---
id: KB-TZ-017
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/traceability-and-compliance/when-what-you-must-keep-changes
idioma: en
categoria: trazabilidad
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-TZ-013, KB-NO-011]
citadoPor: [KB-TZ-011]
---

# When what you must keep changes

_A new obligation, a new criterion or a client demanding more: what to do with everything already filed._

**Responde a:** the rules changed what about old records · applying a new criterion to filed documents · they now require documentation we did not keep · reviewing the archive after a requirements change

Every so often something changes: a new obligation, a client tightening requirements, or you yourselves deciding to ask for more. The question that always appears is the same and is rarely answered well: what do we do with everything from before?

## The three possible answers, and when each applies

| Answer | When it makes sense | Risk |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Forward only | When the change is yours and there is no retroactive duty | Living with two criteria for a while |
| Forward and at renewal | The usual: everyone catches up when their turn comes | Taking a full cycle to be complete |
| Everything, now | When there is a real deadline or a client auditing soon | The most expensive and the most resisted |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The second works in most cases and is the least considered, because it sounds like half-measures. It is not: **using the renewal you already run turns a project into a routine**. Asking a supplier for a new document while you are already asking for their annual renewal costs nothing; asking separately, in May, costs a whole campaign.

## What to decide before starting

1. **Whether the change affects what is done or only what is new** — A new requirement is not the same as a different criterion for judging the same thing.
2. **From what date it applies, written down** — It is what later explains why two files from the same year look different.
3. **What happens to what no longer complies** — Flagged, re-requested, accepted as is? Decided once, not case by case.
4. **And who owns the transition** — By name, or it stalls in month two.

> [!WARNING]
> The mistake that causes most trouble is applying the new criterion backwards **without leaving a trace that it changed**. If a year from now someone looks at a three-year-old file and sees something missing that was not required then, the natural conclusion is that you skipped it. Recording from when each criterion applies is not bureaucracy: it is what stops your own archive accusing you.

## What can almost always be reused

**En corto**

- The annual renewal you already run.
- Onboarding of any new supplier or client, which asks for the new thing from day one.
- And the first time an old file is touched for another reason.

That third costs the least effort and covers the most ground: if every time someone opens an old file they leave it at the current criterion, the archive catches up by itself within months.

> [!NOTE]
> If the change comes from an obligation rather than your own criteria, **its scope and start date are a question for your adviser**: some changes look only forward and some do not. What is described here is how to organise the transition once you know which case is yours.

**Do closed files have to be redone?**

Absent an express duty, no: what is closed is judged by the criteria of its time.

**What if a client demands the new criterion for old material?**

That is a negotiation, not an obligation: quantify what it involves before agreeing.

**Should suppliers be told about the change?**

Yes, and in the renewal request itself: it lands better than a separate email.

## Ejemplos

**A company decides to require a new document from all its suppliers.**

- Adds it to onboarding and the annual renewal instead of launching a separate campaign
- Records the date it applies from

→ Within one cycle it is complete, with no extra campaigns and without the old archive looking deficient.

**What must be kept changes and nobody reviews the old material.**

- Reviews which files are affected

→ The change reaches what already existed.

**The new criterion is applied only to new material.**

- Decides what happens to the earlier material

→ The archive is coherent.

**Nobody knows from when the new criterion applies.**

- Records the date of the change

→ You can say which criterion applied when.

**A client asks why their file holds less.**

- Checks which criterion applied then

→ The difference is explained.

**The change is communicated verbally.**

- Keeps the criterion written and accessible

→ The team applies the same thing.