Every record filed
in the right series

A record series is a group of records kept for the same reason and for the same length of time: vendor invoices, personnel files, approved minutes. Your retention schedule lists them, usually with a code, a description and a retention period. Classifying a record simply means deciding which of those groups it belongs to.

The cleanest file plan copies the schedule. Group series under the function they serve, such as Finance, Human Resources or Governance, and name each folder with the schedule’s own code and title. When the schedule changes, the folders change with it, and nobody has to translate between two systems.

A file copied to a laptop or attached to an email loses its folder. If the name starts with the series code, like AP02_2026-03-14_Hargrove-Paving-Inv-4471.pdf, anyone can still tell what it is and how long it should live.

Choose the date that starts the retention period, not just the date on the letterhead. Some series count from the end of a fiscal year, others from an event such as an employee leaving or a contract closing. Writing that trigger date in the name or the folder makes the disposition list a filter, not a research project.

Every records program has the same awkward cases. Drafts, convenience copies and routine notes are often treated as transitory records that can go once they have served their purpose, but only if your schedule says so. A document that seems to fit two series usually belongs with the office that holds the official copy, classified by its main purpose.

Records under a legal hold are the exception to everything: whatever their series says, they stay until the hold is lifted. Keep a clear marker on held records, and never let a classification pass decide what is disposable on its own. A records officer should still sign off on disposition.

The common approach is training: a file plan is published, staff are shown it once, and departmental records coordinators tidy up each quarter. It works in departments with a careful coordinator and fades everywhere else, especially for scans and email attachments saved in a hurry.

Larger organizations add a document management system with a required “series” field on upload. In practice people pick the first option in the list or the one called “General”. Filex takes the opposite route: staff upload as they do now, and it reads each document against your series list, so the field is filled from the content rather than from memory.

Filex sorts documents into the series you describe. It does not write your retention schedule, set retention periods, decide what counts as a record, apply legal holds, or approve destruction. It also does not judge whether a record can be released in a public records request.

It can only classify from what is on the page. A one-line note or an image with no clear purpose may land in your review folder, and that is the right outcome: those are the calls a person who knows the schedule should make.