere |
The review stamp is shared with disposition. Marking a document reviewed on the Disposition tab sets the same last-reviewed date, so it also resets the vital cycle.
Empty state — No vital-record reviews are overdue means either every vital document is on schedule, or no series is marked vital yet. Check the File Plan's Vital column to tell which.
5. Choosing what is vital
A vital-records programme fails in two ways: everything is vital, so nobody reviews anything, or nothing is, so the one policy that lapsed is found after the fire. The test is simple — could the organisation operate, or prove its rights, without this record the day after a disaster?
| Typically vital | Why | Sensible cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance policies | Cover must be current when the claim happens | 12 months — at renewal |
| Incorporation and constitutional documents | Proof the entity exists and who may bind it | 24 months |
| Property deeds and leases | Rights to premises | 12 months |
| Key customer and supplier master agreements | The revenue and the supply chain | 12 months |
| Licences and regulatory permits | The right to trade | Before each expiry |
| Board-approved delegations of authority | Who may sign after a leadership change | 6 months |
| Usually not vital | Why |
|---|---|
| Invoices and routine correspondence | Reconstructable from other systems |
| Expired or superseded agreements | No longer the operative record |
| Drafts | Not the record at all |
Setting the cycle
Match the cycle to how fast the record can go wrong, not to a round number. A policy that renews annually needs a 12-month cycle aligned to its renewal; a delegation of authority that changes with every board reshuffle needs six. A cycle longer than the record's own renewal period guarantees reviews that find lapsed documents.
Keep the vital series few and small. Ten well-reviewed records protect more than two hundred that nobody opens.
6. Worked example
A risk manager sets Insurance — policies to Vital, every 12 months, and classifies the company's seven policies into it.
On first opening Vital Records, all seven appear as Never reviewed. They open the professional-indemnity policy, confirm the renewed certificate for 2026 is attached and the limit is still ₹10 crore, return and Mark reviewed. The row leaves. Over the afternoon they do the same for the other six.
Eleven months later nothing is in the queue. In month thirteen, all seven reappear with was due one month ago. One — the cyber policy — turns out to have lapsed; that review is the point of the programme.
7. The admin contract
| Must be true | Where | What breaks without it |
|---|---|---|
| At least one series is marked Vital with a cycle | File Plan | The queue is permanently empty |
| Vital documents are classified into it | Repository or workspace | Nothing enters the programme |
| The role holds Manage record series/file plans, apply/release legal holds, execute disposition and stamp vital reviews. | Role editor | No Mark reviewed button |
| Someone owns the review cadence | Your process | The queue fills and nobody works it |
8. Downstream
| When… | Then |
|---|---|
| A document is marked reviewed | It leaves the queue for one cycle |
| A document is marked reviewed in Disposition | Its vital cycle resets too |
| A series is un-marked Vital | Its documents leave the queue |
| A document is re-classified out of a vital series | It leaves the programme |
9. Don't confuse this with…
| Legal holds | Freeze records for a dispute. Vital marking is about continuity |
| Retention | How long to keep a record. Vital is whether it still works |
| Obligations | Dated commitments inside documents |
10. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| The queue is empty | Nothing is overdue, or no series is vital |
| A vital document is missing | It was reviewed within its cycle — including from the Disposition tab |
| A document keeps reappearing | Its cycle is short, or it keeps being reviewed late |
| I cannot add a document here | Documents become vital by classification into a vital series |