This retention timeline is part of the usage billing corrections guide. It is for billing implementation partners scoping a move to credits, seats-plus-usage or a new billing engine, who want to help the client see what the cutover leaves behind. It does not recommend keeping anything the company is not authorized to keep.
Why migrations strand correction history
A pricing-model migration is scoped around what must work on launch day: active customers, current plans, open invoices, balances and payment methods. The history of how past bills were fixed is not on that list. Old price books are retired from the new configuration. Closed amendments reference plan names that no longer exist. A support desk may be consolidated into another tool. The finance inbox where credits were approved belongs to people who may have left. Seat-based pricing changes in software companies explains why these migrations are common; this page is about what they leave behind.
The retention timeline, record by record
The clocks below are documented examples from specific vendors and the IRS. They are not universal. Each company's own settings, contracts and retention schedule decide its real timeline.
| Record | Example system | Example retention clock | What starts the clock | Who approves keeping it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event and webhook logs | Stripe | Full detail for 30 days, summary after | Each event | Engineering lead, with finance |
| Raw meter events | Stripe | Cannot be re-sent once older than 35 days | Usage timestamp | Product or engineering owner |
| Metered usage after a backdated change | Chargebee | Deleted when a change is backdated | Backdating the subscription | Billing operations, with finance |
| Approval emails in departed staff mailboxes | Microsoft 365 | 30 days, unless a hold or retention setting applies | Account removal | IT, with legal |
| Support cases | Zendesk | Deletion begins 90 days after cancellation, then finishes within 40 days | Account canceled | Support lead, with finance |
| CRM field history on amendments | Salesforce | Up to 18 months (24 via API) without Field Audit Trail | Each field change | Revenue operations |
| Retired plans and price books | Billing engine | Removed when not carried into the new configuration | Cutover | Billing operations |
| Invoices and credit notes | Billing engine, ledger | Commonly three years or more for tax; seven years for some items | Filing or closing the period | Controller or CFO |
Stripe
Chargebee
Microsoft 365
Zendesk
SalesforceThe IRS generally suggests keeping tax records for three years, and seven years for a bad debt deduction, which is one reason invoices and credit notes tend to survive. The records that explain them sit higher up the table, on much shorter clocks.
What disappears first, in order
- Logs and raw usage, within weeks. Stripe shows full event detail for 30 days, and meter events older than 35 days cannot be re-recorded. If usage was wrong, the original events may already be summarized or gone; the credit becomes the main surviving evidence.
- Usage overwritten by a backdated change. On some billing engines, fixing a plan change by backdating it removes usage recorded after the backdated date. Chargebee documents this for metered usage. Ask whether corrections were ever made this way.
- Approvals in personal mailboxes, within a month of someone leaving. In Microsoft 365, a removed account's mailbox is kept for 30 days unless a hold or retention setting made it inactive first.
- Support cases after a desk is retired. If the old desk account is canceled during consolidation, Zendesk's deletion process generally starts 90 days later and cannot be reversed once it begins.
- Amendment history after 18 months. Without an add-on, Salesforce keeps field history for up to 18 months, so the date an allowance or price field changed may already be lost for older contracts.
- Retired price books at cutover. Unless someone archives them with effective dates, the price that applied to an old invoice can only be inferred.
Four facts to collect before the cutover
Ask the finance operations head and the project lead for:
- Record classes: which of the rows above exist, and in which systems.
- Time coverage: first and last year for each, and any gaps.
- System owners: who owns each system, by name and title.
- The real access deadline: the documented date the old billing configuration, legacy instance or desk account will be switched off or canceled.
That is the whole inventory. No exports, no samples, no customer names. The system map adds the join test, and the referral brief template puts the deadline in front of the executive. For finance history in a different system change, FP&A software implementation and historical data covers the same question.
Who decides what is kept
Retention is a decision for people with authority, not for the implementation partner or SourceX. The controller or CFO owns financial records; general counsel and, where there is one, a data protection lead decide whether keeping personal data longer is permitted; system owners carry out the decision. A partner's role is to make sure the decision is made knowingly, before the switch-off date, rather than by default. Partners should never suggest retaining records beyond what the company is authorized to keep, or present a licensing conversation as a reason to change retention.
Qualification and what stays unknown
The company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English. Partners sign the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting introductions; the first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited when the company submits a verified application.
Unknown until SourceX reviews it: buyer interest, which years survive in joinable form, what customer contracts allow, de-identification needs and any offer. A revenue leakage audit is a different reason to look at the same records, focused on recovering revenue rather than preserving evidence.
Next step
Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
If the migration has a documented switch-off date and the correction history still joins, register as a partner, check the company against who qualifies and read the program terms before the cutover plan is final.