Our record retention schedule dictates that we keep superseded and obsoleted documents for a period of 3 years, after which they are disposed of. We handle this by simply keeping the electronic master copies of those records in separate folders on a private server. One folder will hold all of 2012, another all of 2013, etc. No master list in Excel is needed (the folder is our master list).
When the 3-year mark has passed, we simply delete the folder. We do not have the luxury of purchasing an advanced document management system, so we keep it simple. And you should too, if you are in a similar situation. Just make sure you have an acceptable method of recording changes per your requirements.
Brian
