---
title: "Keep one retention schedule · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/records-and-data-map/retention-schedule
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Keep one retention schedule

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Records and data map](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/records-and-data-map)
- Rule: Keep one retention schedule that gives every kind of personal data a period, the reason for it and the job that enforces it.
- How: Base each period on a need or a law, such as seven years for bookkeeping records in many EU countries. Name the event that starts the clock, such as account closure. Each entry points to a deletion job, built as the [retention jobs rule](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/data/personal-data/retention-jobs) describes. The privacy policy and the record of processing read their periods from this one file. Logs follow the [log retention rule](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/logs/log-retention). Backups get their own entry, with the period from [backup retention](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/disaster-recovery/backup-retention).
- Check: Every record entry names a schedule entry, and every schedule entry names a job. Monitoring fails when a job has not succeeded in 48 hours. A daily query fails when the oldest row in a table is older than its period plus one day.

Example:

```yaml
- id: support-tickets
  data: support messages and attachments
  period: P2Y
  starts: ticket closed
  reason: handle follow-up complaints and warranty claims
  job: delete-closed-tickets
- id: invoices
  data: invoices and payment records
  period: P7Y
  starts: end of financial year
  reason: bookkeeping law
  job: delete-old-invoices
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers compliance playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/records-and-data-map/retention-schedule`.

- Previous: [Screen every new feature for a DPIA](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/records-and-data-map/dpia-screening)
- [Records and data map](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/compliance/records-and-data-map)