The primary purpose of registration is to provide evidence that a record has been created or captured in a records system, and an additional benefit is that it facilitates retrieval. It involves recording brief descriptive information or metadata about the record and assigning the record an identifier, unique within the system. Registration formalizes the capture of the record into the records system.

Records may be registered at more than one level or aggregation within a records system. In the electronic environment, records systems may be designed to register records through automatic processes, transparent to the user of the business system from which it is captured and without the intervention of a records manager.