Public records · FOIA · Works alongside GovQA
Keep GovQA.
Add the reading and review layer.
GovQA takes the request in, deflects the duplicates, tracks the clock and keeps the correspondence in one place. Someone still has to read every responsive page and decide what comes out. That review is the work RecordBeacon does beside your portal, and the only work it does.
No card, no setup. GovQA stays exactly where it is.
What GovQA handles
GovQA runs the request. Keep it running the request.
GovQA, part of Granicus, is a widely used records request system. Per Granicus's materials, it covers the request lifecycle from smart intake and vetting through records gathering, review, redaction, release and reporting, with predictive intake deflection and automatic extraction, de-duplication and search of email records for any-and-all requests.
Granicus's materials also describe defensible audit trails, document redactions that carry reason codes with an auto-generated redaction log, and the ability to stream, store, redact, transfer and track video and audio records from inside the solution.
Keep it. Nothing on this page changes how requests come in or how they are tracked.
The questions that sort it out
Four questions for any redaction tool. Ours included.
Redaction features vary more than brochures suggest. The same questions separate the tools quickly.
Does the automation read the content, or work from searches and patterns configured at setup? Patterns are very good at formatted strings like Social Security and phone numbers. Ask what finds the exempt material written in plain sentences.
Who approves each mark, by name? Ask whether the finished record shows a person deciding every individual redaction, not just a sign-off on the whole document.
Does one exemption log carry the whole response? When a request mixes a PDF, an email thread and a recording, ask to see the single log showing every mark and its exemption.
Is release gated? Ask what happens when someone releases while a mark is undecided.
Put the same questions to us. The next section is our answer.
What RecordBeacon adds
It reads the set. A person decides. Release is gated.
Detection that reads the content
RecordBeacon reads every page and proposes marks with the exemption coded on each one, including exempt material written in plain narrative text rather than a recognizable format.
A named reviewer on every mark
Nothing is redacted automatically. Your reviewer approves or rejects each mark, by name, and can draw a box on anything detection missed.
A verified, gated release
Release refuses to run while any mark is undecided. Redactions are burned into the released pages, and the output is read back to confirm the redacted content is gone.
Whole email exports, one exemption log
Drop the export in. Each email and attachment becomes its own record, duplicates are caught once across the response, and one exemption log carries every decision.
The full product page is at public records redaction for agencies.
No integration required
Documents go in. Redacted releases come out.
RecordBeacon sits beside GovQA with nothing to install, no setup and no IT project. GovQA stays the system of record for the request. RecordBeacon keeps the review record.
01
Export the set
Pull the responsive documents out of GovQA as you already do today.
02
Review it here
Upload the set. Detection proposes marks and your reviewer decides every one.
03
Release
Produce the released copies with redactions burned in and the decision record behind them.
04
Attach it back
Attach the released files to the request in GovQA and respond as you always have.
Questions records officers ask
Do we have to replace GovQA?
No. Keep it. Intake, deflection, correspondence and the deadline clock stay in GovQA. RecordBeacon does the part between finding the records and being able to release them.
Does RecordBeacon connect to GovQA?
No connection is needed. You export the set, review it in RecordBeacon, then attach the released files back like any other file. Nothing to install, no IT project.
GovQA already includes redaction. Why add anything?
Keep using what works. The honest test is the four questions above: what reads the material written in plain sentences, who approves each mark by name, whether one log carries the whole response, and whether release is gated. If your process answers all four, you may not need us. The free tier exists so you can check on your own records.
Can we try it before we buy it?
The first 15 documents are free with no card. For a real evaluation, book a walkthrough and bring an actual response set rather than a test file.
Bring a real response set.
Run fifteen documents with no card and no call, or book twenty minutes and we will run them with you. Either way, you learn on your own records, not a prepared demo.