Special Date Driven Destruction Dates

The Special Date field lets a single date on a related record — such as a Study — drive the Cut-off Date and Scheduled Destruction Date of every box, file, and other item tied to it. Change the date once, and every related item's destruction date recalculates automatically.

Overview

Normally, an item's retention clock starts from its own dates: the Cut-off Date is taken from the item's Date To (or a fixed month/day event code), and the Scheduled Destruction Date is the cut-off plus the retention period on the records schedule.

Some retention is event-based instead: records must be kept for a number of years after an event whose date lives on a related record — for example, the close-out date of a clinical Study. The Special Date feature handles exactly this.

One tab in your system (here, Studies) carries a designated Special Date field. When a records schedule's Event Code is set to Special Date, every item on that schedule takes its Cut-off Date from the Special Date of the Study it is linked to, and its Scheduled Destruction Date is calculated from there.

Cut-off Date = Special Date (from the linked Study) → Scheduled Destruction Date = Special Date + schedule's Years / Months / Days

In the worked example used throughout this guide: Study One's Special Date is 05/02/2010, the schedule retains for 20 years, so the box linked to Study One gets Cut-off Date 05/02/2010 and Scheduled Destruction Date 05/02/2030.

How the pieces fit

Component	Role
Study	Carries the Special Date field — the event date that drives retention (e.g. study close-out).
Records Schedule	Event Code = Special Date, plus the retention period (Years / Months / Days).
Box / File / Item	Linked to the Study and assigned the schedule. Gets Cut-off Date = Special Date and Scheduled Destruction Date = Special Date + retention.

All three connections must be present for the calculation to run: the item must point at a Study, the item's schedule must use the Special Date event code, and the Study's Special Date must have a value.

Setup requirements

Requirement	Details
Advanced Retention	The feature is part of Gimmal Physical's advanced retention capability and requires the corresponding license.
A tab with the Special Date field	One logical tab in the system (Studies in this guide) is configured with the designated Special Date column. This is set up as part of your system configuration. The field's caption can be renamed (e.g. to "Study Close Date") — the matching entry in the Event Code list updates automatically to stay in sync.
"Special Date" Event Code	The Event Code list (Admin → List Management) contains a system-managed Special Date entry. Unlike other event codes, which hold a fixed month/day (e.g. 12/31), this entry is protected and cannot be edited or given a month/day value.
Item tabs with retention	Each item type that should be driven by the Special Date (Boxes, Files, etc.) must be retention-enabled — with Records Schedule, Date To, Cut-off Date, Override, and Scheduled Destruction Date fields — and must have a lookup field pointing to the Studies tab.

Set up the records schedule

Create (or update) a records schedule that represents the event-based rule — for example "retain 20 years after study close":

Set the retention period in Years, Months, and/or Days — these add together.

Set Event Code to Special Date.

Leave Permanent unchecked (permanent schedules never get a destruction date).

Enter the Special Date on the Study

Open the Study (create it if needed) and fill in the Special Date field with the event date — for a clinical study this is typically the close-out or completion date.

The Study's view page also shows every file and box currently linked to it, which is a convenient way to see what a date change will affect:

The date can be entered later. Items linked to a Study whose Special Date is still blank simply have no calculated cut-off or destruction date yet. As soon as the date is filled in, all related items are calculated automatically.

Link items to the Study and the schedule

On each box, file, or other item that should follow the event-based rule, set two fields (at creation or by update):

· The Study lookup — pick the Study whose Special Date should drive this item.

· The Records Schedule — pick the schedule whose Event Code is Special Date.

When the item is saved, Gimmal Physical sets its Cut-off Date to the Study's Special Date and calculates the Scheduled Destruction Date by adding the schedule's retention period:

Box 0000000202: schedule ACC-01 (20 years, Event Code Special Date). The Cut-off Date (05/02/2010) is the Study's Special Date — not the box's own Date To — and the Scheduled Destruction Date is 20 years later (05/02/2030).

Note how Date To is bypassed. This box's own Date To is 14/07/2026, but because its schedule uses the Special Date event code, the cut-off comes from the Study instead. Items on ordinary schedules keep using their own dates as usual.

Automatic recalculation when the date changes

The real power of the feature is what happens when the event date moves. When a user updates the Special Date on a Study and saves, Gimmal Physical detects that the value changed and immediately recalculates every related item:

· It finds all items — across every item type that has a lookup to Studies — that point at this Study and whose records schedule uses the Special Date event code.

· For each one, it sets the new Cut-off Date and recomputes the Scheduled Destruction Date (new date + retention period).

· Items are deliberately skipped in two cases: items whose Override flag is checked (their manually set dates always win), and deleted items.

One date, many items. A single edit to a Study's Special Date can silently change destruction dates on a large number of boxes and files. That is the intended behavior — but it's worth communicating to users who maintain Study records that this field carries retention consequences.

Behavior notes & quick troubleshooting

Symptom / question	Explanation
Item has no Scheduled Destruction Date	Check that the item is linked to a Study, the Study's Special Date is filled in, the schedule's Event Code is Special Date, and the schedule is not marked Permanent.
Item's dates didn't change when the Study was updated	Check the item's Override flag — overridden items are never recalculated. Also confirm the item's schedule uses the Special Date event code; being linked to the Study alone is not enough.
Cut-off Date doesn't match the item's Date To	Expected. With a Special Date schedule, the cut-off comes from the Study, not from the item's own dates.
Retention period seems off	Years, Months, and Days on the schedule are cumulative — a schedule with 1 year and 6 months adds 18 months to the Special Date.
Who can rename the field?	An administrator can rename the Special Date field's caption on the Studies tab; the Event Code list entry renames itself to match, so schedules and item pages stay consistent.
Can other tabs use it?	The Special Date field lives on one designated tab per system. Any retention-enabled item type with a lookup to that tab can be driven by it.

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