Believe it or not, there are some pre made retention schedules that county officials in Texas can use in order to comply with records retention laws.  No one has to start completely from scratch. 

About 99% of the records held by any local entity in the state are covered by the state records schedules.  TSLAC tried to make it as easy as possible.  And in most case, it really is that simple. 

And if they want to come up with something completely their own, they can still do a hybrid. In very rare cases, a county may need to add a records series that doesn't exist anywhere else on their schedule.  It does happen, but in my experience working with county clerks and other local government officials across the state, it's a very rare occasion. 

What usually happens, is that they want to over-complicate the matter.  Many times, they could just list what they felt was "unicorn records" under the very mundane records series of "Accounts Receivable" or "Accounts Payable." We had to keep telling panicked officials "don't make this harder on yourself than it is." 

The catch? The local government has to send proof in writing that they've voted to adopt these schedules before they start deleting or shredding (burn, shred pulp) their records.  Just printing them off from TSLAC's website isn't enough.

And yes, plenty of people have tried to do that.  The stories I could tell as a former Records Analyst at the State Records Center.  Actually, I do have a fictionalized story about that.  Want to hear about it?