Delete Archived Source Documents Guidance

Overview 

Businesses that generate high volumes of transactions could benefit from the Delete Source Documents process, which provides the ability to reduce overall storage costs by deleting older source documents.

Important: Before this process is enabled, it is very important to understand what it will do and the implications from a business perspective because the source document deletion cannot be undone.

Accounting and Tax Document Retention Policies
Each business will have its own document retention policies for Accounting and Tax purposes.

Best Practice: We recommend these policies be reviewed by your CFO and your external accountant to understand what is required to be retained to maintain compliance with these policies. 

Operational Document Retention Policies

Businesses should take into consideration the length of time required for looking back at historical transactions. Even if a business is in compliance with the Accounting and Tax document retention policies, it might need to look back further for other business reasons and therefore, this should be considered before deleting source documents.

A business can consider alternatives for looking back at historical transactions. For example, data can be extracted out of the org (organization) and stored locally or on another server. This can be accomplished manually by creating reports and exporting the data or it can be done programmatically by creating and running a custom job on demand or on a scheduled basis.

As another option, a business may want to consider using a third-party tool to archive and/or backup the data before the source documents are deleted. See the example in the paragraph below.

Example using a Retail Business

This example defines a retail business, which document retention policies stipulate that documents are maintained for up to 7 years and the Billing PDF files from each Billing record will be retained for 10 years on all customer direct orders. Before deleting source records, the Billing PDF files are moved from each Billing record to each related Customer Order record to allow for the retention of the PDF files from within Salesforce, which provides a quick and easy way for the business customer service team to find an older order and related Billing PDF. Using this example, the recommended approach would be to work with internal developers or a business partner to write a process, which provides the ability to move all Billing PDF files for a given period to the related Customer records before source documents are deleted for that period.

Click a link below to learn more about the following:

• Delete Source Documents Step Instructions
• Delete Source Documents Process
• Complete List of Records that are Eligible for Deletion
• Source Documents that will not be Deleted

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Delete Source Documents Step Instructions

In preparation for deleting source documents from your org, we recommend that you follow the steps below and encourage you to add your own additional steps (where appropriate) to ensure all procedures are followed before deleting source documents from your org.

1. Review all Accounting, Tax and Operational document retention policies to ensure that after deleting source documents for a given period, the business will remain in compliance with these policies.
   
   Best Practice: We encourage you to include all interested internal and external stakeholders in this review because the source document deletion cannot be undone.
   
   
2. Before deleting source documents, export data that is required to be retained off-platform. If you are using a backup/archive solution from a third-party, run the solution to backup/archive the data before deleting the source documents.
   
   
3. Archive transaction data for the period. For more information, refer to the Archive Transaction Data article.
   
   
4. Contact Customer Support by creating a case in our Customer Support Community and request to have the Delete Source Documents feature enabled.
   
   
5. Attend a meeting with one of our Product Consultants to discuss the following:
   
   
1. How this feature works
2. Considerations that should be made before deleting source documents
3. Review the list of source documents that will be deleted
4. Review and answer any outstanding questions before proceeding further
   
   
6. Provide written and signed acknowledgement of the following:
   
   
   1. I met with a Product Consultant on <placeholder to insert the actual date>.
   2. I reviewed how this feature works, including which records will be deleted.
   3. I considered our business document retention policies.
   4. I considered extracting data that might need to be referred to at some point in the future, either locally or extracted to another external server.
   5. I understand that once the Delete Source Documents process is executed, it cannot be reversed.
      
      
7. Assign the Delete Archived Source Records permission set to the appropriate user(s).
   
   
8. Add the Delete Source Documents button to the Accounting Period page layout.
   
   
9. Delete Source Documents based upon the information that is provided in this knowledge article.
   
   
10. After completing the Delete Source Documents process, submit a case in our Customer Support Community to request to have the Delete Source Documents feature disabled.
    
    
11. Unassign the Delete Source Documents permission set from user accounts.

Important: As a preventative measure, we recommend that you request to have this feature disabled after deleting source documents, and then re-enable it again in the future, when required. However, you have the option to keep this feature enabled in your org. If you decide to keep it enabled, we encourage you to unassign the Delete Source Documents permission set from all users to prevent uninformed users from inadvertently using the process without fully understanding the implications.

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Delete Source Documents Process

For an archived Accounting Period, after the Delete Source Documents button is clicked, a dialog box displays for you to acknowledge. Click Confirm to start the deletion process. Otherwise, click Cancel. The job can be run for a single Accounting Period at a time.

Best Practice: Run this job from the earliest archived Accounting Period and run it sequentially (similar to the Archive Transaction Data process).

Below is a sample screen of the dialog box that will display when you click Delete Source Documents.

Note: When the dialog box displays, you can click the Help link to review this knowledge article.

The Delete Source Documents job will run as a background process and will delete the source documents for the selected Accounting Period.

Important: You cannot select which documents or types of documents to delete. For more information, refer to Complete List of Records that are Eligible for Deletion and the Source Documents that will NOT be Deleted sections below to see the listing of documents that the job will and will not delete.

Once the Delete Source Documents job has completed, an Automated Job Result record and related Task are created to notify the user who clicked the Delete Source Documents button of the results.

Note: If you have job emails enabled, you will also receive an email notification.

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Complete List of Records that are Eligible for Deletion

Based upon the selected Accounting Period for source document deletion, the job will delete any and all of the following records that exist for that period.

1. Posted source documents
   1. Billings/Credit Memos and Lines
   2. Payable/Credit Memos and Lines
   3. Cash Receipts
   4. Cash Disbursements
   5. Journal Entries and Journal Entry Lines
   6. Amortization Entries
   7. Billing Cash Receipts
   8. AP Disbursements (Cash Disbursement apply)
      
      
2. Other documents (these do not post transactions)
   1. AP Disbursements (Payable Pay function)
   2. Billing Cash Receipts of Refund type
   3. Billing Credit Memos
   4. AP Credit Memos
   5. Bank Reconciliations and Uncleared Bank Reconciliation Lines
      Note: In order to be deleted, the Statement Ending Date on the Bank Reconciliation must be within the dates for the selected Accounting Period. Additionally, Uncleared Bank Reconciliation Line records will cascade-delete when the related Bank Reconciliation is deleted.
   6. Bank Deposits
      Note: In order to be deleted, the Bank Deposit Date must be within the dates for the selected Accounting Period.
   7. Bank Transactions
      Note: In order to be deleted, the Bank Transaction Date must be within the dates for the selected Accounting Period.
   8. Billing Aging History
      Note: If a Billing is eligible for deletion, then all related Billing Aging History records will be deleted, regardless of the Accounting Period. If a Billing is not eligible for deletion, then only the Billing Aging History records for the selected Accounting Period will be deleted.
   9. Payable Aging History
      Note: If a Payable is eligible for deletion, then all related Payable Aging History records will be deleted, regardless of the Accounting Period. If a Payable is not eligible for deletion, then only the Payable Aging History records for the selected Accounting Period will be deleted.

3. Exceptions to Documents Eligible for Deletion
   1. The following documents will not be deleted if they have cash or credit applications in a future period:
      1. Billings
      2. Payables
      3. Cash Receipts
      4. Cash Disbursements
   2. Billings that have Amortization Entries for future periods
      Note: Even though the Billing header will not be deleted until all related Amortization Entries are deleted, the Billing Lines will be deleted.
   3. Payables that have Amortization Entries for future periods
      Note: Even though the Payable header will not be deleted until all related Amortization Entries are deleted, the Payable Lines will be deleted.
   4. ANY Bank Deposits, Journal Entries, Cash Receipts and Cash Disbursements that cleared on a Bank Reconciliation with the Statement Ending Date in a future period

Important: When the Delete Source Document job runs for a selected Accounting Period, it will also look for and delete related records in prior archived periods on which the Delete Source Documents job was run. 

For example, you have a posted Billing in 2012-01 with a Cash Receipt and Billing Cash Receipt in 2012-02. When the Deleted Source Documents job is run on 2012-01, it does not delete the Billing because of the cash application in 2012-02. However, when the Delete Source job is run on 2012-02, the Cash Receipt and Billing Cash Receipt are deleted and so is the related Billing from 2012-01. 

Source Documents that will not be Deleted

Based upon the selected Accounting Period for source document deletion, the job will not delete these types of records for the selected Accounting Period:

1. Any eligible source documents that are unposted
2. Time Card and Time Card Lines that are posted and unposted
3. Inventory Movements that are posted and unposted
4. All other types of documents not listed in the list of documents eligible for deletion

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Spring ’23 Release

Release Notes and Schedule

• This article was new with the Spring '23 release.