Dormant Data

[abc]

Hi
What is your policy on dormant / non used accounts are they deleted after x period of non-use ?

The reason I am asking is that cumulative storage requirements will go up causing these costs to be spread to active users, whilst dormant accounts remain users are not charged.

Thanks

[Glenn]

With the inception of GDPR we have just recently introduced a new regime for removing dormant accounts. This is on the basis that we may no longer have a valid mandate to store and process that data, a factor that must be considered under GDPR. But it is also sensible to ensure that active subscription holders are not responsible for the costs associated with dormant accounts, as you have mentioned.

At this stage we would consider a dormant account as one that has not been accessed for 2 years or more (this may shorten in future). We will initially contact the account holder(s) and notify them that we intend to permanently delete the account within 1 month. If the account holder does not intervene, then that account will be scheduled for deletion.

[ian_roberts]

How do you define “intervene”? I fully expect that if/when I close my business down I will want to maintain my QuickFile account for at least 7 years even if I don’t enter any more transactions, as it is my primary accounting record that I have to keep by law.

[Glenn]

By “intervene”, I mean any team member simply needs to log back into their account, this will reset the 2 year clock. We may in the future introduce a data retention charge for accounts with large amounts of dormant data, although this is not something that’s likely to happen in the next year, and it would only ever be applicable to accounts with no active subscriptions.

The account holder also has the option to export their data first, before manually closing the account.

[ian_roberts]

That’s fair enough, and I’d happily pay a reasonable fee for this - a backup is all very well but in a case like mine of an XL account with all the receipt images linked to purchases, keeping the data in QuickFile would be so much more convenient to refer back to quickly.