Step 1: Sign In and Open the Form

After opening the Form, select “Log In.”

Then select the correct campus from the "choose how you would like to log in" menu and sign in with you NetID and password.

Under the “New Form” heading, select “Fill out form for Disposal requests [month, year]”

Step 2: Initial Questions

To start with, we ask if you are submitting the form on behalf of a colleague or yourself and if you have worked with RIMS before or not.  These questions help us make sure further communication is properly addressed and a RIMS staff member who has prior experience working with your unit is the one communicating where possible.

After making your choices, please select the “Continue” button at the bottom of the page.  Also, you always have the option to save the form and return later, by selecting "Save and Return Later" button.

Step 3: Instructions

After selecting “Continue” in Step 2, you will be presented with an “Instructions” page.  This page includes links to this Guide and a How To video version of the Guide, as well as the "Contact RIMS" page.  Please read this carefully, and when ready, select “Continue” again to proceed with entering records.  

Step 4: Selecting Records Retention Schedule/Records Category

After selecting “Continue” in Step 3, you will see the first of the Records Retention Schedule pages. 

The heading text presents the following information:

• Which number schedule/page this is, in the format of “Schedule [current number] of [total number]".
• The title of the schedule, which is the record category.
• The heading also shows the titles of the previous page and the next, so a user can easily see where they are in the form.  

This page and the ones that follow each correspond to one of the Records Retention Schedules.  Each Schedule has its own page, and you can bypass pages for categories not included in your submission by selecting the “I do not have Administration Records and will click continue to navigate to the next page”.  Then, you can select the “Continue” button and move on to the next page.

If you are unsure if your materials fit in a certain category, you can click the names of the record types below the “I have” and “I do not have” radio buttons to see a brief description of each type of record and their retention requirements.  For a more in-depth look, please review the Records Retention Schedules page on the RIMS website.

Once you reach a page for a category of records you have, please click the “I have ____ records and have referred to the retention schedule” radio button. 

Doing this will add a dark blue “+Add ________ Record Types Row” button on the bottom of this page.

We will use the Administration Records schedule page as an example in this guide.

Step 5: Entering Records for Disposal

Select the “+ Add ____________ Record Types Row” button.  This adds a row of data entry fields where you can select record type and other details.

First, select the type of record that you have from the drop-down menu under “Type of Record.”  Any items fitting that type can and should be combined into a single row.  Please note: this does not apply if you have the same type of records in both physical and digital formats.  You should make one row for the physical material, measured in cubic feet, and another row, for the digital material, measured in gigabytes. You can add as many rows as you’d like (discussed later).

Once you have selected the records type in the dropdown, please enter a basic description of the material in the “Description” box to the right.  This is where you give us some detail about what is contained in these files.  This will help RIMS staff confirm that the category you have chosen makes sense.

After filling out that brief description, please fill out the earliest and latest dates for that category.  These fields have data validation rules asking for the month and year in mm/yyyy format.  To learn more about what dates are required, please consult our Guide to Inventorying Records.

After filling out the date, please enter the volume of records you have of that type and use the radio buttons to indicate if this volume is in cubic feet or in gigabytes.  If you are unsure of how to determine the volume, feel free to look at our Volume Estimation Guide.

If you have more than one record type from the category you selected and whole page you are on, you can press the “+ Add _____________ Record Type” row to add another type of records.  This can be done any number of additional times. 

Step 6: Submitting the Form

When you have entered all your record types into the proper category pages, you can proceed until you reach the final page of the form.  There you will be asked to confirm you are ready to submit before you are able to finalize your submission.

If you aren’t ready to finalize, you can hit the button to “Save and come back” to save where you are in the process and finish filling out the form later.

Submitting this form generates a ticket to RIMS.  A RIMS staff member will review your submission and send you a ticket response detailing next steps.  If more information is required or there is an issue, RIMS staff will be in touch to resolve the issue before your material is added to the monthly disposal permission request to the state. After RIMS staff approve your submission, you will receive an email copy of your entries.

If you have any questions about this Form or any other Records Management concepts, please contact the RIMS team.

Example Row #1

You have 10 standard Bankers boxes full of your department’s receipts, bank account statements, and financial reconciliations.  The boxes are dated January 2010 to August 2015.  You’ve consulted the Records Retention Schedules, and found that it seems like these materials probably fall under the Business and Financial Records Retention Schedule.

First, you open the Disposal Request Form, sign in, answer the introductory questions, advance past the “Administration Records” page via the “I do not have…” radio button and the “Continue button, which will take you to the “Business and Financial Records” page.  

You then select the “I have Business and Financial Records and have referred to the retention schedule” radio button and also select “+ Add Business and Financial Record Types Row” at the bottom of the page. After clicking the “Financial Transaction Records” drop-down in the middle of the page, you confirm that this is the correct classification for your records. 

Now, you’re ready to enter your information into the form.

1. In the “Type of Record” field, select the record type from the drop-down list.  Refer to either the record type drop-downs in the middle of the page or the Records Retention Schedules to learn about these types.
   1. For this example, we’ll select “Financial Transactions 5.B Routine Operations.”
2. In the “Description” field, enter a basic description of this material. 
   1. In this case, we’ve written, “Receipts, bank account statements, and financial reconciliations.”
3. In the “Start Date” field, enter the earliest records date, in MM/YYYY format.  Please note that, with some record types, this date may not be the actual date of the material.  Consult our Guide to Inventorying Records to learn more about identifying dates.
   1. The earliest date is January 2010, which we’ve entered as 01/2010.  This is the earliest date of transaction/date of completion for this material, which is the date that we need.
4. In the “End Date” field, enter the latest date, also in MM/YYYY format.  This may also not be the actual date of the material. 
   1. In this case, we’ll enter 08/2015, as August 2015 is the last date of transaction/date of completion for this material. 
5. Under “Total Volume,” enter the numerical volume of your material.
   1. If you are unsure of how to estimate this figure, please consult our Volume Estimation Guide.
   2. The numerical volume is 10 cubic feet, as the Volume Estimation Guide tells us that a standard banker’s box is 1 cubic foot.
6. Lastly, under “Volume Type,” select either “cubic feet” or “gigabytes.” 
   1. Since this is physical material, the volume will be in cubic feet.