Keeping Historical Data in Custom Lists

Question

I have a very practical question for those who have used custom Lists in SharePoint for real things (like Purchase Orders or Leave Applications).

What do you do with historical data?  Do you leave it there and make sure that the Views you use only display the Items you want?  Or, do you move all records older than a certain limit to a "History" List, and allow users to look up either List?

Answer 1

If its not an issue of space in the content database then I would leave the historical data in the original list.  If its history on individual list items then capture that by turning on versions.  If its history involving different records then leave it in the list and sort the view on the date of the history with the most recent at the top. 

If it is an issue of space in the content database then I would suggest archiving the items to a different site collection in a different content database.  Just moving them to a different list won't help with space issues.

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Paul Stork SharePoint Server
MVP Chief SharePoint Architect: Sharesquared
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.

Answer 2

Nice Paul!

I'd thought to take your answer one step further and turn it into a Wiki page that discusses strategies for dealing with historical data: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7999.sharepoint-2010-strategies-for-handling-historical-data-in-custom-lists.aspx

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Kind regards,
Margriet Bruggeman

Lois & Clark IT Services
web site: http://www.loisandclark.eu
blog: http://www.sharepointdragons.com