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Updated: September 12, 2010 

DESTRUCTDATE 4.0 calculates the disposition date of records by the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) quarterly system, by any other quarterly system, or on a straight monthly basis. You can choose the quarterly system, or no quarterly system (None), from the Quarterly System pull-down menu. For more help on using this program click the Show Help button. DESTRUCTDATE 4.0 should work with Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer versions 4 and higher. DESTRUCTDATE 4.0 may work with earlier browsers but has not been tested with them.

About DestructDate 4.0

DestructDate 4.0 calculates the disposition date of records by the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) quarterly method, by any other quarterly cycle based on months, or by a monthly basis without quarters. Click the Calculate Date button to compute the records disposition date. The disposition date is calculated by applying the records retention period and then moving it to the coinciding or next quarterly disposition cycle, unless None is chosen as the Quarterly System. You can select the quarterly cycle under the Quarterly System pull-down menu. NARA’s quarterly system is the default setting when DestructDate 4.0 is loaded.

Quarterly System

DestructDate 4.0 can be set to calculate the disposition date by the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) quarterly method, any other quarterly cycle based on months, or on a monthly basis without quarters. Choose Federal under the Quarterly System pull-down menu to use the NARA quarterly system. This setting is the default setting when DestructDate 4.0 is launched. Choose another option under the Quarterly System pull-down menu to use a quarterly system based on quarters that start in January, February, or March. Select the month that coincides with your quarterly system, or choose None to not use quarters at all.

Ending Date

Enter the cut-off or closing date of the most recent record in the Ending Date, Month and Ending Date Year boxes. Use the form mm or m (e.g. 06 or 6) for month and the form yyyy (e.g. 1984 or 2001) for year.

Retention

Enter the records retention period as found in the agency records schedule or NARA’s General Records Schedule. Enter the number years in the Years box and the number of months, if any, in the Months box. The Years box will accept numbers from 0 to 999, and the Months box will accept numbers from 0 to 11.

Federal Disposition

Click the Calculate Date button to compute the records disposition date. The disposition date is calculated by applying the records retention period and then moving it to the coinciding or next quarterly FRC disposition cycle. Quarterly disposition cycles occur in January, April, July, and October. Disposition for temporary records means destruction, and disposition for permanent records means transfer to the National Archives.

Any records created prior to January 1, 1921, must be offered to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for appraisal before disposition instructions may be applied.

Other Disposition

Quarterly disposition cycles occur, if at all, based on the first quarter selected in the Quarterly System pull-down menu. If you have selected None, then the disposition date is calculated without regard to quarters. Disposition for temporary records means destruction, and disposition for permanent records means transfer to an archives.

Save Setting

You may save your Quarterly System setting by selecting the quarterly system you wish to use and clicking the Save Setting button. Your browser must be able to accept cookies for the setting to be saved between sessions.

DestructDate 4.0 is written in JavaScript 1.2 for NetScape Navigator and Internet Explorer versions 4 and above. DestructDate 4.0 may work with earlier versions of NetScape and Internet Explorer but has not been tested with them. This program was created by Bill Greathouse as a learning exercise in JavaScript during July 2001.