Article

Your Slack and Teams chats show how jobs ran

By TrustPast

Published October 21, 2026 · Updated October 22, 2026

Every trade company has a place where the day actually gets run. For some it’s a Slack workspace, for some a Teams channel, for many a group text with the crews. It’s full of photos, half sentences and questions nobody would put in a job file. This page settles which parts of that chat show how the work was done, what sets the price, what can stop a deal, and which parts are personal and stay behind.

Why buyers want it

The job file says what happened. The chat says how it happened, while it was happening.

Picture an ordinary Tuesday in a dispatch channel. At 7:10 the office posts the board. At 7:40 a tech says the first job’s customer isn’t home. At 8:05 the office moves him to the second job. At 9:30 a photo arrives of a corroded fitting, with one line: is this what I think it is. At 9:34 the senior tech answers. At 11:00 someone asks if anyone has a spare part on the truck. At 2:15 the estimator asks the crew lead whether the second layer of shingles came off clean.

None of that is on an invoice. Most of it isn’t in the job notes either. It is the company thinking out loud, for years, in its own words.

Polyshares pays to license records like these to train AI models. It says, on its data licensing page, that operational data “means the working record of the business,” and the first things it lists are “Slack and Teams.” It goes on: “Drive and SharePoint, email, CRM history, support tickets, design files, call recordings, accounting and ERP exports.” So chat isn’t a side item. It’s named first. Which files hold reasoning in each trade is on what data buyers want from a trade business.

What sits in a trade company’s chat

Here is what a trade company’s chat usually holds, as our own description, whichever app it runs on:

the dispatch channel: the morning board, the reschedules, the no-shows and the emergency calls slotted in;
the crew chats: one per crew or per job, where the lead asks the office for things and the office asks back;
the office-to-field thread: the questions about scope, materials and access that come up once the crew is on site;
the photos from the job: the damage before, the problem found, the work half done, the finished job;
the “how do I fix this” questions, and the senior tech’s answers;
the estimator’s questions to the field, and the field’s answers that changed the price;
the parts and supplier threads: what was out of stock, what was substituted, what came back;
the safety and weather calls: who stopped work, when, and why.

Each message is short. Ten years of them is a running account of how a company met every problem it ever had.

How an estimate became a job, in the thread

An estimate is a number on a page. The chat holds the conversation that produced it.

A worked example, as our own description. The estimator walks a roof and posts six photos. The office asks whether the decking looked soft. The estimator says one corner, maybe. The owner says price the decking as an allowance, not a fixed line. The quote goes out with the allowance. The customer signs. On day one the crew lead posts a photo of the corner: it’s worse than it looked. The allowance covers it.

The quote shows one line. The chat shows why the line was written that way, who decided, and that the call was right. The project history page goes through how a job’s file ties the bid to the finished work. The chat is often the only place the reason for each choice was written down.

How a change order was settled

Change orders are where jobs go sideways. They’re also where a company’s judgment shows most.

Here is a common one, as our own description. A plumbing crew opens a wall for a fixture swap and finds old galvanised pipe behind it. The lead posts a photo and asks the office what to tell the homeowner. The office asks for a rough length. The service manager says quote the section that’s open now and flag the rest. The lead writes back that the homeowner wants a number before the crew leaves. The manager sends a figure. The homeowner agrees to half of it.

That thread is a change order being priced, argued over and settled, in the order it happened. The signed form says the result. The thread says how the company got there. The email archives page covers the same kind of exchange when it happened with the customer by email.

How a repair was diagnosed

The richest threads in a service company are the ones that start with a question.

A junior tech posts a photo of a furnace control board and a fault code. He asks if it’s the board. The senior tech asks what the flame sensor reads. The junior checks and posts the number. The senior says clean the sensor first and try again. Twenty minutes later: it fired. No board ordered, no second visit, no callback.

That’s a diagnosis, written down step by step, by the person who knew how. In many trade companies that knowledge lives in a few senior people and goes when they retire. In the chat, part of it stayed.

Read across years, those threads are how the company learned to fix things. Which fault codes lie. Which parts fail first in which brands. Which shortcut works and which comes back in a week. As we read it, that is the “reasoning that was captured while the work happened” Polyshares says it pays for.

What sets the price

Polyshares prices each company after it has read the record. Its terms say: “We look at the record before we price it. We do not pay for something we have not seen.” What moves the number, in Polyshares’ own words:

The mess is the point. Owners tend to apologise for their chat. It’s full of typos, jokes and photos of lunch. Polyshares says the opposite of what they fear: “The value is not in volume. It is in reasoning that was captured while the work happened.” And: “The messy working record is the point, not a defect in it.” It gives an example that could have come from any estimating office: “A thread where two people disagree about a quote and work it out carries judgment that cannot be manufactured.” It also says: “Nobody can fabricate ten years of a company arguing with itself and getting to an answer.”

Disagreement and a trade. Polyshares’ page on what a record is worth names what moves the number up. One is “Visible disagreement and correction, because a record of people being wrong and then getting it right cannot be manufactured.” Another is “A specialized domain, because material from a trade with few written records is scarce in a way general business correspondence is not.” Our own reading: a trade company’s chat is both.

Years. Polyshares says “The question worth answering is not how many gigabytes exist but how many years of judgment are visible inside them.” Six years of a dispatch channel says more than six months of a busy one.

What caps it. Polyshares also names what caps a price or kills a deal. One is “Personal information woven through the record in a way that cannot be cleanly stripped.” In a CRM the personal fields sit in their own boxes. In a chat they’re mixed into the sentences. That’s why chat is the record to talk through on the call, not the one to assume.

What Polyshares has paid is public. Polyshares says typical deals run from $100,000 to $2,000,000 and above (indicative, not an offer). Its case studies page lists four closed deals: a roofing company at $450,000, a general contractor at $300,000, a solar company at $275,000 and a global marketing agency at $110,000 (indicative, not an offer). Each is described as a “Perpetual exclusive license to the operational record. Anonymized before delivery.” Polyshares says “Company names stay confidential,” and it doesn’t publish what each record held. A past deal doesn’t predict an offer.

Worth two minutes to see your range? The estimate asks five questions.

See your estimate

What blocks a deal, and the fix

Four things stop a chat record. Each one has a fix, and Polyshares publishes how it handles each.

Other firms’ material in your channels

A general contractor’s drawings shared in your channel may be theirs. A shared channel with a supplier or another contractor holds their words, not only yours. Polyshares says material held on behalf of a client “cannot be licensed regardless of value, and only the contracts separate the two.” Its home page says the licence “does not cover what you hold on behalf of your own clients.” A law firm’s note on licensing company data adds that email and chat contain “other companies’ confidential information, often covered by NDAs and commercial agreements.”

The fix: list the shared channels and the client files posted in them, and leave them out of the count. This is our advice. Polyshares says confirming ownership “is the one part that starts with the company, because only you hold your customer contracts.” An NDA you signed with a client is one of those contracts.

Direct messages and what people said about themselves

A work chat is still a place where people talk. The direct messages, the sick days and the customer’s gate code typed in so the crew could find the house all sit in the same app as the diagnosis. Polyshares says: “Names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers, and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record. Roles, timestamps, and the work itself are kept.” It adds a second pass: “If the partner reviewing the sample spots anything that reads as identifying, the record goes back for another pass before pricing continues.”

The fix: don’t scrub ten years of chat yourself. Leave the direct messages and the HR channels out of the scope, which is our advice, and let the PII partner handle the personal data in the work channels. The law firm’s note also says “Companies must comply with the privacy statements in effect when the data was collected.” Find what your staff were told, and give it to counsel. Our page on what happens to your staff’s personal details covers staff names, HR files and telling your people.

The chat app’s export rules

Slack and Teams each set their own rules on what comes out. Slack says that on the Free plan, “Data more than a year old will not be included” in an export. For private channels and direct messages on Free and Pro, Slack says it “will reject applications unless Workspace Owners show in each instance (a) valid legal process, or (b) consent of members, or (c) a requirement or right under applicable laws.” Teams history comes out of Microsoft 365 through an eDiscovery export, which Microsoft says needs a user “assigned eDiscovery permissions” and a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 licence.

The fix: you don’t export anything to apply. Polyshares says: “Intake asks for record counts, not files or exports.” Count first. The steps and the plan rules, quoted from each vendor, are in our guides: how to export Slack data and how to export Microsoft 365 mail, SharePoint and Teams. Use them after an agreement, when the scope is written down.

Missing years

Many companies changed apps. The first years sit in a group text, the next in a Slack workspace someone else paid for, the latest in Teams. Slack also says “The content available for export may be limited depending on your plan and data retention settings.” A workspace set to delete old messages has already lost years.

The fix: count every place the chat lived, and the years each still holds. Don’t change the retention settings to delete more while you decide. This is our advice. A gap in the middle is a gap; it is not a reason to count none.

What owners overlook

Photos sent from the job

A trade company’s chat is half pictures. They often carry more than the words.

The before photo shows what the crew found. The mid-job photo shows what was hidden. The after photo shows what the company called finished. A photo with a question under it, and an answer under that, is a diagnosis with evidence attached.

Polyshares doesn’t say anything specific about photos on the pages we read. As our own advice, a photo can carry things the text doesn’t. A house number on the front door. A licence plate in the driveway. A customer’s face in the background. A family photo on the wall behind the water heater. Raise the photos with Polyshares on the call, and ask how they’re handled, before you count them in.

Your crews are part of this

The people in the chat are your staff. Their words are the record.

Polyshares says, under what it does not do: “No contacting your customers or staff.” It also says “The company is never contacted by a buyer; Polyshares is the sole counterparty.”

As our own advice, tell your senior people before you apply. They wrote the best of it, and they’ll be the first to ask. And ask your counsel what your staff were told about the company’s chat when they joined. We can’t tell you what your handbook says. Only you have it.

Group texts and personal phones

Many trade companies don’t run Slack or Teams. They run a group text, on the crew leads’ own phones.

Polyshares names Slack and Teams. It doesn’t mention group texts on the pages we read. As we read it, a text thread is the same kind of record: the office and the field working a problem out. But it raises a question the app doesn’t. A thread on an employee’s personal phone isn’t stored in a system the company runs.

Polyshares’ legal answer page says that what decides whether a record can be licensed is “ownership, what the company’s customer contracts say, and whether personal information can be removed.” As our own advice, raise the group texts with Polyshares and with your counsel before you count them. Count the Slack or Teams history first. That one runs on a system the company pays for and controls.

The chat sits beside the CRM

The chat explains the decisions; the CRM records who the customer was and what was sold. Read together, they show a job from first call to callback. The CRM records page covers the system that usually sits beside the chat.

What this means for a roofing company

This is our own description of what a roofing company keeps in its chat, not a list from any buyer.

The storm-season dispatch channel, with the inspections slotted in by the hour. The estimator’s photos from the roof, and the office’s questions about layers, decking and pitch. The crew lead’s photo on tear-off day showing what was under the shingles, and the call about the change order that followed. The threads about the insurance adjuster’s visit and what he agreed to. The weather calls: who pulled a crew off a roof and when.

Read by year, that is how a roofer priced, built and handled surprises. The roofing companies page goes through the rest of a roofer’s record.

What this means for an HVAC company

An HVAC company’s chat runs on the dispatch board. In July it moves every few minutes.

The no-cool calls slotted in around the maintenance visits. The techs’ photos of data plates, so the office can check the warranty. The fault codes posted with a question, and the senior tech’s answers. The repair-or-replace threads, where the tech asks the comfort adviser to come out. The parts threads: which capacitor was on which truck. This is our own description; the HVAC companies page has more.

What this means for a plumbing company

A plumbing company’s chat is full of what was found behind walls and under slabs.

The camera stills from a drain line, posted with a question about roots or a collapse. The photos of the old pipe found during a remodel. The call between the lead and the office about what to tell the homeowner. The water heater threads: repair or replace, and which brand is on back order. The emergency calls on a weekend, and who took them. This is our own description; the plumbing companies page has more.

What this means for an auto-repair shop

An auto-repair shop’s chat often runs between the service desk and the bays.

The tech’s photo of a worn brake rotor, sent so the service adviser can show the customer. The question about a code that keeps coming back, and the master tech’s answer. The parts threads: what the supplier had, what was substituted, what came back wrong. The comebacks, and what the second look found. The vehicle’s history is the record. The owner’s name and phone number are not. This is our own description; the auto-repair shops page has more.

How a deal works

These are Polyshares’ published steps, in order. The whole sequence, with what can stop each step, is on how a data deal works.

You see your range on our estimate. Five questions, two minutes. It is our estimate, not an offer.
You apply to Polyshares yourself, through the estimate’s link. Polyshares says: “Intake asks for record counts, not files or exports. Nothing leaves your systems until Polyshares has made an offer and you have accepted it.”
Polyshares reads the record. “Someone on the team reads the anonymized sample before Polyshares prices the record.” It says an offer comes within one to two weeks, and terms are papered right after.
You confirm ownership, and your counsel reviews the licence. Polyshares says the licence covers “Defined systems, a defined term, and exclusive by default unless we agree otherwise.”
You approve and share. The PII partner strips identifying fields as part of preparing the data.
Polyshares pays “Net 30 to 60 once the data is approved, anonymized, and delivered.”

The company pays no fee at any step: “None. No fee, no commission. We pay you.” Polyshares says “A license is not a sale. The company keeps operating exactly as before, with the same data, the same systems, the same customers.” It also says “Two named people are the only ones at Polyshares who see a company’s identity alongside its data. Buyers see de-identified listings only,” and “Listings are published without the company’s name, website, people, or exact locations.” Your channels stay where they are. Your crews keep posting in them tomorrow.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process and give you a range with our estimate. The estimate is ours, not an offer. It names the buyer that fits your headcount; when that is Polyshares, you apply to it yourself, through the estimate’s link. Polyshares pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing, and we never see your chat. Our how it’s safe page explains, in plain words, how the copy is de-identified.

Before you apply

Four things to do first, as our own advice:

Find every place the chat lived. The current Slack or Teams workspace, the one before it, the old group texts. Write down how many years each goes back.
Don’t clean it up. Keep the wrong first guesses, the arguments and the photos. Polyshares says the PII partner strips the personal details, and that handling it is Polyshares’ job, not yours.
Line the chat up with the job files and the email. The thread, the change order and the invoice together are one whole job.
Ask your counsel about your staff, your customers’ terms and anything shared by a client. Only the contracts say what’s yours.

Then answer the five questions. If the range is worth your time, apply.

What is never included

Start with what Polyshares publishes. Its home page says the licence covers “Defined material for a defined term,” and that “It does not cover what you hold on behalf of your own clients.” Its data handling page says names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses “are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record.”

Now our advice, which is ours and not Polyshares’:

Direct messages. One person to another is not how the company ran the job. Leave them out of the count.
HR and personal channels. The shift swaps, the holiday party, a manager’s one-to-one with a report, the warnings and write-ups. None of it is how the work was done.
Shared channels with other firms. A channel you share with a supplier, a general contractor or another trade holds their words and often their confidential material. Leave it out.
The crews’ own phones. Group texts and messages on an employee’s personal phone stay with the employee.
Customer names, emails, phones, addresses, account numbers and gate codes. They were typed in so the crew could find the house. They were never the thing being bought.
Card numbers and bank details. A card number in a chat shouldn’t be there at all. Raise it on the call, and ask that it stay out.
Health information about anyone. A customer who needed a quiet visit, a tech who was off for surgery. It belongs to them.
Staff personnel and payroll files. Pay questions, timesheet disputes and talk about raises, wherever they were posted.
Photos that identify a home, a car or a person. Ask how they’re handled before you count them in.
Anything a client owns. It stays out; the blocker above, other firms’ material in your channels, says why and what to do.

What is licensed is set out in Polyshares’ offer and the terms you agree, after Polyshares has read an anonymized sample. We can only tell you what is usually in and usually out.

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Does the buyer want to read our crews’ private messages?

No. The jokes, the sick days and the family news are not how the work was done. Polyshares says names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record. As we read it, what is wanted is the dispatch call, the diagnosis and the fix, written down while the job was open.

Does Polyshares count Slack and Teams as part of the record?

Yes. Polyshares lists Slack and Teams first in what it calls operational data, alongside Drive and SharePoint, email, CRM history, support tickets, design files, call recordings, and accounting and ERP exports. What is licensed is set out in Polyshares’ offer, after it has read an anonymized sample.

What about the group texts on the crews’ own phones?

Polyshares names Slack and Teams, not group texts. As our own advice, a thread that lives on an employee’s personal phone raises a question of who holds it. Raise it with Polyshares and with your counsel before you count it in.

Do we have to export the chat to apply?

No. Polyshares says intake asks for record counts, not files or exports, and that nothing leaves your systems until Polyshares has made an offer and you have accepted it. Your channels stay where they are.

Can we leave channels out?

Yes. Polyshares says the licence covers “Defined systems, a defined term,” and that “Nothing outside that scope is covered.” As our own advice, leave out the HR, social and direct-message channels and say so on the call. The channels in scope are written down before anything moves.

Is it legal to license our staff’s messages?

Polyshares says three things decide whether a record can be licensed: ownership, what the company’s customer contracts say, and whether personal information can be removed. It says its page “is not legal advice,” and that a company should have its own counsel review any license before signing. Ask counsel what your staff were told about the company’s chat when they joined.

What does it cost us?

Nothing. Polyshares says there is no fee and no commission. Polyshares pays TrustPast a referral fee; you pay us nothing.