A record is very broad concept to describe “information”. Records are virtually any piece of information which your company or organization creates, records and stores in some way. This can be something as old fashioned as a printed or written hardcopy document. It can also be an electronic document or a data point in a database. It depends on what a law or regulation defines as a record.
The physical form or characteristic of a record usually does not matter, unless there is a law somewhere that says something about the form in which you need to keep information. “Hardcopy” has been the preferred option for a long time, cheeky lawmakers! But nowadays these kind of form requirements are often traded for rules relating to integrity of documents. And as the world is becoming digital, so should records retention management, so we believe!