Automatically delete closed client cases and client records

A part of good record keeping is knowing when to destroy records once you’re done with them.

You should treat your digital records the same way you treat your physical documents. The Privacy Act says “An agency that holds personal information shall not keep that information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used.”

Note: It is a misconception that you’re expected to hold onto records for 5 - 7 years.

If you’re not sure when you should delete records in Client Voices, check out our article When to delete client records from Client Voices.

As a manager you can make changes to the settings for your service in Client Voices, and one of those settings is to have client records and client cases automatically delete after a nominated period of time. This is a powerful setting that can help you ensure you don't keep client cases and records longer than is lawful.

1 - Navigate to your service settings by hovering over your name to reveal the account menu. Then click the name of your service as indicated in the image below.  

2 - Scroll down the page until you see the Automatic delete settings section. Click the Edit button.

3 - Click the toggle next to the setting you wish to turn on. This will turn the setting on. For this example I will turn on Automatically delete closed client cases.

4 - Turning on the setting unlocks the after closed for field. This field allows you to choose whether you want Client Voices to automatically delete cases which have been closed for 2, 3, 4 of 5 years.

5 - Click the Update info button to save your settings.

Don't worry, the client cases won't be deleted immediately. 

Client Voices will run the deletion at 3am of the following morning. All client cases that have been closed for X number of years will be deleted, and all closed cases that reach that age will be deleted going forward.

If a client has multiple cases, only the closed cases that exceed the chosen length of time will be deleted. More recent cases will be left alone.