The short answer: You don’t need to clean anything to start. The most useful preparation is a map: which systems hold what, for how many years, who owns it, and what must stay out. Keep your history intact, don’t delete or redact anything yourself, and don’t cancel old software accounts until you’ve taken full exports.
Step 1: map where your records live
- List every system that holds work records: email, chat, help desk, CRM, file storage, wiki, project tools, code, finance and operations software.
- For each one, note the years it covers and when you switched tools.
- Note roughly how many people use it and how much it holds, like ticket or message counts.
- Mark which systems record outcomes: resolved, won, approved, paid.
- Mark which systems link to each other, like tickets that reference CRM accounts.
Step 2: separate what you own
- Records you hold for clients under a services agreement
- Work by contractors whose contracts didn’t assign the IP to you
- Licensed or purchased content, such as reports, manuals and data sets
- Open-source code, which keeps its own license
Step 3: write an exclusion list
- HR, payroll and benefits files
- Health and medical information
- Card numbers, bank details, passwords and API keys
- Privileged legal files
- Direct messages and private channels
- Anything you’ve promised a client to keep confidential
- Your own additions, such as client names, current price lists and project code names
Step 4: keep your history intact
Value lives in the links between records: the thread behind the ticket, the comments on the document, the review on the code change. Don’t clean up, merge or delete anything before a deal.
Don’t redact it yourself either. Homemade redaction usually breaks those links, and buyers won’t accept it. De-identification is done during the deal, with tools and trained reviewers, and you approve a sample.
If you’re closing, retiring a system or switching tools, keep the old accounts active or take full exports first, with dates, authors and threads. Ask each vendor what an admin export includes.
Step 5: gather the paperwork
- Every version of your privacy policy and customer terms for the years you’d license
- Your standard customer and services agreements
- Contractor agreements with IP assignment clauses
- Your software plans, and admin access for each main system
- Any recording notices used on calls
Step 6: decide who’s involved
Name one person who can approve, usually the owner or CEO, and bring in your counsel early. Decide when to tell your team. A short note explaining that identifiers come out and what’s excluded goes a long way.
A quick readiness check
- We own the data, not our clients
- Our terms allow de-identified use
- We have 3+ continuous years on the main systems
- Outcomes are recorded
- Records link across systems
- We can still export
- Sensitive files can be kept separate
- Try the interactive readiness check. It updates your estimate as you tick.
Common questions
Do we need to clean or label our data first?
No. Buyers prefer records as they are, with history and links intact. Cleaning, labeling and de-identification are handled during the deal by specialists.
How long does preparation take?
The map and the paperwork usually take a few hours of your time. The export itself happens only after you’ve approved a buyer.
We switched systems recently. Is the old data lost?
Not necessarily. If the old system still allows an export, or you kept a backup, it may still count. Buyers score continuous years, so the newest unbroken stretch matters most.
Should we stop deleting old data?
If your retention policy and the law allow it, pause routine deletion of business records while you explore a license. Never keep data you’re legally required to delete.
Sources
- Computerworld, “Salesforce changes Slack API terms to block bulk data access for LLMs”, Jun 11, 2025
- Forbes, “AI’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks And Emails”, Apr 16, 2026
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Talkbase is not a law firm. This guide summarizes public information so you can frame questions for your counsel. It is not legal, tax or financial advice.