Great discussion on document/records here folks!  It was Robert Williams back in Feb 4, 2004  who had a good take on this imbroglio.  It’s hanging on my wall and I use it in training often. 
  
Roger stated it very well: 
  
“Documents are data or information that has been registered in time. Records
are documents for which the decision has been made to retain them over time.”

“Example: banks statements. At some time in the course of the month, the
data relating to the individual transaction activity of the account is
pulled together, registered in time as the statement of activity for xx
month and created as a document. This document then is sent to the customer
who then decides to retain it -- at which time the document which was
received becomes a record for that customer. In addition, the bank
rendering the statement also will decide to retain their copy of the
statement document it prepared and it then becomes a record for them.” 
  
IMO it all depends on the context a document was created in and value to the organization that elevates it to the level of a record to be retained.  Hopefully the context and value of the declared record is accurately reflected in the organizations retention schedule as well as service level agreements/operational support plans between program business areas and the systems (holding the records) development managers in IT.


      

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