Overview
Document Owners can retire Controlled Documents within CQ. Retiring documents is an essential part of maintaining accuracy, compliance, and relevance throughout the document lifecycle.
CQ provides three methods for retiring Controlled Documents:
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Creating a Change Order (Recommended) – Ensures full traceability and compliance by linking the document(s)to obsolete to a formal change process.
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Retiring the Document without a Change Order – Allows quick expiration when a formal change process is not required and Obsolescence Approval can be completed from the document record alone.
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Retiring the Document during a Periodic Review – Enables retirement as part of scheduled document review activities.
Understanding these options helps Document Owners choose the most appropriate method based on organizational policies and regulatory requirements.
How to Articles
In this section, you’ll learn how to:
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Retire Documents via a Change Order to complete impact assessments, formal change plans, and determine if additional changes are needed as a result across the QMS.
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Retire Documents via the Controlled Document record to allow for expiration without needing a Change Order.
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Retire Documents via a Periodic Review after it is determined during the review that changes are required.
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View Obsolete Documents as a user with permissions to view documents that are no longer effective in the QMS.
Each topic includes step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and best practices to help you navigate the retirement process efficiently and in alignment with your organization’s quality management goals.
Let’s get started with mastering document retirement in Controlled Document records.
Summer 2026