Article

Is a records licence paid once or over time?

By TrustPast

Updated October 25, 2026

An owner who hears that company records have a price asks how much first. The second question is how the money comes. One cheque, or a payment every year for as long as the licence runs? This page settles what micro1 publishes on payment timing and structure, what it leaves out, and what to ask before you sign.

It doesn’t cover the size of the figure. Our page on what decides the price goes through the factors micro1 names, and our page on what a company’s records are worth sets out the published tiers. Here we stay with the calendar: when micro1 says it pays, what has to happen first, and whether a records licence is one payment or several.

The short answer

micro1 publishes when it pays. It says it pays in full, after it has accepted your records, against your invoice. It gives a number of days for each step.

micro1 doesn’t publish whether a records licence is paid once or over time. We read its four public pages on 25 October 2026. For records already on file, none of them mentions instalments, annual fees, renewals or a share of later revenue. micro1 does price one separate, different offer by the year on the same page, covered below. For a records licence, one line hints that an arrangement can last: a compensation tier that mentions ongoing participation. It doesn’t say how that is paid.

So the plain answer has two halves. The timing of a payment is published. The number of payments is not. That second part is settled in your agreement, and it is yours to ask about.

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What micro1 publishes on payment, word for word

Here are micro1’s lines on when and how a records licence is paid.

On what the deal is: “We license data generated through your company’s everyday operations.”

On the first step, discovery and pricing: “We identify licensable datasets across your business and tailor an offer based on the nature, scale, and value of your data.”

On the second step, contracting: “We establish clear licensing terms”. The same line goes on to promise not to resell or distribute your data until personal and identifying information has been anonymized.

On the third step, delivery and acceptance: “We review the data for completeness.”

On the fourth step, payment: “We pay in full within 30 days of acceptance, with payments typically ranging from $150K to over $2M” (indicative, not an offer).

In its questions and answers, under “When will my company get paid?”: “Once your company transfers its data, micro1 has 30 days to review and approve it.” And: “After the data is approved, we’ll ask your company to submit an invoice, and payment will be made within 30 days of invoicing.”

On its referral page, the company compensation is listed “for approved data packages”. The same page says “If both parties agree to proceed, the company moves through contracting, data transfer, and data approval.”

On its payout page, under its own estimator: “Indicative estimate only. Final payout is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.”

Those are the lines. Every one of them is about when, and what must happen first. None of them says how many times.

What “in full” tells you, and what it doesn’t

“We pay in full” is the strongest line micro1 publishes on structure. It is worth reading slowly.

As our own reading, “in full” means the amount due for an accepted delivery is paid at once, not spread out. You are not waiting on a balance that trickles in over years for that delivery. That is a real commitment, and it is a useful one for an owner who wants the money on a known date.

What “in full” doesn’t settle is how many deliveries there are. A licence could cover one transfer of records, accepted once, paid once. It could also cover a first transfer now and later transfers of newer records, each accepted and paid on its own. micro1’s pages don’t say which shape a records licence takes, or whether both are possible.

Our page on the licence term explains the words you will meet in that clause. The licence term and the payment schedule are different things. A licence can run for years and still be paid once at the start. Ask about both separately.

The calendar, step by step

Here is the order of events micro1 publishes, with the days it names. The arithmetic at the end is ours.

Discovery and pricing. micro1 looks at what you keep and tailors an offer. Its referral page says qualified companies “are invited to connect with a Data Partnership Manager to discuss their data, licensing terms, and next steps.” As our own reading, this is where the payment structure is first discussed.

Contracting. The licensing terms are written down. The number of payments, their triggers and their dates belong here.

Delivery and acceptance. You transfer the records. micro1 says it has 30 days to review and approve them.

Invoice. After approval, micro1 asks you to submit an invoice.

Payment. micro1 says payment will be made within 30 days of invoicing.

Add those up, as our own arithmetic. If you invoice the day the records are approved, the money can arrive up to about 60 days after the transfer. If your office sends the invoice a week late, the money comes a week later too. The clock you control is the invoice.

One detail is worth noticing. The payment step says “within 30 days of acceptance”. The answer on timing says within 30 days of invoicing. Those are close but not the same. As our own advice, ask which date starts the clock, and have the agreement name it.

The time before the transfer is not published at all. The referral page says “There is no guaranteed timeframe between application and partnership completion.” So the roughly 60 days start when the records move, not when you apply. Our page on what happens after you apply walks through the steps before the transfer.

The one line that mentions ongoing participation

micro1 publishes three compensation tiers. The middle one, $500K-2M (indicative, not an offer), is described as “Large-scale operational datasets or ongoing participation across multiple teams and business functions.”

On the same page, micro1 prices a separate offer by the year. It licenses qualifying agent trajectories, which it describes as showing “how real work gets done”, and says “We license qualifying trajectories for $1–2M annually, with your approval” (indicative, not an offer). It labels that offer “Recurring from launch”. That offer covers new work as it happens, not records already on file. For a records licence, “ongoing participation” is the only phrase that points past a single delivery. It suggests a company can take part over time, across more than one part of the business. It doesn’t say whether ongoing participation is paid in one sum, per delivery, or on a schedule.

As our own reading, the phrase is a reason to ask, not an answer. If your company keeps producing records every year, you can ask whether the newer records could be licensed later, and how that would be priced and paid. micro1 says “Each partnership is evaluated individually, and compensation is aligned with the overall value and relevance of the data provided.” A later delivery would presumably be judged the same way. That is our inference, not a published term.

What micro1 does not publish

Here, plainly, is what we could not find on the four micro1 pages we read.

Number of payments. Nothing says whether a licence of records already on file brings one payment or several.
Instalments or milestones. No schedule of part-payments tied to stages.
Annual or renewal fees. Nothing on paying again if a records licence is renewed. The annual figure micro1 does publish belongs to the separate trajectory offer.
A share of later revenue. No royalty or percentage of anything micro1 earns from your records.
Payment per later delivery. Nothing on how newer records, sent after the first transfer, would be paid.
Partial acceptance. Nothing on whether part of a delivery can be accepted and paid while the rest is reworked.
Holdbacks. Nothing on whether any part of the amount is held back after acceptance.
Deletion and payment. Nothing on whether an early deletion request changes what was paid.
How payment is made. No method, currency or bank detail for company payments.

None of these gaps is odd for a public page. A page sets out the principle and the agreement sets out the mechanics. But each gap is a question that nobody will answer for you unless you ask it.

The payment questions to ask

As our own advice, not micro1’s guidance and not legal advice, here is the list we would bring to the call with the Data Partnership Manager. Have counsel read the clause that answers it.

How many payments? One, or more than one. If more, what triggers each.
What does one payment buy? One delivery of named systems and years, or a licence that includes later records.
Which date starts the clock? Acceptance, or the invoice.
What counts as acceptance? Who decides, in what form, and what happens if a folder fails the completeness review.
Is anything held back? Any amount kept after acceptance, and the conditions for releasing it.
What about newer records? Whether next year’s job files could be licensed later, and on what terms.
What does deletion do to the money? Whether asking for deletion early changes any amount already paid or still due.
How is the money sent? The method and the currency, written down.

You won’t get every answer in the words you’d choose. That’s fine. The point is to have each one answered in writing, so the payment schedule is not left to a loose reading years later.

micro1’s payout page names “access terms” among the things that decide the final payout. As our own reading, the length of the licence and the payment structure may be part of those terms. Ask whether a different structure changes the offer, and get the answer before you sign.

Acceptance is where the money is decided

Every published payment line runs through one word: acceptance. micro1 pays after it has reviewed the records “for completeness” and approved them. So the practical way to get paid on time is to send records that pass that review the first time.

That starts with sending the right records. micro1 says it is looking for “data that reflects how work is actually performed within an organization.” Customer names and payments were never what is wanted. What is wanted is how the work was done: how an estimate became a job, how a change order was settled, how a repair was diagnosed.

Take a mechanical contractor’s job file. The useful part is the chain. The first estimate, the revision after the site visit, the change order when the duct run had to move, the note on how the extra was agreed. The homeowner’s name and the deposit cheque teach nothing. micro1 says “Personal and identifying information is removed or transformed before your data is shared with third parties”, so the records are de-identified before use.

A complete chain is what “completeness” looks like in a trade business, as our own reading. A folder of final invoices with the estimates and change orders missing is the end of the story without the middle. Our pages on job files and work orders and estimates and quotes show what a complete record looks like in each system. Our cornerstone page on what data buyers want from a trade business goes through the files that carry the value.

Why micro1 pays at all

On 9 October 2026, micro1 announced “a commitment to spend $1 billion over the next 12 months acquiring and licensing enterprise operational data through our Company Data Partnerships program.”

That sentence answers a question owners rarely say out loud: is the money real, and is it there now? micro1 published a budget and a period. What it didn’t publish is how any one company’s share is paid out over time. The announcement is about the size of the programme, not the shape of a single payment.

Tax and accounting are for your accountant

A payment of this kind raises questions we can’t answer. How it is treated, in which year it counts, and whether one sum or several suits your company better are tax and accounting questions. micro1 publishes nothing on tax.

As our own advice, take the draft payment clause to your accountant before you sign, not after the money arrives. Bring the expected dates, the number of payments and the invoice terms. If the timing matters to your year end, say so on the call with micro1 while the agreement is still being written.

The same goes for the contract itself. Our page on whether licensing company records is legal lists whose rights to check first. Counsel should read the payment and deletion clauses together, because one can affect the other.

What this means for a contractor with 30 or more staff

Here is one company, as our own hypothetical and not a description from micro1. Say a mechanical contractor with 50 people and sixteen years of records in its job and estimating software. micro1’s requirements include “30+ employees,” so it is in range. Our page on companies with 30 or more staff covers the lane.

What it keeps. Estimates with every revision. Work orders with the technician’s notes. Change orders with the reason and the sign-off. Service histories by site, showing what was tried and what failed. Closeout files and punch lists.

What it asks about payment. Whether the licence covers the sixteen years already on file in one delivery and one payment. Whether the next three years of work orders could be licensed later, and how that would be paid. Which date starts the 30-day clock. What happens if the 2011 to 2013 files fail the completeness review and need another pass.

What it does on its side. It names one person to send the invoice the day approval arrives. It keeps a dated copy of what was transferred and when it was approved. It takes the draft payment clause to its accountant before signing.

What it doesn’t do. It doesn’t plan around a second payment that nobody has promised. Until the agreement says otherwise, it treats the deal as one accepted delivery, paid once, in full.

Worth two minutes to see your range first? Our estimate asks five questions. The range is ours, not an offer, and it says nothing about how the money would be paid.

What is never included

micro1 doesn’t publish a fixed exclusion list. It says personal and identifying information is removed or transformed before your data is shared with third parties. Under its privacy heading it says “Before any participation, together we confirm:” and lists four protections. As our own reading, the scope is settled with each company at the same stage, before anything moves.

What follows is our own advice, not micro1’s. Keep these out unless micro1 agrees otherwise in writing: attorney-client privileged records, health information, payment-card and financial-account details, Social Security numbers, minors’ data, biometric data, and classified or export-controlled material. Add anything a client owns under its contract with you, and the customer list itself.

On a payment page there is one more reason to be strict. A file that should never have been sent can hold up acceptance, and acceptance is what starts the clock. Our page on what is never included in a records licence shows where those records hide. Our How it’s safe page gives the short version.

What you keep

micro1 says “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.” However the payment is structured, the records stay yours. Your job software, your shared drive and your filing cabinet work the next morning as they did the day before. Our page on whether you keep ownership of your records covers this in full.

If you later ask for the licensed copy to be deleted, micro1 says “Upon request or at the end of an engagement, data is deleted according to the agreed retention and deletion terms.” Our page on whether licensed records can be deleted later explains what to write down about each copy. Ask, at the same time, what deletion does to the payment.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain how this works and give you a range with our estimate. You apply to micro1 yourself, through the button below. micro1 pays us a referral fee. You pay us nothing.

We never hold your records and we never handle your payment. The money goes from micro1 to your company, on the terms you agree with micro1. This page is here so you know which of those terms are published and which you still have to ask for.

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Does micro1 pay once or in instalments?

micro1 doesn’t say. Its fourth step reads “We pay in full within 30 days of acceptance”, and its pages say nothing on instalments, renewals or a share of later revenue for a records licence. As our own advice, ask how many payments there will be and what triggers each one, and have the answer written into the agreement.

When does the money arrive?

micro1 says “Once your company transfers its data, micro1 has 30 days to review and approve it.” Then: “After the data is approved, we’ll ask your company to submit an invoice, and payment will be made within 30 days of invoicing.” Payment follows acceptance and your invoice, not the signature.

Does any micro1 page suggest an arrangement that runs over time?

For records already on file, one line does. micro1’s middle compensation tier mentions “ongoing participation across multiple teams and business functions”. It doesn’t explain how ongoing participation is paid. The same page prices a separate, different offer by the year, for agent trajectories, which covers new work as it happens rather than records already on file. As our own advice, ask whether a later delivery of records would be priced and paid separately.

What has to happen before micro1 pays?

The data has to be transferred and accepted. micro1 says “We review the data for completeness,” and its referral page says compensation is “for approved data packages”. Signing alone doesn’t trigger payment.

Is the payment taxed as income in the year it arrives?

We don’t give tax advice, and micro1 publishes nothing on tax. How a licence payment is treated, and in which year, is a question for your accountant before you sign.

Does licensing the records mean selling them?

No. micro1 says “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.” It describes the deal as licensing: “We license data generated through your company’s everyday operations.”