{"id":5042,"date":"2026-07-24T20:04:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T20:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/?page_id=5042"},"modified":"2026-07-25T18:58:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:58:55","slug":"record-retention","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/proposal-award-management\/project-closeout\/record-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"Record retention"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"nau-block nau-block-left-nav-top-bound\">\n    \t<button id=\"left-nav-toggle-btn\" onclick=\"toggleNav();\">\n\t\tON THIS PAGE \n\t\t<i id=\"chevron-icon\" class=\"fas fa-solid fa-chevron-down\"><\/i>\n\t<\/button>\n\t<div id=\"left-nav-menu-track\">\n\t\t<div id=\"left-nav-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"rfi-above-anchor-tags\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"ri-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/admissions\/request-information\/\" id=\"request-info\" class=\"btn bg-true-blue left-nav-menu-bottom-button display-mobile\">Request info&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div id=\"left-nav-menu\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"menu-section menu-section-links\"><h6 class=\"hidden-mobile left-nav-list-header\">ON THIS PAGE<\/h6><ul class=\"left-nav-menu-list left-nav-automatic on-this-page\"><\/ul><div class=\"ri-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/admissions\/request-information\/\" id=\"request-info\" class=\"btn bg-true-blue left-nav-menu-bottom-button display-mobile\">Request info&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"menu-section backcolor\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHOW CAN WE HELP?\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"responsive-icons\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"tel:928-523-4880\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/nau-marketing-2021\/img\/icon-phone.svg\" alt=\"Telephone:\"> 928-523-4880<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"mailto:NAU-OSP@nau.edu\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/themes\/nau-marketing-2021\/img\/icon-email.svg\" alt=\"Email:\"><span class=\"left-nav-email\"> NAU-OSP&#8203;@nau.edu <\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<section class=\"nau-block left-nav-section\"><header class=\"entry-header\"><div class=\"breadcrumb\"><ol class=\"breadcrumbs\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/stage.in.nau.edu\">IN<\/a><span class=\"breadcrumb-chevron\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&gt;<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\">NAU Research<\/a><span class=\"breadcrumb-chevron\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&gt;<\/span><\/li><li class=\"current\">Pages<\/li><\/ol><\/div><h1 class=\"entry-title text-left \">Record retention<\/h1><hr class=\"h1-hr  text-left \" role=\"none\"><\/header><!-- .entry-header --><\/section><!-- <section class=\"nau-block left-nav-section grid-md-12\">\n    <header class=\"entry-header\">\n        <h1 class=\"entry-title text-left \" tabindex=\"0\" id=\"h1-first\">Dummy H1<\/h1>\n        <hr class=\"h1-hr  text-left \" role=\"none\">\n    <\/header>\n<\/section> -->\n\n<section class=\"nau-block left-nav-section grid-md-12\">\n    <div class=\"page-content\">\n        \n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Record retention establishes how long university sponsored project records must be maintained to comply with sponsor requirements and <a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/university-policy-library\/comptroller-policies\/\">Comptroller Policy (CMP) 103<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is record retention?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Records retention is the term applied to safeguarding of important records that document decisions, policies, financial transactions, and internal controls. <a href=\"https:\/\/nau.edu\/university-policy-library\/record-retention\/\">NAU\u2019s Sponsored Projects Records Retention Policy<\/a> ensures that NAU maintains the integrity of the records for an appropriate and\/or required period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Historically, records were maintained on paper, but today they also include other formats, such as electronic records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Departments should retain financial records in order to comply with sponsor restrictions and Arizona State Law. Under the terms of awards to NAU, sponsors and auditors have the right to access all official university records associated with a project. NAU is obligated to make such records available for examination. Maintaining source documents is a means to substantiating charges to grants and contracts. Interdepartmental billing computations and receipt acknowledgements for services or materials are particularly important source documents for this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Departmental record retention<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All NAU departments for the periods listed below shall retain financial records for sponsored projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-20\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-20\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\">Types of records<\/th><th class=\"column-2\">Retention period<\/th><th class=\"column-3\">Comments<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-striping row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Interdepartmental billing computations, receipt acknowledgements, and other documents of servicing departments substantiating interdepartmental charges<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">5 years after the fiscal year prepared or 3 years after submission of the grant\/contract final financial report, whichever is longer.<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Failure to adhere to this policy could result in cost disallowances to NAU and possible charge-backs of previous billings to departments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Documentation of purchases made with an NAU Purchasing Card.  Documentation includes itemized cash register receipts and other point of sale documents that specify what was purchased.<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">5 years after the fiscal year prepared or 3 years after submission of the grant\/contract final financial report, whichever is longer.<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">All documentation for Purchasing Card transactions is maintained in the department making the purchase.  The documentation must be available for review\/audit as indicated for the required retention period.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\">Cash receipts and cash register tapes<\/td><td class=\"column-2\">5 years after the fiscal year prepared or 3 years after submission of the grant\/contract final financial report, whichever is longer.<\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-20 from cache -->\n\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<div class=\"nau-block nau-block-left-nav-bottom-bound\">\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":5050,"parent":3374,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ring_central_script_selection":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5042","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5042"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5133,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5042\/revisions\/5133"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}