Choosing a Classification Scheme for Your Archive
A classification scheme decides how every record is grouped and found. How to choose between functional, subject and organisational schemes, and how to keep one simple enough to use.
A classification scheme is the structure you use to group records: the top-level categories, what goes under them, and the codes or names that identify each group. It determines where a new record is filed, how retention is applied and whether anyone can find anything in ten years. The best scheme for most organisations is based on what the organisation does, not on its current departments or on subjects, and is shallow enough that people use it without a manual.
Three common approaches
| Scheme | Groups by | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional | Activities: managing staff, managing property, delivering services | Stable when the organisation restructures; maps neatly to retention | Takes thought to design |
| Organisational | Departments or teams | Intuitive for staff today | Breaks every reorganisation |
| Subject | Topics or keywords | Easy to start | Overlaps and grows without limit |
Why function usually wins
Departments merge and split; functions persist. An organisation will still be hiring people, managing premises and handling client matters after its third restructure. Retention periods also attach naturally to functions: all "employee records" share a clock, whichever team held them. A functional scheme lets you set retention once per class instead of per folder.
Designing the scheme
- List the functions: the handful of things the organisation exists to do, plus the support functions every organisation has, such as finance, staff, premises and governance.
- Break each into activities: under "managing staff", recruitment, onboarding, absence, grievances, leaving.
- Stop at the level where records are created. Two or three levels are almost always enough. Beyond that, people guess.
- Attach a retention rule to each activity class.
- Name classes in plain language and add short codes only if you need them for sorting.
Classification is not the only way to find things
A scheme gives each record one home. People also need to find records by other attributes: a person's name, a property, a date range, a status. That is metadata's job, not the scheme's. Resist creating classes for every way someone might search; add descriptive fields instead. We explained the difference in what metadata is and why it matters.
Test it before you commit
Take fifty real records of different kinds and ask three people to classify them independently. Where they disagree, the class definitions are unclear. Fix the definitions, add a short scope note to each class saying what belongs and what does not, and test again.
Applying it in a case system
In Herarx, the pieces map onto a functional scheme without much effort. Sections are named containers for cases and suit the top level, such as Staff, Property or Client matters; a template can be tied to a section so new cases land in the right place. Templates represent the activity classes, each with its own fields and rules. Tags and typed fields carry the metadata for searching across classes, and advanced filters can be saved as presets. For the wider practice, see digital archiving best practices for small organisations.
Maintain it
Review the scheme once a year. Add a class when a new function appears, retire classes that no longer receive records, and never silently repurpose an old class for something new: close it and open a new one, so the records already in it keep their meaning.
