Data & Deletion

Data & Deletion lets an owner or admin take a full copy of a business's data with them, or schedule the business for permanent deletion. Nothing is erased right away: deleting starts a grace period, so you can keep working, export everything, or change your mind. Find it at Settings > Data & Deletion.

Key capabilities

• Download all my data: a zip of CSV files covering the books
• Email when the export is ready, and a Download export button on the page
• Export status line: preparing, ready, expired, or failed
• Delete this business schedules permanent deletion after a grace period (30 days by default)
• Typed confirmation: you must enter the business name exactly
• A red banner across the app while a deletion is scheduled, with a link back to this page
• Cancel deletion until the scheduled date
• Owners are emailed when a deletion is scheduled and when it is cancelled
• Background syncs pause while a deletion is scheduled

How it works

Deleting is a schedule, not an event. The business stays fully usable until the date shown, and an overnight job removes it once the date has passed.

flowchart TD
  start["Delete this business"] --> confirm["Type the name and verify it's you"]
  confirm --> sched["Scheduled, owners emailed"]
  sched --> use["Keep using, export, or cancel"]
  use -->|Cancel deletion| safe["Nothing is deleted"]
  use -->|Date passes| gone["Permanently deleted"]

How to use it

1. Switch to the business you mean, then open Settings > Data & Deletion.
2. To export, click Download all my data. The button reads Preparing export… while the file is built in the background.
3. When you get the email, return to the page and click Download export. Links last 15 minutes; click again for a fresh one while the file is kept.
4. To delete, click Delete this business. The dialog explains how many days you have, then asks you to type the business name exactly.
5. Click Schedule deletion. If your account is asked to re-verify, complete that check; it is the same identity check used for other sensitive actions.
6. The page now shows the scheduled date and days left. To change your mind, click Cancel deletion.
7. Everyone in the business sees the banner at the top until the deletion is cancelled or completed.

Pro tips

• Export before you schedule a deletion, and again just before the date if the books are still changing.
• Open the files in Excel or Google Sheets; all amounts in the raw tables are stored in cents.
• Documents and other attachments are not in the export. Download them from the app first.
• Scheduling twice keeps the original date, so you cannot accidentally extend the countdown.
• Stopping a firm's management of a client does not delete anything; see Business Management.
• Use Audit Log to see who scheduled or cancelled a deletion.

In-depth guide

What the export contains

A short readme in the zip lists the files. The page shows when the export was requested, when it became ready, and when the file will be removed (7 days after it is ready by default). An expired export has to be requested again. Asking again while one is still preparing returns the one already running.

What deleting removes

When the date passes, the business's books, documents, bank and app connections, and AI history are deleted, and connected apps are disconnected. This cannot be undone. Until then the business stays readable and everyone can keep using it.

Who can do what

If you are not allowed to cancel, the page tells you only an owner or admin can.

Edge cases

• You cannot cancel once the permanent deletion has started; the page shows an error instead.
• If the export fails, the status line shows the reason; request it again.
• The business name check ignores capital letters and extra spaces at the ends.
• Deleting one business never touches your firm account or your other clients.

Developers

Exports and cancelling a scheduled deletion can be done over the API; scheduling a deletion needs a signed-in person's identity check, so do it from this page. See the Businesses API guide.