Article

Your company inbox shows how the work was done

By TrustPast

Published October 21, 2026 · Updated October 22, 2026

Every trade company has an office inbox that nobody has cleaned out in ten years. It holds the estimate that went out on a Monday, the chase on Thursday, and the yes three weeks later. Owners assume it’s the most private thing they have, and parts of it are. This page settles which parts of an email archive show how the work was done, what sets the price, what can stop a deal, and which parts stay behind.

Why buyers want it

The estimate says what you quoted. The invoice says what you were paid. The email says what happened in between.

A homeowner writes back asking why the second price is higher than the first. The estimator replies that the site visit found rotten decking. The homeowner asks whether the warranty covers it. The office says no, and explains why. The homeowner agrees to a smaller scope. Six emails, two weeks, one settled job.

None of that is in the estimate software. It’s in the inbox, in the words of the people who did it.

Polyshares pays to license records like these to train AI models. It lists email in what it calls operational data. On its data licensing page the list reads: “Slack and Teams, Drive and SharePoint, email, CRM history, support tickets, design files, call recordings, accounting and ERP exports.” On the same page it says what it is paying for: “The value is not in volume. It is in reasoning that was captured while the work happened.”

As we read it, an email thread is that reasoning, written down at the time, by the people deciding. The what data buyers want page sets out which files hold reasoning in each trade, and which hold only names and payments.

What sits in a trade company’s email

Here is what a trade company’s mail usually holds, as our own description. Most offices have one shared inbox and a few personal ones, and the work runs through all of them.

estimates sent as attachments, with the cover note that explains the options;
the chase emails: the follow-up a week later, the second one, the last one;
the replies: the questions, the pushback, the yes and the no;
supplier threads: price quotes, lead times, substitutions, back-orders, returns;
warranty claims with manufacturers: the failed part, the photos, the claim number, the answer;
change-order threads with general contractors and homeowners: what changed, who asked, who pays;
inspection and permit scheduling: the request, the date, the reschedule, the result;
subcontractor coordination: who is on site when, and what they need first;
complaint threads, and how each one was closed.

Each email is short. Ten years of them is a running account of how the company sold, bought, built, fixed and argued.

How an estimate became a job

The estimates and quotes page explains why the versions of a quote matter more than the final one. The email is where the versions came from.

Here is a worked example, as our own description. A roofer sends a proposal with three options. The homeowner replies with two questions about the middle one. The estimator answers and attaches version two, with a different underlayment. The homeowner forwards the insurer’s letter. Version three matches the insurer’s number with a smaller scope. The homeowner signs.

The estimate software holds three PDFs. The inbox holds why each one changed. Polyshares says, on its data licensing page, that “A thread where two people disagree about a quote and work it out carries judgment that cannot be manufactured.” As we read it, that sentence fits an estimator’s sent folder. In a trade company the quote revisions and the internal threads often sit in the same email chain. That’s the back-and-forth the data licensing page describes.

How a change order was settled

Change orders are where trade work gets argued. The job starts, something is found, and the price has to move. The paper change order records the result. The email records the argument.

An HVAC company pulls an old unit on a commercial fit-out and finds the ductwork too small for the new one. The foreman emails the office with photos and measurements. The office emails the general contractor with a price. The general contractor pushes back and asks for a cheaper option. The office offers to resize the main run only. The general contractor’s client approves that. The signed change order comes a week later.

Six people, ten emails, one decision with a cost on each side.

Supplier threads and warranty claims

The supplier inbox is the least glamorous part of the archive. It is also the part most owners forget they have.

A supplier thread shows how a company bought. The price asked for, the price quoted, the lead time, the substitute offered when the first choice was out. The back-order that pushed a job a week. The return of the wrong part, and the credit that took a month.

A warranty thread shows how a repair was diagnosed. A compressor fails in year four. The tech emails the photos and the readings. The manufacturer asks for the serial number and the install date. The office sends them. The manufacturer asks whether the unit was maintained. The office sends the service history. The claim is approved, or denied with a reason.

That thread is a diagnosis, written down step by step, checked by a second party. As we read it, it’s the kind of record Polyshares means when it says, on its data licensing page, that “The messy working record is the point, not a defect in it.”

Inspection scheduling and the calendar of a job

Inspection and permit emails look like admin. Read in order, they are the timeline of a job.

The rough-in inspection requested. The date offered. The reschedule because the crew wasn’t ready. The failed item and the reinspection. The final. Across hundreds of jobs, that is how long each stage really took, and where the work stalled. The inspector’s name and the address come off; Polyshares says “Roles, timestamps, and the work itself are kept.” As we read it, the timestamps are the point of an inspection thread.

Email and chat: two halves of one conversation

Many trade companies moved some of their talk to chat over the last few years. The crew messages the office from the roof. The office answers in a channel. The customer still gets an email.

So the conversation about one job is often split. The inside half sits in chat, and the outside half sits in email. The chat archives page goes through what sits in Slack and Teams. Polyshares lists both in its operational data. The project history page goes through how a whole job reads end to end. Email is one of the main threads that ties it together.

What sets the price

Polyshares prices each company after it has read the record. Its data licensing page says: “We look at the record before we price it. We do not pay for something we have not seen.” Its data handling page adds: “Someone on the team reads the anonymized sample before Polyshares prices the record.” Four things move the number, in Polyshares’ own words.

Visible argument. Polyshares says, on its answer page about what company data is worth, that “Visible disagreement and correction” moves the number up, “because a record of people being wrong and then getting it right cannot be manufactured.” As we read it, a change-order thread is that kind of record, from the first photo to the signature.

Trade material. The same page says “A specialized domain” moves the number up, “because material from a trade with few written records is scarce in a way general business correspondence is not.” Our own reading: the warranty and supplier threads are trade material. The newsletters and the office-supply receipts are not.

Years. Polyshares says: “Depth of operating history and how much visible reasoning the record contains move the number far more than raw volume does.” Its home page says “the length and texture of the record matter more than headcount or revenue.”

What caps it. The worth page names one thing that caps the price or kills a deal: “Personal information woven through the record in a way that cannot be cleanly stripped.” Email is harder to strip than a form, so this is the question to raise first about an inbox.

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 does not publish what each record held. A past deal does not predict an offer. Our estimate is a range from your answers, not 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 an email archive. Each one has a fix, and Polyshares publishes how it handles each.

Other people’s material in the inbox

An inbox holds mail you didn’t write and may not own. Drawings or specifications a developer sent under contract. A supplier’s price list sent under a confidentiality agreement. A law firm’s note on licensing company data says email and chat contain “other companies’ confidential information, often covered by NDAs and commercial agreements.” Polyshares says material held on behalf of a client “cannot be licensed regardless of value, and only the contracts separate the two.” It calls this “the single most common reason a promising record turns out to be unsaleable.”

The fix: read the contracts first, and list the threads that carry other firms’ material under an NDA. Polyshares says confirming ownership “is the one part that starts with the company, because only you hold your customer contracts.” It adds that customer agreements often restrict use and disclosure, including “whether anything can be used in aggregated or de-identified form,” and that “Many agreements expressly allow the last of these, which is the door most licensing deals go through.” A company “should have its own counsel review any license before signing.”

Names in every header and signature

A name sits in a database field on a customer card. In an email it can be anywhere: the greeting, the signature, a forwarded thread, a scanned attachment. Owners assume that makes the inbox unusable.

The fix: don’t scrub the inbox yourself. 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.” If the partner reviewing the sample “spots anything that reads as identifying, the record goes back for another pass before pricing continues.” Polyshares’ legal answer page says why it matters: “No buyer with regulatory exposure will accept a record carrying personal information, so removing it is what makes the record usable in the first place.” The same law firm’s note adds that “Companies must comply with the privacy statements in effect when the data was collected.” Ask your counsel what yours said.

The mail system’s export limits

Your mail sits with a provider, and each one sets its own export rules. Microsoft says of Outlook’s export: “Only information for one account can be exported at a time.” It adds that with Cached Exchange Mode, Outlook “will only export the items in your current cache,” which by default holds “items from the past 12 months.” Its company route, eDiscovery, needs a user with “a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 license.” Google says its whole-organization export needs “a Google Workspace or Cloud Identity super administrator account that is at least 30 days old,” and that Gmail, Drive and Chat need “an active Google Workspace subscription.” An owner who tries to pull ten years out in an afternoon finds these limits the hard way.

The fix: you don’t export anything to apply. Polyshares says: “Intake asks for record counts, not files or exports.” Count first. The steps for each system, with the vendor’s limits quoted, are in our guides: how to export Microsoft 365 mail and how to export Google Workspace mail, Drive and Chat. Use them after an agreement, when the scope is written down. Both produce mailbox files; PST and mbox are the two formats.

Missing years

A company that changed mail provider one or two systems ago often left the old years behind. The mailboxes of people who left may have been deleted with their licence. An owner who counts only the current inbox undercounts the record.

The fix: count every place the mail lived (below, under what owners overlook). Polyshares says “The question worth answering is not how many gigabytes exist but how many years of judgment are visible inside them.” A gap of two years in the middle is a gap; it is not a reason to count none.

What owners overlook

Which mailboxes hold the record

Before you look at a range, know where the mail lives. Here is the count we ask owners to make, as our own advice.

The shared office inbox, which usually holds the estimates, the scheduling and the customer threads. The estimators’ own mailboxes, which hold the quote back-and-forth. The owner’s inbox, which may hold the hardest change-order arguments and also the most personal mail. The old email provider, if the company moved one or two systems ago. The archived mailboxes of people who left.

Count the years, not the messages. A company that has quoted by email since 2012 has the years, whatever the number of messages. Note the gaps too. As our own advice, count chat alongside mail, and note which years moved from one to the other.

What this means for a roofing company

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

The proposals sent after each inspection, and the replies. The insurance threads: the adjuster’s scope, the supplement request, the photos, the approved number. The supplier emails on shingle colours, lead times and the delivery that came on the wrong day. The manufacturer warranty registrations and the claims under them. The storm-season chase emails, when the office sent the same follow-up to a hundred homes.

Read by season, that is how a roofer sold, bought and settled claims. The roofing companies page goes through the rest of a roofer’s record.

What this means for an HVAC company

An HVAC company’s email runs on equipment. The quotes for replacements, with the efficiency options laid out. The distributor threads on stock, price changes and the unit that was back-ordered in July. The manufacturer warranty claims, with readings, serial numbers and the service history attached.

The commercial side adds more. The property manager who emails a fault, the tech’s report sent back, the approval for the repair, the follow-up when the same unit fails again. This is our own description; the HVAC companies page has more.

What this means for a plumbing company

A plumbing company’s email is thick with change orders and inspections. The general contractor’s request, the price, the pushback, the settled number. The permit and inspection threads for every rough-in and final. The supplier emails on fixtures the customer chose and the substitute when they were discontinued.

The repeat customers sit in there too. The property manager with many buildings. The homeowner who emails every winter about the same pipe. The names come off; the pattern stays. This is our own description; the plumbing companies page has more.

What this means for an auto-repair shop

An auto-repair shop’s email is less about customers and more about parts. The supplier quotes, the wrong part shipped, the core returns. The warranty claims to parts makers and to vehicle makers, with the diagnosis written out. The fleet accounts that email to book a van and approve the work.

The estimate approvals often come by email now. A shop sends the diagnosis and the price, and the customer writes back yes, or yes to half of it. That reply is the declined-work record in the customer’s own words. The owner’s name and address are not the record. The vehicle and the decision are. 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.
Polyshares reads the record and agrees what is in scope. It says: “We look at the record before we price it. 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. Nothing outside that scope is covered.”
You approve and share. Identifying fields are stripped by Polyshares’ PII partner before Polyshares or any buyer sees the record.
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 the licence covers “Defined material for a defined term,” and that “You keep the business, the data, and the right to keep using it exactly as before.” Its data handling page says: “A license is not a sale. The company keeps operating exactly as before, with the same data, the same systems, the same customers.” Your mailboxes stay where they are, and the office keeps sending estimates tomorrow.

Polyshares’ other published lines on handling: “Two named people are the only ones at Polyshares who see a company’s identity alongside its data. Buyers see de-identified listings only.” “Listings are published without the company’s name, website, people, or exact locations.” “No contacting your customers or staff.” And “The company is never contacted by a buyer; Polyshares is the sole counterparty.”

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process and give you a range with our estimate. The estimate is ours, not an offer; Polyshares makes offers, after it has read the record. The estimate 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. We never see your mail. Our how it’s safe page sets out the same steps in plain words.

Before you apply

Four things to do first, as our own advice:

Count the years in every mailbox that held company work, as set out under which mailboxes hold the record.
Don’t clean it out. Keep the chase emails, the pushback and the threads that went nowhere. They are the reasoning.
Mark what stays out: the owner’s personal folders, HR, the lawyer’s threads, anything a client owns. Raise them by name on the call.
Ask your counsel about your customer terms and any client contracts. Only the contracts say what is 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 “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.” The work itself is kept.

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

Customer names, emails, phones, addresses and account numbers. They are in every header and signature, and they were never the thing being bought. Under Polyshares’ terms the PII partner strips them, not you.
The owner’s personal mail. Family, bank, accountant. Leave that mailbox, or those folders, out by name.
Mail with your lawyer. Threads with the company’s lawyers are privileged records. The law firm’s note says a sale “may waive privilege over legal communications.” Leave them out and ask counsel.
Attachments a client owns. They stay out; the blocker above, other people’s material in the inbox, says why and what to do.
Other firms’ confidential material. A supplier’s or partner’s documents sent under an NDA. Ask that those threads stay out of scope.
Card and bank details. A card number typed into a reply, bank details for a deposit, a finance application. Raise them on the call with Polyshares, before you accept an offer, and ask that they stay out.
Health information. A customer who explained a condition so the crew would know. It belongs to them.
Staff personnel and payroll mail. Hiring, pay, discipline and sick notes are not how the work was done. Ask that HR folders and mailboxes stay out of scope. Our page on your staff’s personal details goes through the staff side in full.

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 customers’ emails?

Not the customers. 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. As we read it, what is wanted from an inbox is how the work was done, not who it was done for.

Does email count as part of the record?

Yes. Polyshares lists email in what it counts as operational data, on its home page and on its data licensing page, alongside Slack, Drive, CRM history, support tickets and call recordings. What is licensed is set out in Polyshares’ offer, after it has read an anonymized sample.

Do we have to export the mailbox to apply?

No. 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.

Should we delete the personal emails first?

Our advice: don’t delete anything to apply. Count the mailboxes and the years. Raise the personal and private folders on the call with Polyshares and ask that they stay out of scope. Polyshares says the licence covers defined systems for a defined term, and nothing outside that scope.

What about emails with our lawyer?

Leave them out; that is our advice, not Polyshares’. A law firm’s note on licensing company data warns that a sale “may waive privilege over legal communications.” Name the lawyer’s threads on the call and ask your counsel before you count any of them.

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.