ABC assignee checklist: preserving company records from day one to day 30

Why an assignee needs a records checklist on day one

The first acts of an assignment for the benefit of creditors, such as cancelling subscriptions, releasing staff and closing the email tenant, are the acts most likely to destroy the company's records. Some of those records can be worth more than the office furniture: years of email, chat, CRM, support and engineering history can be licensed to AI developers, but only if they still exist and someone can export them.

In an ABC, the debtor (the assignor) transfers its assets to an assignee who holds them in trust, liquidates them and distributes the proceeds to creditors, as a commercial law textbook's summary of bankruptcy alternatives explains. State law governs the process and it differs from state to state. Florida, for example, runs ABCs under chapter 727 of its statutes, with circuit court supervision and a statutory order of priority for claims. Check the current law and any court involvement in the state where the assignment was made.

The day-one to day-30 checklist

Work top to bottom. Each item takes little time; skipping one can be permanent.

Day 1: take control of access

• Obtain the top-level admin accounts for the email and productivity tenant, and move recovery emails and phone numbers to the assignee's team.
• Take over the single sign-on or identity provider admin, the shared password vault and any emergency access accounts.
• Secure the domain registrar and DNS logins; losing the domain can cut off access to the entire mail archive.
• Record the owner and billing contact for every cloud account and the code hosting organization.
• Suspend former users instead of deleting them; in many tools, deleting a user can also remove that person's mailbox or files, so check each vendor's documentation first.

Days 2-7: stop the silent deletions

• Pull at least 12 months of accounts payable and card statements and list every recurring software charge, including tools nobody mentioned.
• For each subscription, note the renewal date, cancellation notice period and what the vendor does with data after cancellation or non-payment.
• Schedule exports before any cancellation, so a declined card cannot lock an account first.
• Review auto-delete and retention settings in email, Slack or Teams and shared drives, and pause deletions you have authority to pause.
• Keep paying for storage that holds backups and archived systems until you decide what to keep.
• Ask counsel whether a litigation hold or regulatory retention duty applies.

Weeks 2-3: capture what departing staff know

• Before the IT lead, controller, head of support and engineering lead leave, record which systems each one owned and where old exports were stored.
• Ask which systems were retired in earlier years and whether their data was migrated, archived or lost.
• Identify any client data mixed into company systems, such as client files held by an agency or outsourcer.
• Keep one person able to run exports, for example on a short consulting contract.
• Collect company laptops intact; do not let devices be wiped before local files are reviewed.

Weeks 3-4: rights, policies and a fit screen

• File every version of the privacy policy and terms of service the company published, with effective dates.
• Pull customer agreements and data processing addenda, noting confidentiality, data-use and deletion-on-termination clauses.
• Keep the employee handbook, acceptable use policy and any monitoring notices covering email and chat.
• Record how callers were told about recorded calls; California, for example, prohibits recording a confidential communication without the consent of all parties (California Penal Code section 632).
• Leave the privacy policy as it is. FTC staff warned in February 2024 that adopting more permissive data practices, such as using consumer data for AI training, through a surreptitious, retroactive change to terms or a privacy policy may be unfair or deceptive (FTC Technology Blog).
• Run the company fit checker as a preliminary, non-binding screen, and compare the result with who qualifies.

For the hardware side of the same job, use the companion list before you wipe the servers.

How to read the results at day 30

Red flags that should pause a licensing conversation

• Former managers of the assignor offer to sell or share data on the side, even though title passed to the assignee.
• The same data was already licensed for AI training.
• Records were generated with AI in order to sell them.
• Archives were deleted before the assignment and no backup exists.
• The records belong to a client, parent company or affiliate that has not agreed.

How an introduction works from inside an ABC

1. The assignee, its counsel or an adviser to the assignor registers as a partner and submits the company, or the assignee applies directly through a partner's referral link.
2. SourceX checks peak headcount, operating history, breadth of systems and rights, and confirms the assignee can act for the company.
3. The assignee's team lists each system, the years it covers and what can be exported, without sending any records.
4. SourceX and the assignee agree one all-in price and the license terms; nothing is binding until the assignee signs.
5. AI labs and data buyers review; once the company is deal-ready, buyers typically respond within about two weeks.
6. Data is prepared under redaction rules agreed before work begins and delivered, and the estate receives a one-time payment, typically within about 60 days of invoicing once the buyer selects the data.
7. Any partner reward is paid after SourceX receives its fee.

Build that timing into the distribution schedule. The guide to how ABC assignees recover value from data and other intangibles covers the wider asset pool.

Partner rewards and the assignee's duties

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. Rewards become payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. The reward comes out of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the estate receives.

An assignee holds assets in trust for creditors, so treat any personal benefit linked to estate assets with care: check the assignment agreement, state law and, where a court supervises, its expectations before registering. The referral partnership for ABC assignees explains the program from the assignee's side.

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

Next step

Take this checklist to the first site visit and assign an owner to each line. If the day-30 screen looks promising, register as a partner to make the introduction, or apply for the company at sourcex.si/apply. If an interim finance lead is working alongside you, share the interim CFO turnaround checklist so both lists stay aligned.