How far back do a client’s records go? Slack, Google and Microsoft 365

Why does the history matter?

Buyers who license business records want depth: years of real work, with the threads intact. A business with eight years of history and a business with eight months are in different positions. The owner usually cannot say which one they are. Their IT provider can.

How long does Slack keep messages?

On paid plans, the default is to keep everything. Slack’s help centre says that on paid plans data is kept for the lifetime of the workspace by default, and that owners can adjust retention settings to delete data automatically after a set amount of time.

The free plan is different. Slack says that on the free plan you can choose to retain data for 90 days or one year, and that data older than one year is deleted from the workspace on a rolling basis.

Two details catch people out:

• Deleted channels. Slack says retention does not apply to messages in deleted channels. If a channel is deleted, its messages are permanently deleted whatever the workspace setting.
• Exports differ by plan. On the export page, Slack says owners and admins on the Free and Pro plans can export messages and file links from public channels. Owners on Business+ must apply to export private channels and direct messages, and Enterprise owners ask Slack’s support team for access to the export tools.

So a client who spent three years on the free plan before upgrading has less history than the age of the workspace suggests.

How long does Google Workspace keep mail and files?

Until someone deletes them, unless a rule says otherwise. Google’s Vault documentation says that by default, Google Workspace data stays in user accounts until the user or an admin deletes it.

Retention rules change that. Google says an organisation can schedule Vault to delete data after a period of time, and that when the retention period expires the data is removed from user accounts and purged from all Google systems. Its example is a default rule that retains Gmail messages for 365 days: Vault deletes every message older than one year.

Check whether a rule like that exists. It may have been set for a good legal reason, and it means the history is shorter than the owner thinks.

How long does Microsoft 365 keep mail and Teams chat?

Microsoft 365 keeps content according to the retention settings the organisation chose. Microsoft’s documentation describes the options: retain content forever or for a specified period, or retain it for a period and then permanently delete it.

The gap to look for is people who left. Microsoft explains that when an employee leaves and the account is removed, the mailbox data is retained for 30 days. After 30 days, the data is permanently removed. If a hold was applied to the mailbox before the account was deleted, the mailbox becomes an inactive mailbox and its content is kept.

In a business with normal staff turnover, that one setting decides whether years of customer conversations still exist.

What should you check before you raise it with a client?

You already have the access to answer these, as part of the work the client pays you for.

Then tell the client what you found in plain terms: “Your email goes back to the start. Your chat goes back one year, because of the plan you were on.” That is useful to them whether or not they ever license anything.

What must you not do?

Three limits matter here:

• Do not run an export for this purpose. No export is needed to describe records. An export happens only after the owner has agreed a scope and terms in writing with a buyer, and then on the owner’s instruction.
• Do not read the content. Knowing that a mailbox exists is your job. Reading it to judge its value is not.
• Do not change retention rules to keep more. A delete rule may be there for legal reasons. That is the owner’s decision, with advice.

On Korra the owner lists a description of the records, with no files and no logins. A partner never handles data. If a client is interested, the partner kit has the words for the first conversation, and our guide on how to export business records shows where each vendor’s tools are for later.