Article

How many years of records count?

By TrustPast

Updated October 22, 2026

An owner fills in a form and hits one question that stops the pen. How many years of records do you have? The company has run for 22 years, but the CRM only goes back to 2019. This page settles what micro1 publishes about years, what it doesn’t, and how to count yours honestly.

The short version first. micro1 asks the question and publishes no minimum. The counting is up to you, and our advice is to count before you answer.

What micro1 asks, word for word

micro1 runs a payout estimator on its own site. One of its questions is “How many years of data do you have?” Under it, micro1 adds one line of help: “Typically the number of years you’ve been in business.”

Under the result, it adds two more sentences: “Indicative estimate only. Final payout is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.”

That’s the whole of what micro1’s payout page says about years. One question, one hint, and five things that decide the final figure. Years aren’t one of the five by name. Volume and data sources are, and years feed both, as we read it.

micro1’s data partnerships page lists the factors behind compensation in a second place. “Factors considered include dataset size and volume, workflow complexity, data quality, domain expertise represented, and the uniqueness of the operational knowledge contained within the dataset.” It adds: “Each partnership is evaluated individually.”

The money side is covered on our page about what a company’s records are worth. This page stays on the years.

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Is there a minimum? micro1 doesn’t publish one

We read micro1’s four public pages on the programme today. None of them names a minimum number of years.

The referral page lists three requirements: “30+ employees”, “US Prioritized” and “Primarily English.” Asked what makes a good fit, it names companies with “mature business operations.” The data partnerships page says micro1 is looking for “operationally mature companies with 30+ employees, established documentation, and high-quality operational data.”

“Mature” and “established” point at time. They don’t put a number on it. micro1’s October announcement talks about “the operational intelligence they have built over years.” Again, years in the plural, with no count attached.

So here’s the plain answer. There is no published floor. There’s no published curve either, no line that says ten years pays this much and twenty pays that much. Anyone who quotes you one is not quoting micro1.

What happens instead is a review. The referral page says: “Our team reviews the company and determines whether it’s a fit for a data partnership.” And: “All companies go through the micro1 evaluation process.” Matching, it says, depends on client requirements and how well a company aligns with available opportunities. The years you hold are part of what micro1 looks at. How much they weigh is micro1’s call.

Why a long run of records matters, in our reading

This section is ours, not micro1’s. Our page on what a company’s records are worth makes the longer case; here it is in two sentences. One year of records shows how a company works. Ten years show how it changed: a move from a printed price book to estimating software, a year of escalation notes when supply prices jumped, a new service department.

micro1 asks for data that “reflects how work is actually performed within an organization.” Our reading: work drifts, and only a long record shows the drift. That’s why the counting below is worth an hour.

The cornerstone page on what data buyers actually want from a trade business goes record by record. The short version is the same as everywhere on this site. The records are de-identified before use. Customer names and payments are never what is wanted. What’s wanted is how the work was done: how an estimate became a job, how a change order was settled, how a repair was diagnosed. Each surviving year adds more of them, which is why the count is worth getting right.

How to count your years: our method

micro1’s hint is “the number of years you’ve been in business.” That’s a fair starting point. Our advice is to check it against what actually survived.

Here’s the method we suggest. It takes about an hour with a notepad.

List every system that held the work. The CRM, the estimating program, the job-management or field-service system, the accounting package, the shared drive, the inbox, the chat. Include the ones you stopped using.
For each, write the oldest year you can open today. Not the year you bought it. The year of the oldest record you can actually see.
Take the earliest year on the list. That’s the start of your record.
Count from there to now. That’s your honest number of years.
Mark the gaps. If one system covers 2008 to 2015 and the next starts in 2017, note the missing year. Don’t hide it.

A company founded in 2004 with records back to 2008 has 18 years of records, not 22. A company founded in 2015 that kept everything has 11. Both are honest answers. The first one is still a long run.

Counting across a tool switch

If your company has changed systems, the years before the switch still count, as we read micro1’s pages, if the files survive.

micro1 lists the records it wants on its data partnerships page: “SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, CRM data, project histories, and QA processes.” It doesn’t say they must sit in the system you use today. A CRM export from 2014 is still CRM data. A folder of job files from the old server is still a project history.

Our advice for a switch:

Count the old system’s years only if you can open them. A backup you can’t restore is a hope, not a record. Find out before you answer the question.
Don’t count the overlap twice. If you ran both systems in 2018, 2018 is one year.
Note what didn’t move. Check whether the migration carried the notes or only the customer list. The old system may hold the part that matters most: the history behind each account.
Keep your own copy in its original form. What you share is cut to the scope you agree; micro1 says the scope and the “Anonymization and redaction requirements” are defined together “before any participation.”

The line in our page for companies with 30 or more staff holds: if your company switched CRM, look for the export from the old one. If it opens, those years count. If the company is closing, count before the accounts are cancelled. The order to keep things in is on what a closing company’s records are worth.

Where the oldest records hide

Our advice: look in four places before you answer the years question. None of them is the current software.

Old email archives. Check whether your mail goes back further than any of your systems. An estimator’s sent folder from 2011 holds the bids, the follow-ups and the arguments about price. Check whether old mailboxes were exported when people left. Check the old mail server or the archive files on a backup drive. Our page on email archives explains what in the inbox counts.

The previous CRM’s export. If someone exported the old CRM when you moved, look for it as a spreadsheet or a zipped file on a shared drive, named something like “old CRM final.” It holds the leads, the call notes, the reasons a deal was lost. Search the shared drive for the old vendor’s name. Our page on CRM records covers what sits in one.

The file server. If the company ever had a server in a cupboard, find it, or the drive it was copied to. A folder per customer or a folder per job, going back to the year the server was bought. Ask whoever set it up. If that person has left, ask the IT contractor.

Paper job files. Boxes of work orders, carbon-copy tickets, signed estimates and inspection sheets. They’re harder to describe than a database, and they still count as records of how the work was done. If micro1 sees a potential fit, it schedules a discovery call “to discuss your data and privacy requirements.” Mention the boxes and how many years they cover. Don’t scan them all before you’ve talked.

What’s the oldest thing in your back office? A box in the storeroom may answer the question faster than any system.

How long have trade companies been at it?

A rough guide from our own data, with one big caveat first.

We hold 285,012 trade companies matched to eight public state licence files that publish the date a licence was first issued. Across them, 55.0% hold a licence issued 10 or more years ago. 28.7% hold one issued 20 or more years ago. The full tables are on our page on how long trade licences have been held. For companies that have closed, our count of company dissolutions in two state registries shows about one in five had been in business ten years or more.

Now the caveat. That page counts licence age, not company size. It doesn’t say how many of those companies have 30 or more staff. It doesn’t count records either. A licence date shows how long the company, or for some trades its master or qualifier, has held a licence. It isn’t proof the files were kept.

What it does show is that long runs are common in the trades. More than half the companies in those files hold a licence issued 10 or more years ago. If yours is one of them, the question is how much of that decade you can still open.

What a year of records looks like at 30 people

A company of 30 or more can write a lot down in a year. Here’s our own picture of one year for a 35-person HVAC and plumbing contractor.

Several thousand service tickets, each with what the technician found and what was replaced.
A few hundred estimates, many with a second or third version.
A stack of change orders, each with the email thread where the price got settled.
The dispatch board’s history: who went where, and what got moved when a job ran long.
The CRM’s call notes on every maintenance agreement renewed or lost.

Multiply that by fifteen years. The count matters less than the order. Fifteen years of tickets on the same units show which equipment failed, in what sequence, and how the diagnosis changed as the technicians learned. That’s what we’d call a project history. Our page on project history goes through one project from bid to closeout.

What this means for a company of 30 or more

Our advice for a company of this size: count every system, managers’ mailboxes included, because each change of system or manager can leave years in a place nobody looks.

The records a company of 30 or more keeps, year after year:

Estimates and quotes, with their versions and the notes on why a price moved.
Job files and work orders, from the first call to the closeout.
The CRM, current and old, with call notes and lost-deal reasons.
Email archives, especially the estimators’, managers’ and dispatchers’ mailboxes.
SOPs and the knowledge base, with their edit history.
QA records: inspections, callbacks, comebacks and the fixes.
Chat, if the company has used Slack or Teams for a few years.

micro1 lists “CRM data, project histories, and QA processes” among what it looks for. For each of the systems above, write down the oldest year. That list, with the gaps marked, is the best answer you can give to “How many years of data do you have?”

Our estimate asks the same question. Its slider runs from one year to “25 or more.” Count first, then answer. Worth an hour with a notepad before you do?

What is never included

Counting your years doesn’t mean handing over everything from those years. micro1 says that before any participation, the two sides define together the “Approved data scope and clear boundaries” and the “Anonymization and redaction requirements.”

micro1 also says “Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed when relevant.” Its October announcement says it “uses de-identified company data.” The records are de-identified before use.

Our advice on what stays out of any export, old years included:

Customer names, addresses and phone numbers.
Card numbers, bank details and payment records.
Payroll, HR files and anything about an employee’s health.
Anything you hold on behalf of a client, or under a client’s confidentiality terms.

The old years carry the same rules as the new ones. A 2009 email has customers in it, just like a 2025 one. The scope you agree covers both. Our How it’s safe page sets out what leaves your systems and when. Our page on whether you keep ownership of your records covers the rest. micro1’s answer there is one line: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.”

Before you apply

Our suggested order, for a company of 30 or more:

List every system that ever held the work, old ones included.
Write the oldest year you can open in each.
Find the old email archives, the previous CRM’s export, the file server and the paper boxes.
Count from the earliest year to today, and mark the gaps.
Run our estimate with that number.

micro1 decides what the years are worth. We can only help you count them.

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Is there a minimum number of years of records?

micro1 doesn't publish one. Its payout page asks “How many years of data do you have?” and its referral page lists 30+ employees, US prioritized and primarily English. Neither page names a number of years a company must have.

What does micro1 mean by years of data?

Under the question on its payout page, micro1 writes: “Typically the number of years you've been in business.” That's its own hint. Our advice is to count the years your records actually cover, oldest surviving file to today.

Do more years mean a bigger payout?

micro1 doesn't publish a rate per year. Its payout page says: “Indicative estimate only. Final payout is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.” Years are one of the questions its estimator asks, not a published formula.

Do the years in our old CRM count?

As we read it, yes, if the files survive. micro1 lists “CRM data” and “project histories” among the records it wants, and it doesn't say they must sit in today's system. Find the old export before you answer the years question.

Will micro1 see customer names from those old years?

micro1 says “Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed when relevant,” and its October announcement says it “uses de-identified company data.” The anonymization and redaction requirements are defined together with the company before any participation.