Archived document stamp maker
An archived document stamp maker for records management: the archive reference, the date it was filed, and the date it can be destroyed.
An archive mark, the kind a records management system prints on every file it swallows, is written for somebody who does not exist yet. Whoever opens the box in nine years needs to know where the file belongs, when it went in, and whether it can be destroyed, and none of that is knowable from the document itself. So the mark carries a reference, a date and a retention date, and the retention date is the one people forget.
What you get
- Rectangular layouts with room for a reference, a filed date and a retain-until date.
- A date that fills itself in when the document is filed rather than when the stamp was made.
- Sequential reference numbering, so no two files carry the same archive number.
- ARCHIVED, RETAINED, SUPERSEDED and FOR DESTRUCTION as wording on one layout.
- High contrast at small sizes, because the mark has to survive whatever the file is stored in.
How to make it
- Open the stamp maker and pick a shape, or start from a template.
- Type your wording, then set the colour, border and size.
- Add the date, time, serial number or logo, and position each one.
- Preview it live, then download. Designing and previewing are free.
Questions
What should an archive stamp carry?
A reference that locates the file, the date it was archived, and where a retention policy exists, the date it may be destroyed. Retention periods are set by your own policy and by whatever regulation applies to the record, so this cannot tell you what yours should be.
Why put a destruction date on it?
Because otherwise the decision gets made years later by somebody with no context, which is how records get destroyed early and how boxes nobody may destroy sit in storage for a decade. Writing the date down at filing time moves the decision to the only moment anyone knows the answer.
Can the reference number advance automatically?
Yes, on a saved stamp with numbering switched on. Each use takes the next number, so two files cannot end up with the same reference.
Estamplab is a design tool. This page describes common commercial practice rather than giving legal, tax or financial advice, and practice changes. Where a specific document matters, check the requirement with the body receiving it.