Information kept as evidence of business activity: something you keep because it proves what you did, decided, agreed, or delivered. Records can be emails, documents, data, messages, images, audio, or system transactions; not everything needs to be kept.
A record is something you keep because it proves what you did, decided, agreed, or delivered. Records can be emails, documents, data extracts, messages, images, audio, or system transactions, but not everything is a record: duplicates, trivial or transitory items, and some working material may not need keeping.
No. Something is a record when it is worth keeping as evidence of business activity. Duplicates, trivial or transitory items, and routine working material often are not, depending on your organisation's rules.
IAR turns terms like this into working practice: assets classified against your disposal authority, stewarded by position, and ready to evidence.