IT wind-down checklist: what to keep, preserve and assess before systems go dark

Why an IT wind-down needs its own checklist

A wind-down cuts costs first, and IT subscriptions are the easiest costs to cut. The order is the problem: once a SaaS account lapses, a tenant is deleted or servers go to ITAD, the records inside are gone, along with evidence for claims, documents counsel must preserve and any value the archive held. This checklist puts preservation and assessment ahead of cancellation.

It is written for chief restructuring officers, ABC assignees, receivers, estate professionals and the IT providers who support them. Who controls the decisions depends on the process. In chapter 11 the debtor ordinarily remains in possession and control of its assets, while in chapter 7 a trustee sells nonexempt property and distributes the proceeds, as the federal courts' bankruptcy basics explain. An assignment for the benefit of creditors is governed by state law; Florida's Chapter 727, for example, places the proceeding under circuit court supervision. Procedures differ from state to state.

The checklist

Work through the groups in order, and do not start the final group until the first five are complete.

Authority and access

• Confirm who controls the company's assets and IT decisions: the board, a CRO under an engagement letter, a debtor in possession, a trustee, an ABC assignee or a receiver.
• Get written authority for IT spending, cancellations and data decisions from that person or body.
• Collect every admin credential: domain registrar, DNS, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, cloud consoles, finance and payroll systems, and anything the MSP holds.
• Rotate shared admin passwords and remove departing staff, keeping at least two named administrators.
• Keep the IT provider or one internal administrator engaged through the export window, with the cost in the wind-down budget.

Keep systems paid and exportable

• List every subscription with its owner, renewal date, payment method and what the vendor does with data after cancellation.
• Move subscriptions off corporate cards that are about to be cancelled, so access does not lapse by accident.
• Reduce seats rather than close accounts where the vendor allows it, keeping at least one admin license with export rights.
• Renew the domain and keep email routing active until counsel agrees it can stop.
• Preserve departing employees' mailboxes and drives in an archived or retained state instead of deleting the accounts.

Legal holds and retention

• Ask counsel for the list of litigation holds and custodians, and suspend auto-deletion and purge policies that would touch them.
• Map record-keeping duties for tax, payroll, employment and any industry regulator; periods vary by record type and jurisdiction, so take them from counsel.
• Check what the privacy policy promised customers. In bankruptcy, 11 U.S.C. section 363(b)(1) limits the sale or lease of personally identifiable information that a policy in effect at filing said would not be transferred, unless the sale is consistent with the policy or the court approves it after a consumer privacy ombudsman is appointed and a hearing is held.
• Record who approved each preservation decision and where the evidence is stored.

Records inventory, metadata only

• List each system with its date range, the record types it holds, the export method and the person who can run it.
• Flag systems holding records that belong to someone else, such as client files at an agency or an outsourcer.
• Flag systems that mainly hold protected health information or consumer personal data.
• Include archived and retired platforms and backups, since the oldest history often lives there.

Assess value before shutdown

• Ask whether the records support recovery: receivables evidence, claims, or a data licensing transaction.
• Screen licensing fit: a US company that reached 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), with several years of documented operations, rights to license the records and someone with authority to sign.
• Involve the court, trustee, assignee or receiver before any introduction, and follow whatever approval process applies to estate assets.
• If the screen passes, introduce the company to SourceX through a partner referral; the fiduciary deals with SourceX directly and no records move before an executed agreement.

Hardware and final shutdown

• Verify that exports open, are complete and are stored where the fiduciary controls them.
• Release holds only on counsel's written confirmation.
• Send hardware for destruction only after the two steps above, and keep certificates; the ITAD data destruction checklist lists the questions to ask first.
• Cancel remaining subscriptions last, in reverse order of dependency, and keep a final access log.

Who owns each part of the checklist

If the IT provider is an MSP, the guide on additional revenue streams for MSPs explains how they can introduce a client without handling its data.

How to use the results

Red flags that stop a data licensing introduction

• The records mainly belong to the company's clients, and those clients have not consented.
• The company never reached 50+ full-time employees at peak.
• The data is mainly protected health information without authorization or de-identification.
• A court, trustee or assignee controls the assets and has not been consulted.
• The same records were already licensed for AI training.
• Nobody remains who can run an export.

Fees and conflicts for estate professionals

If you act as a CRO, assignee, receiver or estate professional, clear any referral compensation with counsel before you register, and consider whether it must be disclosed to the court, creditors or your client. 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. It becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee, and no reward is guaranteed. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel or professional body before acting.

Next step

Run the first two groups this week, before any card or subscription is cancelled. If the records pass the screen, register as a partner and read the partnership program for wind-down advisors. Use the network opportunity finder to list other clients facing a shutdown, and when you are assessing an acquirer's systems rather than a closing company's, switch to the IT due diligence checklist.