Our records are spread across old systems we no longer use. Do they still count?

They can, if the records still exist in a form you can open: an export file, an old server or backup drive, or a former vendor’s copy. Vendor windows after cancellation run from none to about a year, so find those dates first.

What usually survives after we stop using a system?

Records outlive a system in five places. Check each before you write a system off:

• The vendor’s copy, for a limited time after you cancel (next section).
• Exports made at the switch. Mail saved as Outlook .pst files or downloaded through Google Takeout, which saves Gmail as an .mbox file, spreadsheets of jobs and customers, and database backups such as the SQL Server file ServiceTitan’s terms say it will make “commercially reasonable efforts” to provide on request after termination.
• Old hardware. The server the old system ran on, former employees’ PCs, external backup drives and network storage boxes.
• History carried into the new system. A mail migration may have brought the old years across, and an accounting move may have brought only lists and balances. Does my company’s data qualify? and the QuickBooks Online page explain how to tell.
• Copies held by others. Your IT provider’s backups, your outside bookkeeper’s files, or a vendor’s export sitting in someone’s inbox.

How long does a former vendor keep our data?

Not long, and the clock starts when you cancel or stop paying. What six vendors’ own terms and help pages say, as of October 2026:

System	After you stop paying	Source
Google Workspace	“After you cancel your Google Workspace subscription, your users’ Google Workspace data will be deleted and can’t be restored.” Google points admins to its Data Export tool first	Google, updated October 1, 2026
Microsoft 365 for business	30 days expired with normal access, then 90 days disabled with access for admins only; data deleted no later than 180 days after cancellation. Since February 9, 2026, license-based subscriptions bought directly under a Microsoft Customer Agreement skip the expired stage	Microsoft, updated June 8, 2026
Slack	Slack may downgrade a workspace to the Free plan once fees are 28 days overdue, after 10 days’ notice; on Free, messages and files over a year old may be deleted	Slack, Slack
QuickBooks Online	Read-only access for one year, during which former paid subscribers can export to Excel or a desktop version of QuickBooks; trial users have 90 days	Intuit, updated August 5, 2026
ServiceTitan	“not obligated to retain that information for greater than 60 days after any termination”; the export comes as a SQL Server backup (.BAK) or another format it chooses, and fees may apply	ServiceTitan, updated September 16, 2026
Zendesk	90 days after cancellation, “an automated process will begin that permanently deletes your Service Data”; ticket data is deleted within 40 days of that start	Zendesk, in effect since July 3, 2026 for existing customers

A contract you negotiated, rather than accepted online, may set different terms, so read its termination and data-return clauses. If a window is still open, export before it closes, even though no buyer has asked yet. The usual advice is to hold off exporting until a buyer has scoped the work (what to avoid while making an inventory); a deletion date is the exception.

Can a buyer use records from a system we no longer run?

Often, if the records can reach the provider as a file and its rules count archives. Three things decide it.

How the provider takes records. A provider that connects to your systems needs a live account, and one that works from an export can take a file from a system you no longer run. Do they connect to our systems, or do we send them something? shows which providers do which. For a retired system, ask whether the provider takes files.

What its pages say about older records. Some eligibility rules describe systems still in use. License My Data’s route for larger companies asks for history across three or more systems “in active use”, Nyne for workflows “that your teams already run on”, and Scale AI for “Years of records in the tools your teams already run on”. Others say archives count. Corpus’s checklist asks for “Archives retained rather than purged”, Miro Advisory’s page for software companies says “Retired products and inactive repositories can qualify”, and Polyshares’ Outlook guide says “If old mail was imported from an earlier system, count from the year that history starts.”

Whether anyone can open it. A provider has to read a file to sample and price it. ServiceTitan’s termination backup is a database file, not a spreadsheet, and Data Licensing Report’s sample tool reads .mbox and .eml mail but not Outlook .pst files. Record each archive’s format so a provider can say what it can work with.

How do we build an inventory from old systems?

Start from what you paid for, not from memory. A data inventory has one row per system; for a retired system, add where its records are now and whether anyone can open them.

1. List every system. Card statements and accounts-payable history show subscriptions you no longer pay for. Your IT provider and bookkeeper know what they set up and what they replaced.
2. Find where each one’s records are now. One of the five places above, or gone.
3. Count the old drives and folders with the free sample tool, as above. It lists top-level folders as Folder 01, Folder 02 and so on, so their names stay on your computer. File dates on a copied drive can show when the copy was made rather than when the work was done, so open the oldest few files to confirm.
4. Date the mail archives. The tool counts .mbox and .eml mail by month. A .pst opens in Outlook, and the Microsoft 365 page covers converting one to .mbox or .eml.
5. Note who holds each copy, and who has the password or the software to open it.

Each retired system then gets a row like this:

System and years used	Where the records are now	Format	Can anyone open it?	Who holds it
Its name, and the first and last year you ran it	With the vendor until a stated date, an export, the old server, a backup drive, carried into a newer system, or gone	.pst, .mbox, .csv, .xlsx, .bak, a documents folder	Yes, or what it needs: software, a password, a working drive	A person or a firm

What should we avoid while we decide?

• Wiping or recycling old hardware. An old server or a former employee’s PC may hold the only copy of years of mail.
• Plugging an old mail server back into the network. Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, and Microsoft has said the paid extended security updates that followed stop after October 2026 (BleepingComputer, July 22, 2026). The Microsoft 365 page explains recovering mail offline.
• Scattering copies. Rescue exports into one controlled location rather than several laptops. Old archives hold the same kinds of personal and client information as current ones, so the same exclusions and legal checks apply to them.

What do I do next?

1. List every open vendor window and its closing date, and export from those systems first.
2. Secure the old hardware and backup drives where they are, and tell your IT provider not to wipe them.
3. Build the inventory, with retired systems as their own rows next to the live ones.
4. Apply with that inventory. Describe the old systems separately, with their format and years, so each provider can say whether it takes archives.

If the old systems came with a company you bought, We acquired a company covers what the purchase transferred; if your own company is closing, My company is closing puts these deadlines in order.