Bank activity records are kept 7 years after the fiscal year ends, under Michigan DTMB General Schedule #31 (Financial Records), which applies to every public body. Quoted as printed, with source links.
Treasurer records are the most uniform corner of the Michigan schedules. The everyone-rule lives in the financial schedule:
DTMB General Schedule #31 (Financial Records), item 31.115; approved 4/7/2009. Applies to all Michigan public bodies.
DTMB General Schedule #25 (Township Clerks), item 25.805; approved 6/17/2008.
The anchor matters: the clock runs from fiscal year end, not from the statement date, so a July statement and the following June statement expire together. Some office schedules anchor to the audit instead; the county road commission version keeps bank statements until the audit is completed plus 7 years (item 9.06C). Same horizon, different trigger.
Once you see the pattern, most treasurer questions answer themselves: bank activity, reconciliations, the annual local unit fiscal report (31.116), sales tax reports (31.117), and their office-schedule twins all ride fiscal year end plus seven. The exceptions run in both directions: routine reconciliation worksheets can be shorter, and anything feeding a pension or bond obligation runs far longer (payroll registers are 50 years, and bond files run 11 years past final maturity).
The audit hold is the one to respect: an active audit freezes every financial record it touches, whatever the schedule says, and disposal resumes only when the audit closes. A disposal pass keyed to “seven fiscal years back, audit closed, no disputes” is the clean, defensible routine.
Dekree applies GS #31 and your office schedule to financial records as they land, anchors each clock to your fiscal year, and holds anything tied to an open audit. The disposal log builds itself.
Every quote links to the exact page of the official schedule on michigan.gov, and all of GS #31 is browsable on its database page. Confirm disposal timing with your auditor and municipal attorney.
Seven years after the fiscal year ends. General Schedule #31 (Financial Records) item 31.115, Bank Activity, reads: RETAIN UNTIL: Fiscal year ends PLUS: 7 years THEN: Destroy. GS #31 applies to every Michigan public body, and the office schedules mirror it; the township clerk schedule carries the identical rule as item 25.805.
Bank activity series cover the records of account transactions, and several office schedules break out canceled checks and deposit slips explicitly with clocks in the six-to-seven-year range (the public library schedule keeps deposit slips and cancelled checks 7 years after fiscal year end, item 17.027). Search your office’s schedule for the exact series; the fiscal-year-plus-single-digit pattern holds across them.
The window covers the audit and dispute horizon for public funds. An active audit is one of the four standard holds: financial records under audit must be kept until the audit closes even if their period has expired, and some series anchor the clock to audit completion explicitly (the county road commission schedule keeps bank statements until the audit is completed plus 7 years, item 9.06C).
This article is educational information for Michigan public bodies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your municipal attorney. Statute text: legislature.mi.gov.