Timothy, to reiterate Tom's point: What is the purpose? Is it to develop
a retention schedule? Is it to develop a classification system? Is it to
get a handle on a large collection of active or inactive records? What
level of detail are you attempting to collect? Is one of the intents to
create a cost recovery system from the inventory? Is it primarily
electronic, hard copy, or a wide variety of formats? Is it an inventory
of a permanent archives, with a goal towards preservation and access? Is
it within the context of a well established program, or are you starting
from scratch? Is there an expectation that this will identify records
beyond their retention, and save costs? 

Its very easy in such a project to expand its scope beyond available
resources: "Gee, since we are doing A, we might as well do B, C and D at
the same time". I would start with the broad - record series,
accessions, even basic provenance issues - with a goal for quick payoffs
- volume reductions, greater accessibility, or to quote the archivists
"More product, less process". Get a handle on the big stuff first, then
engage in a process of continual improvement and refinement. Tom's
advice on defining purpose is a good starting point.

Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution and Stores
(FREDS)
1620 S.E. 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
Phone: (503)988-3741
Fax: (503)988-3754
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