# Referral when the archive is inaccessible | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/how-to-prepare-a-referral-when-the-archive-is-inaccessible
Last updated: 2026-11-04

An archive nobody can open can still be described, and a referral can proceed when the CEO approves a summary that says so plainly. First name the lock: a departed administrator, a lapsed vendor account, a third party holding the data, an unreadable format or a legal hold. Then find the access owner, the one person or organization able to open it, and write the summary from what people remember, with every unseen line marked. The partner never attempts the recovery or asks for credentials.

A founder says "we have twenty years of records," and two questions later the oldest twelve turn out to sit on a server nobody can log into. The temptation is to drop the company or to help break in. Neither is necessary.

## A locked archive is a status, not a verdict

SourceX screens for documented operating history the company created itself, rights to license it, an authorized sponsor and relevance to current programs. Access is a separate state that can change. A locked archive differs from a deleted one: SourceX's screening guide lists archives deleted during a shutdown as a usual reason a wound-down company fails, and [what remains after archives are deleted](/questions/company-archives-deleted-what-can-be-recovered) explains why a company whose core history is gone is usually not a fit. A locked archive still exists. The question is who can open it, how and by when.

Three facts decide how the referral proceeds:

- **How much of the case is locked.** If current systems hold most of the history, the locked part is an addition. If the locked archive is the whole case, wait.
- **Whether a deadline runs.** Some locks get worse with time because a vendor deletes data on a documented schedule.
- **Whether anyone besides the company controls the decision.** A legal hold, a receiver or a former owner changes who answers.

## What the company can say without opening anything

Collect the minimum from conversations, never from the archive itself:

- full-time headcount at peak and its year, contractors excluded;
- the kinds of work the locked records describe, in plain words;
- the years people believe the archive covers, and who believes it;
- the system or vendor name and the medium, such as a cloud account, an on-premises server or backup tapes;
- the last time anyone opened it successfully, and who did;
- who administered it before access was lost.

Board materials stay out. If the fund learned about the archive through information rights, that knowledge is a reason to ask the CEO a question, not a line for the summary. Wider preparation of company data, once a company decides to go ahead, is covered on SourceX's main site in [how to prepare company data for AI](https://sourcex.si/insights/how-to-prepare-company-data-for-ai).

## Access-owner recovery questions

Each lock has a different access owner: the person or organization that can actually restore access. The partner's job is to help the company name that owner and ask the right questions, then step back.

| Lock | Typical access owner | Recovery questions for the company | What the summary can say meanwhile |
|---|---|---|---|
| The only administrator left | The company, through the vendor's ownership verification, and the former administrator if reachable | Who is listed as account owner or billing contact? Does the company still control the domain and the billing account? Is the former administrator reachable and willing to help? | The system, the years as people recall them, and the date access was lost |
| The vendor account lapsed or was closed | The vendor, inside its documented window, acting for the company's billing or root administrator | Which plan or account type, and when did it lapse? Which stage is it in today? Who at the company can reactivate it, and at what cost? | The vendor's stage and the date that stage ends |
| A third party holds it | A former managed-service provider, an outsourcer, a former parent or the seller after a deal | Which agreement covers returning the data? Who signs for the company in that relationship? Has a written request gone out? | Who holds it and under which agreement, as the company describes it |
| Readable only with retired technology | The company's IT lead, or a recovery specialist the company engages | What hardware or software license would reading it need? When was it last read successfully? Is there a second copy? | The format and medium, and the date of the last successful read |
| A legal hold or formal process | The company's counsel, or the controller of an estate in receivership or bankruptcy | Is there a litigation hold, a regulator's request or a formal process? Who controls the assets now? What may be said about it? | Only that a hold exists, and only if counsel agrees it can be mentioned |

Ask the five questions that sit under every row, in this order: who is the access owner today; what proves the company's control; what clock is running; what recovery would cost and who pays; and what is at risk if nothing happens. For the third-party row, [when a former provider will not hand back admin credentials](/questions/msp-wont-give-admin-credentials) covers the incoming provider's route, and [recovering admin access after an acquisition](/guides/recover-admin-access-after-acquisition) covers the post-deal version. When a formal process is involved, SourceX's screening guide notes the CEO alone may not be enough, and [receiver, assignee and trustee authority](/compare/receiver-vs-assignee-vs-trustee-authority) compares who controls what.

## Two documented clocks, and why the date matters

Some locks run on a published schedule. That is real urgency, unlike a quarter-end or a sales push.

- **Microsoft 365 for business.** Microsoft's documentation says a subscription that ends moves from Expired, about 30 days with normal access, to Disabled, about 90 days in which users lose access but admins can still access and back up data, and then to Deleted, when customer data is deleted. Global or billing admins can reactivate while it is Disabled. Explicitly deleting a subscription skips both stages and immediately deletes SharePoint Online and OneDrive content.
- **A closed AWS account.** AWS documents a 90-day post-closure period in which access to content is limited to reopening the account, after which it permanently closes the account and deletes the remaining content. Reopening requires signing in as the root user within those 90 days.

In both cases the access owner is a specific role, a global or billing admin in one and the root user in the other, so the recovery question becomes concrete: who holds that role today? Plans and contracts differ, so the company checks its own. [Canceled SaaS seats and archive retention](/guides/saas-archive-retention-referral-opportunity) maps more vendor windows. When a deadline is close, the company's first job is preservation, whatever it decides about licensing.

## Labels for records nobody has seen

Four labels keep a summary honest while access is open.

1. **Recalled**: what someone remembers, with the person and date. "Order history from about 2004, according to the controller who used it."
2. **Estimated**: a range, and who estimated it. Never round toward a threshold.
3. **Unseen until access**: anything that cannot be checked until the archive opens, such as whether records link to later systems.
4. **Constrained**: a hold, a third party's agreement or personal data that limits what can be said or done, with who decides.

## The handoff: an access line and a first-call agenda

Illustrative. The distributor below is invented, and nothing here suggests how a review of it would end.

A building-materials distributor with about 185 full-time staff today has current systems from 2023 that work normally. Its order and returns history from about 2004 to 2016 sits on an on-premises ERP server powered down in 2021, when its only administrator retired. Its customer-service tickets from 2016 to 2023 were in a cloud help desk account canceled in 2024 when the company switched tools, and nobody has checked that vendor's retention window.

| Summary line | Label | Access owner and next action |
|---|---|---|
| About 190 full-time employees at peak, 2025; contractors excluded | Reported by the CFO from payroll | Not applicable |
| Orders and returns, about 2004 to 2016, on a retired on-premises ERP | Recalled by the controller; unseen until access | IT lead: find the server, the database license and the retired administrator |
| Service tickets, 2016 to 2023, in a canceled help desk account | Unseen until access; deletion date unknown | Billing admin: ask the vendor this week which stage the account is in |
| Orders, tickets and finance, 2023 to today, in current systems | Reported by the IT lead | Not applicable |
| CEO knows about the idea and wants a first call | Reported, 2026-10-24 | Not applicable |

The CEO approves the lines in writing before anything is sent. Ask whether anyone at the company has applied, corresponded or held an account with SourceX before, because any earlier lead, account or email correspondence makes it a duplicate that is not credited. Whoever submits needs a partner account and a signed SourceX Channel Partner Agreement. Credit goes to the earliest valid introduction made inside the 90-day attribution window, and it is assigned when the company files a verified application.

A first call between the CEO, the IT lead and SourceX can follow five items: confirm what is accessible today; walk through each locked archive and its access owner; agree which deadline, if any, comes first; let the company decide whether to spend anything on recovery before SourceX's review says what matters; and set a date to update the summary. Fit is judged on the whole company, not on the archive: a peak of 50 or more full-time employees, an operating history it can document, the rights to license its records and a CEO who authorizes the discussion. 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 70% of the data is in English.

## Where the access route fails

- **Recovery can fail.** A dead disk, a lost license key or an expired window can end the effort. Write the summary so it still stands without the locked archive, or do not send it.
- **Recovery costs money.** Nobody should spend on recovery because a licensing deal seems likely. SourceX has published no acceptance rates, and it checks relevance to its current data needs in review.
- **Some records should stay closed.** Records deleted or held for privacy or legal reasons are not a recovery project, and counsel decides what a hold allows.
- **Rights do not come back with access.** Opening an archive does not settle whether customer contracts allow reuse; SourceX's rights review and counsel do.
- **Programs change.** Missing today's program does not rule a company out of a later one, so date the summary and update it after recovery.

**Method note.** The five locks and their access owners are drawn from the vendor documentation cited here and SourceX's screening guidance, all checked 2026-10-27, and on the SourceX referral pages linked above. It is a method for asking questions, not legal or technical advice, and it does not measure recovery success, cost or acceptance; no such figures have been published. To test it, record for each referred company which lock applied, who the access owner turned out to be and how long recovery took. Related pages: [who can open the door to a company's operating history](/guides/who-can-open-the-door-to-a-company-s-operating-history) and the [guides library](/guides).

## Next step

> **Refer a company. No cap on rewards.** Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

With a CEO-approved summary that marks every locked archive and names who can open it, [create your partner account](/register), compare what is accessible today with [the fit criteria](/who-qualifies) and go over [the terms](/terms) before the company applies.

Helping a company describe a locked archive is referral work; if you are also assessing SourceX as a business to invest in, request materials through the [SourceX investor overview](https://sourcex.si/investors) and keep that review separate.

This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://refer.sourcex.si/who-qualifies
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/subscriptions/what-if-my-subscription-expires?view=o365-worldwide
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/manage-acct-closing.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/manage-acct-reopening.html
- https://sourcex.si/investors