Ending a subscription, removing one person’s access, and deleting an organization’s information are different actions. This page explains what remains available after each action, how long information is kept, and how to ask for help with permanent deletion.

Routine record actions such as deactivating an employee, making a job classification unavailable, or approving an Eliminate action for a position preserve business history. They do not permanently delete the organization or its information.

Before you begin

To do this You need
Read this public retention guide No organization membership required
Request permanent organization deletion or preservation assistance An authorized organization contact; organization administrators cannot permanently delete an organization themselves
Review activity history retention The related record’s viewing permission; downloads also require the matching export permissions
Access setup See Roles and permissions.

When a subscription ends

Canceling a paid subscription stops its next renewal and takes effect at the end of the current paid billing period. It does not itself request data deletion. When paid access actually ends or a subscription expires, your organization enters a 90-day grace period. During this period:

  • Organization information such as positions, employees, departments, and approval history is preserved.
  • Access to FTE Tree is restricted until the subscription is renewed.
  • You can resubscribe at any time during the grace period to restore full access with all data intact.

If no action is taken within the 90-day grace period, your organization becomes eligible for permanent deletion. Eligibility does not mean deletion has started. During the final 14 days before eligibility, FTE Tree sends a retention warning to the organization’s verified legal and operations contacts. Contact Support if you need help restoring access, obtaining records, or discussing preservation. FTE Tree verifies the requester’s authority and completes the required review before deletion begins.

Permanent organization deletion

After the grace period and authority checks, FTE Tree permanently removes the organization’s information and associated billing records. This includes positions, employees, departments, job classifications, approval requests, reports, messages, uploaded files, organization activity history, and stored human resources system and company sign-in credentials.

After deletion, FTE Tree keeps only limited confirmation that the request was authorized and completed. This confirmation is not a usable copy of the organization’s workforce information.

When a deletion request is recorded, FTE Tree notifies the organization’s verified legal and operations contacts and, when recorded as a verified contact, the person who requested deletion. The notice explains the earliest date deletion could begin and how to contact Support about withdrawing the request or preserving information. FTE Tree must still confirm that the right people have approved the deletion. The notice does not confirm a deletion date.

Permanent deletion cannot be undone once it begins.

Backups

Deleted information may remain temporarily in protected disaster-recovery backups until those backups expire under the applicable retention schedule. Backups cannot be used to restore ordinary access to a deleted organization.

Activity and security record retention

Different types of activity and security information have different retention periods:

  • Activity history records, such as position changes, approval actions, user updates, and other business-history entries, are retained for the lifetime of your organization’s account. These records appear in the Activity history window and are available for reporting when your permissions allow it.

  • Security and account activity records such as sign-ins and access-related events are retained for 730 days.

  • Notification delivery records such as email delivery outcomes are retained for 90 days.

Organization activity records are removed with the organization when permanent deletion completes. Account and security records that are separate from the organization continue under their stated retention periods.

Report data retention

Generated report results and attached files are kept for your organization’s report-retention period. The standard period is 90 days, and organization administrators cannot change it in organization settings. When a report expires, its preview and download are no longer available, and you can run the report again to create a current result. The generated result files are removed, while report history continues to show the request and expiration.

Contact Support if a contractual, regulatory, or legal requirement may require a different retention period.

Reports do not expire while they are pending or running. An expired report remains unavailable after its generated result files have been removed.

Organization summaries remain with your organization’s data until someone with access changes them or the account is deleted.

Preservation requests

If your legal counsel, a regulator, a court, or an incident investigator instructs you to preserve information, contact FTE Tree before requesting deletion or before an existing deletion begins. FTE Tree reviews each preservation request to confirm who approved it and which information must be kept. There is no organization setting for a legal preservation request.

Requesting deletion

To request permanent deletion, contact us. Include the organization name and enough information for FTE Tree to verify your authority. Do not include workforce data, passwords, payment details, or private files. You may submit the request during the grace period, but deletion cannot complete before the applicable retention and final cooling periods end.

Summary

Stage Timeframe What happens
Subscription active Ongoing Full access, all data preserved
Grace period 90 days after subscription ends Data preserved, access restricted, resubscription restores access
Deletion eligible After the grace period FTE Tree verifies authority and completes the required review
Permanent deletion After retention and authority checks Organization information and associated billing records are permanently removed
Backup expiration According to the applicable retention schedule Deleted data ages out of encrypted disaster-recovery copies

Optional practice: learn which actions keep history

For exercises that change records, use a separate practice organization and complete the preparation below.

Practice steps and checks

Compare these four examples:

  1. Make an old job classification unavailable: earlier records keep their meaning.
  2. Eliminate a practice position through its request: its history remains.
  3. Open an expired report: the generated preview and download are no longer available.
  4. Read the permanent organization-deletion process: the organization’s information is removed after the required review.

These actions have different effects. Ending a subscription is also separate from asking for permanent deletion.

Check the actual subscription dates before asking about restoring access. Running a report again uses the information available for that new run; it does not restore the expired file. Contact support with the organization and dates if you need preservation or deletion assistance.