Step 1: Know What is Generally Required vs. Suggested

Us analysts are trained on what issues will result in required versus suggested changes for state agencies and public universities to implement on their schedules. The overall difference in deciding what is required versus suggested is determining if the information within the series impacts the state’s minimum requirements.

• Required: The schedule cannot be approved for recertification until the change has been made or addressed.
• Suggested: TSLAC suggests making the change, but the schedule will not necessarily be prevented from approval if the change is not made or addressed.

We use this as a starting point for making decisions, with some variation based on using our best judgment to determine if the series meet the state’s minimum requirements.

You too can learn what TSLAC generally requires versus suggests being on your entity’s schedule by checking out our TSLAC’s Required and Suggested Changes for Recertification document:

Note: As the document’s disclaimer states, the purpose of the document is to provide a general idea of what to expect back from TSLAC to help address concerns prior to submitting the recert to TSLAC. Your analyst will use their discretion when reviewing the recert, so changes may not be assigned exactly as this document outlines.

Knowing the difference between what TSLAC requires versus suggests will help you better communicate to liaisons whether their expectations for a series can be met. When in doubt, either ask your TSLAC analyst for guidance or go ahead and make the series reflect the internal expectations. Your TSLAC analyst will review to determine if the schedule meets the state minimums, so don’t worry! This step is only to help you approach internal discussions more efficiently.

Step 2: Compare the State Records Retention Schedule to Your Agency or University’s Schedule

After we are trained on the difference between required and suggested factors, we are ready to review your entity’s schedule by comparing it to the state record retention schedule(s) to ensure it meets the minimum requirements. For state agencies, the state schedule is the Texas State Records Retention Schedule (RRS). For public universities, this is the State RRS and the Texas State University Records Retention Schedule (URRS).

To prevent my eyes from betraying me, I compare your entity’s schedule to the state’s schedule using conditional formatting in Excel. I ran into many obstacles with this process in the past, but have finally come up with a reasonable solution. To avoid pulling you into the drama that I have with conditional formatting and my high-maintenance, but lovely Excel, I am going to save you the headache and provide you with the solution.

State Agencies: Agency to State Comparison Procedures and Tool:

Public Universities: University to State Comparison Procedures and Tool:

Any light blue highlight on the document indicates a difference in your agency’s submitted schedule to the Texas State RRS and URRS.

Notes for using these tools:

• These tools are just an option. There are many ways to compare your entity’s schedule to the state’s.
• Please follow the procedures to set your schedule up for success.
• Do not rely solely on these tools. Sometimes, one small variable in the import can cause an error. Use critical thinking to evaluate each series and its adherence to the requirements.
• Conditional formatting is not the solve-it-all solution for many reasons. One of those being that any microscopic difference between the schedules will be highlighted–including invisible characters and extra spaces. (WHY, Excel!?) This small issue creates headaches for all involved and is why we encourage entities to keep the data in their schedules clean (see the Tips section of the procedures linked above for more details). Eventually, we hope that all the highlighted differences will be legitimate ones that need to be reviewed.

Step 3: Analyze and Make Notes

Note: This section will not apply completely to your entity, so please use the information as needed and tweak how you see fit! Providing insight into this step is meant to help explain the concept of review memos, how I as an analyst build the review memo, and the pro tip about using one cell for one issue within Excel to catch all differences in a series.

It’s time to mix the two steps above into one to determine if and how the entity’s schedule needs to be updated. I will then add what I find to the review memo, which is a document that we send to entities to inform them of any required or suggested changes they need to make, as well as any storage concerns or minor changes we made to their schedule.

In an Excel course, I learned the value in only addressing one issue within one cell. For this reason, in my version of your entity’s schedule used for my review, I create four columns for each difference within the series on the right side. I end up determining if a difference meets the state minimum, has a required or suggested change, or if there are any associated tasks that I need to do.

To help me know which category my note falls into, I use the first column that I labeled as “Req/Sug/Made Change” to say one of the following:

• N/A, because this is only a note, or the difference meets the state minimum, which I will note later.
• Required change.
• Suggested change.
• Made change. These are minor changes that I make to schedules (such as extra spacing, period, etc.) and I note this on the entity’s review memo.
• Task. I use this to note if I need to ask my team for help, or follow-up with a quick email to the entity before deciding how to proceed, etc.

The second column that I labeled as, “Analyst Comment #” I use for my comments.

The third column that I labeled as, “Action required per comment #” I use to tell myself how to proceed. Using Column 1, here is the type of information I add to this Column 3:

• N/A: I put N/A here to say nothing further needs to happen.
• Required or suggested change: I say, “Add to Review Memo,”
• Made change: If I make a change, I save a copy of your entity’s schedule (only once) and make any changes. If they are something your entity should know about, I say, “Change, then add to review memo.” If they are really small changes, I say, “Update.”
• Task: I tell myself what needs to happen here.

Again, I create these four columns any time there is a difference in the series as it appears on the entity’s schedule versus the state schedule, so I label my first use of the columns as #1. If there are multiple differences found in a series, then I continue to add four columns for each difference and label it as #2, #3, etc.

My last column, that I labeled as, “Action # completed?” is to help me determine when I have completed the action from Column 3. I apply a filter to the schedule so that I can use Column 3 to lump similar required actions together and make it easier for myself. I generally approach actions in this order:

1. Task. I do the task and then note in Column 4 anything special or just say, “Complete.”
2. Made changes. Again, I make a copy of your schedule, make the change to that copy, and if needed, note the change on the review memo. In Column 4 I say, “Changed, then added to review memo,” or “Updated.”
3. Required and Suggested change. I use these to build the review memo. After I have added what needs to happen on the review memo, I use this column to say, “Added to review memo.”

Visual of how this looks when used:

After that, the review is built! I run a spelling check on your schedule, look over the review memo for accuracy, and send it your way. If needed, I set up meetings with those that I consult to go over the review memo because TSLAC’s lingo and yours may differ.

Next is the part of the process where we analysts work with your entity to make the necessary updates and get your schedule across the finish line. This is kind of the best part, because this is where we get to know one another and hopefully you invite us to El Mercado.

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For further insight, we recommend checking out:

• TSLAC’s Records Management Basics for State Agencies webinar – This webinar is a great staring point for learning how TSLAC and some records management laws and rules relate to your agency or university and common terms and concepts.
• Our resources to help you become familiar with the recert process:
  • TSLAC’s State Agency Recertification 101 webinar
  • TSLAC’s article, How Do I Recertify My State Agency Retention Schedule?
  • The Recertification Packet – We recommend checking out the packet after reviewing the resources linked above.

If you have any questions, follow up with your TSLAC Analyst!