Data Retention Audit Trail Form

Managing data retention and deletion under GDPR isn't just good practice—it's a legal requirement. If you're a data protection officer, compliance manager, or IT administrator working in the EU, you need a reliable way to document when data is deleted, who authorised it, and why it was necessary.

This Data Retention Audit Trail Form helps organisations maintain a complete, auditable record of all data deletion activities in line with GDPR Article 5 (storage limitation) and Article 30 (records of processing activities). Whether you're responding to a data subject request, implementing your retention schedule, or preparing for a supervisory authority audit, this template creates the paper trail you need.

Why Paperform for GDPR compliance logging

Paperform is trusted by over 500,000 teams worldwide and is SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant, making it a secure foundation for sensitive compliance workflows. The form captures essential details like deletion date, data categories affected, legal basis for retention, responsible party details, and supporting documentation—all timestamped and stored securely.

Once submitted, you can use Stepper to automatically route audit trail entries to your compliance database, notify stakeholders, update retention logs in Airtable or Google Sheets, and trigger follow-up tasks for periodic reviews. This turns a manual logging process into a structured, automated compliance system that scales with your organisation.

The form includes conditional logic to adapt based on deletion type (scheduled, ad-hoc, or data subject request), ensuring the right information is captured every time. You can embed it in your internal compliance portal or share it with authorised personnel across departments, creating consistency in how deletion activities are documented across your entire data estate.

For legal and compliance teams managing multiple data systems, retention policies, and regulatory obligations, this template provides the structure and accountability that regulators expect—and the automation that modern compliance teams need.