Email archiving and retention periods
What is email archiving and a retention period?
Archiving is something different from keeping mail in your inbox. With archiving you move messages to separate, organised storage: out of sight, but findable when you need them. Your inbox stays workable, while completed matters are tidily filed away.
A retention period is the length of time you keep a message. That period may stem from a legal obligation (think of records for the tax authority), from a sector agreement, or simply from your own need to be able to find something again. Archiving is therefore the how, the retention period the how long.
Why email archiving and retention periods matter
For a business or organisation, email is often an official record: quotes, order confirmations, invoices, agreements and customer contact are all in it. Being able to find that correspondence later is important for several reasons:
- Evidence and reference. In a dispute about an agreement or delivery, the original email is often decisive.
- Legal obligations. Retention requirements apply to your bookkeeping and tax records. Exactly how long differs per country, per type of document and sometimes per sector.
- Continuity. When an employee leaves or a board changes, you want the relevant mail history to stay with the organisation.
- A workable inbox. An inbox with years of messages becomes slow and cluttered. Archiving keeps your daily work light.
If you work with personal data, there's another factor: the GDPR asks that you do not keep data longer than necessary. Retention periods therefore work both ways: some things you must keep for a long time, others you should clear out in good time. Read more about that balance in email and the GDPR for small organisations.
How it works
You arrange archiving and retention in a few practical steps:
- Decide what you archive. Not every email needs to be kept: newsletters and internal notes can go, while business agreements, invoices and customer correspondence are retained.
- Choose a retention period per category. For records, follow what the law requires; for other mail, follow what makes sense for you. Set those choices down so everyone in the organisation does the same.
- Move to an archive. In many email programs and webmail you can put messages in separate folders or an archive. That way they're separate from your active inbox but stay searchable.
- Clear out in good time. For data you may not or need not keep any longer, schedule a moment to delete it. That's just as much part of good management as keeping it.
Important to know: archiving is not the same as a backup. An archive is organised, long-term storage of messages you deliberately keep; a backup is a spare copy in case something goes wrong. You need both, for different reasons. You'll read the difference in email backup: why and how.
What to watch out for
A few pitfalls you'd do well to get ahead of:
- Retention requirements differ: look up the right one. How long you have to keep something depends on your country, your sector and the type of document. Fixed periods apply to tax and accounting documents; go by the official source for your situation and consult a specialist if in doubt.
- Don't confuse keeping with locking. For some purposes only an archive that can no longer be altered counts. Whether that's necessary for you depends on your sector.
- Think about the GDPR side. Keeping personal data longer than necessary is not simply allowed. A retention policy that only thinks of "as long as possible" can clash with the privacy rules.
- Make sure you can find it. An archive is only useful if it's searchable and organised. A pile of loose files without structure won't help you when you quickly need something.
- Set down your policy. One clear agreement about what, how and how long prevents everyone from doing it differently.
In short: retention periods are partly a legal, partly an organisational choice. The legal side differs per sector: get informed about it by a specialist and base yourself on the Belgian bodies: the FPS Finance for the tax retention periods and the Data Protection Authority (GBA) for the privacy side.
And with Mailflux
With Mailflux you email on your own domain, with mailboxes hosted in Europe and GDPR-compliant. Organising your messages is easy in the webmail, including with coloured labels and your own folders, handy for setting completed matters aside. Every plan also includes automatic backups, and you choose the storage that fits: 8 GB with Basic, 25 GB with Pro and 50 GB (expandable to 100 GB) with Premium.
Do you have specific requirements around archiving or retention periods (for example from your sector)? Then get in touch, and we'll look together at what's possible for your situation. You'll find more about the basics in email on your own domain.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to keep my business email?
That depends on your country, your sector and the type of message. Legal retention requirements apply to tax and accounting documents; for other mail you set a sensible period yourself. Base yourself on the official source for your situation and consult a specialist if in doubt.
Is archiving the same as making a backup?
No. An archive is organised, long-term storage of messages you deliberately keep and want to find again. A backup is a spare copy that saves you if something goes wrong, such as a deletion or malfunction. For good management you need both, each with its own purpose.
May I keep email with personal data indefinitely?
No. The GDPR asks that you do not keep personal data longer than necessary for the purpose. So you have to weigh it up: legal retention requirements on one hand, timely clearing out on the other. Set your choices down and, if in doubt, get advice from a specialist.