Freeze

Introduction

A freeze suspends or extends the lifecycle of records that cannot be destroyed on schedule because of special circumstances, such as a court order or an investigation. Records can continue to be modified whilst being held under a freeze.

Freezes can be applied to records and aggregations (Record Folders, Boxes).

Once records are added to a freeze, they cannot be destroyed, however, they can still be modified in the source system. All records related to a specific legal case can be added to the same freeze. When a record is relevant to multiple legal cases, you can create a freeze for each matter, and add the record to each of those freezes.

When a record is removed from all freezes, the suspension on its disposal schedule is lifted and it can be disposed of as per the file plan associated with its classification.

When records are added to, or removed from a freeze, relevant audit events are added to those records. For more information about audit events, click here. 

Users with the Record Manager or Application Administrator role have the following permissions:

• Creating a freeze
• Adding records to a freeze
• Viewing records in a freeze
• Removing records from a freeze
• Deleting a freeze

Users with the Records Visitor role require the relevant Security profiles to perform those activities.

Working with Aggregations

With the exponential growth in the volume of information created every day, dealing with individual records can quickly become overwhelming and impractical.

Records365 allows you to group your records to suit to your organization, you can then apply freezes to these aggregates of information.

Key Benefits of managing freezes by aggregation

• Reduced risk – assurance that no record for a business transaction will be missed.
• Improved efficiencies – millions of items can be applied to a freeze in just few simple clicks.
• Consistency – when executed at the aggregation level all related items will have a freeze applied in a uniform manner.
• Improved ease of use – aggregates of information provide your users with more business context, allowing for more confident decision making when managing freezes.

Create a Freeze

1. On the left-hand navigation menu, select Freezes.

2. Click New
   

3. Add a Title and Description for the freeze.

4. Click Save.

Add Items to a Freeze

Browse Page

1. From the Browse page, select one or more records to add to a freeze. Selecting the checkbox in the header selects all the items listed on the page.

2. Click the Manage Freezes button. In the sidebar, chose Add to Freeze and select the relevant freeze type

   • Existing Freeze – select an existing freeze to add selected records.

   • New Freeze – create a new freeze to apply to selected records.
     

3.  Optionally, add a Comment.
4. Click Apply. A confirmation message allows you to confirm the Add action or cancel it.
   
   
   

Advanced Search Page

The Advanced Search page allows you to utilize the results of search criteria to add to a freeze.

1. On the Advanced Search page, use search criteria that lists the records you want to add to a freeze.

2. Select one or more records using the checkboxes and click Manage Freezes.

3. A side panel will appear that allows you to choose the scope of selection to add to a freeze. You can choose from the following options:

   • Selected Items Only, adds the items that you have selected.

   • All Items, adds all records in the search result.

4. Select the freeze action – Add items to Freeze.
5. Follow the steps in the Browse Page section above to add those items to an existing or a new freeze.

The following items are not included in a freeze:

• Records that are already under that freeze
• Records that have already been disposed

When the All Items option is selected, an email will be sent to the user who initiated the action once all of the records in the search result are added to the selected freeze.

You will be notified by email when the free operation completes. 

View Items in a Freeze

1. On the left-hand navigation menu, select Freezes.

2. Click on the Title of a freeze. This will then take you to the Freeze Details page where you will see all records in that freeze.

3. You can customize the column width and order in the grid. These settings will be saved for the next time you look at any of your freezes. You can also filter records by using the filtering capability in each column. For more information about customizing the grid and filtering datasets, click here.
   

Remove Items from a Freeze

Freeze Details Page

1. On the left-hand navigation menu, select Freezes.

2. Select the freeze you want to remove records from.

3. Click on the Items tab.

4. Select one or more records that you want to remove from the freeze. Selecting the checkbox in the header selects all the records listed on the page.

5. Click Remove. A confirmation message allows you to confirm the Remove action or cancel it.
   

Browse Page

1. On the Browse page, if you select a single record and click Manage Freezes, the side panel will display all the freezes currently applied to the record.

2. Click on the X next to the freeze and then click Apply to remove it. 
   
   

Advanced Search Page

The Advanced Search page allows you to utilize the results of search criteria to remove from a freeze.

1. On the Advanced Search page, search for items using criteria that lists the records you want to remove from a freeze.

2. Select one or more records to remove from a freeze. Selecting the checkbox in the header selects all the items on the page.

3. Click Manage Freezes. A side panel will appear where you can choose the scope of selection to remove from a freeze. You can choose from the following options:

   • Selected Items Only, removes the records that you have selected.

   • All Items, removes all records in the search result.

4. Select a freeze operation – Remove items from Freeze
   
   

5. Select the required freeze in the dropdown

6. Click Apply. A confirmation message allows you to confirm the Remove action or cancel it.

In the scope of selection, records that are not under that freeze are ignored by the remove action.

When the All Items option is selected, after removing all records in the search result from the selected freeze, an email notification is sent to the user who initiated the action.

Delete a Freeze

1. On the left-hand navigation menu, select Freezes.

2. Select the freeze you want to delete.

3. Click Delete. A confirmation message will appear where you can either confirm the Delete action or cancel it. This action will first remove all records that are part of the freeze and then deletes the freeze.