You need to keep supplier records long enough to deal with tax enquiries, contract claims and audits, and you need to stop anything being deleted while there's a dispute. SupplierVault keeps closed suppliers' records for a period you set, lets admins place a legal hold on any supplier, and only allows a record to be deleted when both say it can be.
Setting your retention period
- An admin opens Settings › Organisation.
- In Keep closed suppliers' records for (years), enter a number from 1 to 25. The default is 6.
Six years covers HMRC record-keeping and most contract claims, but check with your own advisers, as some contracts and sectors need longer. The period runs from the end of the financial year in which the supplier was closed at the end of offboarding, as HMRC counts record-keeping. Your financial year is set in Settings › Organisation › Financial year starts (April unless you change it, or September for academy trusts).
Example: with an April start, a supplier closed on 15 March 2026 closed in the year ending 31 March 2026. With 6 years, it's kept until 31 March 2032. A supplier closed on 15 April 2026 is kept until 31 March 2033.
The same rule is enforced on our servers, not just in the app, so a record can't be deleted early by any route.
Placing a legal hold
Use a legal hold for a dispute, claim or investigation. While it's on, nothing on that supplier can be deleted: not the record, and no documents or files.
- Open the supplier record and go to the Documents and history tab.
- In Legal hold and deletion, type a reason, for example "Contract dispute, claim ref 1234".
- Select Place legal hold. The section shows On, with who placed it, when and why.
- When the matter is over, select Lift legal hold, then click again to confirm.
Only admins can place or lift a hold. Both are recorded in the audit trail.
Deleting a supplier record
Deleting is for mistakes and duplicates. For a real supplier you've stopped using, offboard it instead, so the exit is on file. To delete:
- In Legal hold and deletion, select Delete supplier record.
- Type a reason. It's kept in the audit trail as "Supplier record deleted: name (stage). Reason: …".
- Select Delete to remove the supplier, its tasks and invoices, or Keep to stop.
A record can't be deleted when:
| Situation | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| You're not an admin | "Only an admin can delete a supplier record." |
| The supplier is live, under review or being offboarded | "Offboard the supplier before deleting its record, so the exit is on file." |
| The supplier is closed and still within your retention period | "Closed suppliers' records are kept until date (6 years after the end of the financial year it closed in)." |
| The supplier is under legal hold | "Name is under legal hold, so its records can't be deleted." |
The admin, offboarding, retention and legal hold rules are enforced by the database, not just the screen. Example suppliers can always be removed. Suppliers still at intake or onboarding can be deleted by an admin with a reason. Even after a deletion, the change history and audit trail keep the record of what was deleted, by whom and why.
The Retention review report
On the Reports page, Retention review lists closed suppliers and any under legal hold, with: Supplier, Stage, Closed, Keep records until, Legal hold, and Status, which is Keep, Can be deleted or Keep: legal hold. Run it once a year to decide what to delete. See Reports.
Good to know
- Retention and legal hold are included in every plan.
- Suppliers closed before the closing date was recorded use the offboarding completion date where there is one. If no closing date is recorded at all, the retention period runs from the last change to the record.
- Closing your whole organisation deletes everything, whatever the retention period. See Security and your data.
- Your retention period covers SupplierVault only. Files kept as links in your own SharePoint or Google Drive follow your own retention rules there.