Records that are important for audits need to be maintained through the time of the audit plus about three years afterward in case any problems arise. Formerly, the retention period for these records was three years after the audit was complete. Since it was often difficult for a local official to know when an audit became final, the retention period was changed to five years from the date of creation of the record. This gives the official a definite time period to work from and also allows continuous destruction of financial records rather than lumping all records from a fiscal year together with a single retention date.