Systems
What happens to company data when you cancel software
Find your tool to see what happens to its data when you cancel, how long you have, and how to export first. Slack, Google Workspace, Confluence, and Notion each follow their own cancellation article. Open the tool you pay for, save the export while you still have the admin role, and only then turn off renewal. One product's deadline does not apply to another.
Tools covered
For the checklist that applies to every tool, read what to do before canceling software when closing a business. Dates stay on the tool pages below.
| Tool | Category | When you stop paying | Deletion window | Page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What happens to your Slack messages when you stop paying | Chat | On the free version of Slack, you are limited to the most recent 90 days of message and file history, and all data in the workspace that is more than one year old will be deleted. | 1 year on the free version | Open |
| What happens to your data when you cancel Google Workspace | Email and collaboration | On an email-verified subscription, choosing Delete users' data deletes user data in My Drive and organization data in shared drives. | 90 days | Open |
| What happens to your data when a Microsoft 365 subscription expires | Email and collaboration | If you cancel within the cancellation window, the subscription moves directly to Disabled. | 180 days | Open |
| What happens to your GitHub data when you cancel | Anything else | To cancel a paid subscription, downgrade the organization to GitHub Free instead of deleting it. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your QuickBooks Online data when you cancel | Finance and accounting | When you cancel a QuickBooks Online subscription you have read-only access to your data for one year. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your Jira data when you stop paying | Project or workflow | If you cancel a Jira subscription, Atlassian stops renewing it. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your Confluence data when you cancel | Documents and storage | If you cancel a Confluence subscription, Atlassian does not renew it. | 15 days of access, then 60 days | Open |
| What happens to your Notion data when you cancel | Documents and storage | Deleting a Notion workspace is permanent. All of the content inside it is deleted, including private pages, and nobody who belonged to the workspace can open it afterward. | Permanent on delete | Open |
| What happens to your Dropbox files when you cancel | Documents and storage | An admin on Dropbox Standard, Business, Advanced, or Business Plus cancels from Admin console, then Billing. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your Asana data when you stop paying | Project or workflow | After the subscriptions expire or end, Asana may deactivate the accounts tied to that agreement immediately. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your monday.com data when you cancel | Project or workflow | Only an admin can cancel a monday.com account. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your ClickUp data when you cancel | Project or workflow | An owner or an admin can downgrade during the billing cycle. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your HubSpot data when you cancel | CRM and sales | A paid HubSpot subscription cancels at the end of the commitment term. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your Salesforce data when you cancel | CRM and sales | If an expired contract or a payment problem locks, suspends, or holds the organization, Salesforce offers a courtesy data export during a grace period before the data is permanentl | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your Xero data when you stop paying | Finance and accounting | Only the subscriber can cancel a paid Xero subscription. | See the timeline | Open |
| What happens to your Zendesk data when you cancel | Support or ticketing | When you cancel a Zendesk account, you lose access to your data. | 90 days | Open |
| What happens to your Zoho Workplace data when you cancel | Email and collaboration | Canceling a Zoho Workplace subscription moves the account to Zoho Mail's free plan and turns off premium features. | See the timeline | Open |
Use each vendor's own deadline
Each vendor sets its own cancellation rule, and a deadline you learned for one product does not move to the next. Slack can hide older history on the free version and later delete messages and files that are more than a year old. Google Workspace, on an email-verified subscription, either deletes user data in My Drive and shared drives or converts accounts to consumer accounts and deletes shared drives. Confluence can leave the workspace open after the subscription period, then keep the data for a retention period, or delete it immediately if you remove the app from the subscription. Notion deletes the workspace, including private pages, when you delete the workspace, and that action is permanent. Use the row for the tool you pay for. That vendor's deadline keeps running while you decide, and it does not wait for an export you have not started. The row names the admin role, the control to use, and the records the file skips. If you are closing the company, export while someone can still sign in as an admin. A download you postpone can be unreachable once the subscription ends. Do not borrow a neighboring product's deadline to fill the gap. If cancellation is part of closing the business, read how to wind down a company first. The free tools and the research library sit beside the directory. You can compare deletion windows across vendors in one table and download them as a CSV.
Export before you cancel
Run the export while the admin role is still yours and while the subscription that allows a full download is still active. The menu, the file format, and the lifetime of the download link are different for a chat workspace, a mail suite, a wiki, and a notes workspace. Open that tool for the menu path, the role that can start the download, and the records the file skips. Save the file and open it before you cancel. Several vendors take admin access away, or start deleting, when the subscription ends, and a download you postponed can then be unreachable. Confirm the records you need are inside the file. Only then turn off renewal or close the account. There is no single export button that covers every product named above. Open the file on a computer you control and check that the channels, messages, or pages you expected are actually in it. A download that will not open is not a finished export. Keep the file if you later read how to sell company data to AI companies, because that path needs the export before the vendor deletes it.
Related
- How it works
The six steps from a short enquiry to payment, and how to stop.
- What's shared
Which records can be licensed, which details never leave, and what you approve.
- Eligibility
Staff, records, daily-use systems, and the right to license, plus a checker.
- Research
Sourced datasets on public prices for company data, each with a CSV.
- Tool stacks by size
Applicant tool names by headcount band, cells under 10 omitted.
- Deletion windows
Compared vendor deletion windows after cancellation, from the same checked records as the system pages.
- Guides
How-tos and lists for closing a company, selling one, or licensing its records.
- Free tools
Free browser tools for closing or selling a company: eligibility, a payout estimate, and a records inventory.
- Industries
What operating records look like by sector, and what is left out.
Questions about canceled software
What happens to company data when you cancel software?
It depends on the vendor. Slack hides older history on the free version and deletes messages and files that are more than a year old. Google Workspace either deletes My Drive and shared-drive data or converts accounts to consumer accounts and deletes shared drives. Confluence can leave the workspace open, then retain the data, or delete it immediately if you remove the app. Notion deletes the workspace, including private pages, and that deletion is permanent. Open the tool you pay for. No single deadline covers every product.
What if the software we pay for is not named here?
Read that vendor's own cancellation article, and export while an admin can still run the download. A deadline from Slack, Google Workspace, Confluence, or Notion does not transfer to a product that is not named in the table. Canceling first can remove the admin role the vendor expects you to use. Save the file and open it before you turn renewal off. Do not guess a deadline from a neighboring product.
Should we export company data before we cancel a tool?
Yes. Export while you still have the admin role and a subscription that still allows a full download. The steps for your tool name the control, the order, and what the file leaves out. Canceling first can cut admin access or start the vendor's deletion clock. Save the file, confirm it opens, and only then turn off renewal or close the account.
What should we do if a vendor changes its cancellation rules?
Follow the vendor's current help article. The Sources list on that tool links the article, and the Last checked date is the day the article was read. If the article now says something different, follow the article. Do not keep an older number from memory, and do not borrow a deadline from a different product. Export while the admin role still works, then cancel.