Article

A WARN notice is coming: what to do with your company's records

By TrustPast

Updated November 1, 2026

The decision is made, and the notice has to go out. For the next 60 days the lawyers, the payroll and the people come first, and they should. Somewhere behind all of that sit years of job files, estimates, email and chat that the closing will wipe if nobody stops it. This page sets out what the Labor Department’s own pages say a WARN notice requires, which records a closing company holds, what to keep before the systems go, who can still sign once the doors shut, and where micro1 fits.

Nothing here is legal advice. We quote the Department of Labor’s pages and its rules, and credit them. Where the answer turns on your company’s facts, the next step is your counsel, and our page on whether you need a lawyer covers how to brief one cheaply.

The short answer

A WARN notice starts a clock of at least 60 calendar days. The rules say what the notice must say and who gets it. They say nothing about the company’s records.

That’s the gap. During those 60 days the accounts are live, the exports work and the people who know each system still turn up. After the last day, each of those gets harder. So the notice is also the start of a records deadline, and it’s the only one with a date printed on it.

The records have a buyer. micro1 publishes a partnership card for companies that are “no longer operating,” with “30+ employees” among its requirements. A company large enough to owe a WARN notice clears that line on the notice alone. micro1 still decides at application.

Apply & License Your Data

What the WARN Act asks of an employer

The Department of Labor’s page on plant closings puts it in one sentence. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act “protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring employers with 100 or more employees (generally not counting those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months and those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week) to provide at least 60 calendar days advance written notice of a plant closing and mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees at a single site of employment.”

The rules behind it sit at 20 CFR part 639. They say: “While the 60-day period is the minimum for advance notice, this provision is not intended to discourage employers from voluntarily providing longer periods of advance notice.” They also say: “Damages and civil penalties can be assessed against employers who violate the Act.”

There are exceptions. The Department’s page lists three: “unforeseeable business circumstances, faltering companies, and natural disasters.” The rules add that “the employer bears the burden of proof” that an exception applies. Whether one fits your case is a question for counsel, not for this page.

The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration publishes an employer’s guide and an online advisor. It says the guide “is not an official interpretation of the WARN Act or the regulations at 20 CFR Part 639.” It also notes that “the U.S. Federal Court solely enforces the Act.” The Department adds: “Some states also have their own plant closure laws.” It points employers to their State Dislocated Worker Unit for the state’s rules. We haven’t covered any state’s law here.

Plant closing or mass layoff: the two definitions

The rules define both terms, and they aren’t the same thing.

A plant closing is “the permanent or temporary shutdown of a ‘single site of employment’, or one or more ‘facilities or operating units’ within a single site of employment.” It counts when the shutdown causes an employment loss “during any 30-day period at the single site of employment for 50 or more employees, excluding any part-time employees.”

A mass layoff is “a reduction in force which first, is not the result of a plant closing.” It counts when, in any 30-day period at a single site, it hits “at least 33 percent of the active employees” and “at least 50 employees,” part-timers excluded. Where 500 or more are affected, “the 33% requirement does not apply.”

The rules define a part-time employee as one working “an average of fewer than 20 hours per week” or employed “for fewer than 6 of the 12 months” before notice is due.

For the records, the difference matters less than you’d expect. A plant closing ends a site. A mass layoff thins it. Either way, the people who wrote the records start leaving on a schedule you set in the notice.

Who gets the notice, and what it says

The rules name four recipients. The notice goes to “affected employees or their representative(s), the State dislocated worker unit and the chief elected official of a unit of local government.” The Department’s page adds that managers and supervisors are entitled to notice, “as well as hourly and salaried workers.” Part-time employees aren’t counted toward the thresholds, but the rules say “such workers are due notice.”

Who in the company sends it is left to the company. The rules say “in most instances, this may be the local site plant manager, the local personnel director or a labor relations officer.”

The contents are set out item by item. A notice to a union representative includes “the job titles of positions to be affected and the names of the workers currently holding affected jobs.” A notice to the state unit and the local official includes “the job titles of positions to be affected, and the number of affected employees in each job classification.” Both include “the expected date of the first separation and the anticipated schedule for making separations.”

The rules on delivery are plain: “Any reasonable method of delivery” designed to ensure receipt at least 60 days before separation, such as “first class mail, personal delivery with optional signed receipt.”

Hold on to two of those items. The list of job titles and the schedule of separations are, without meaning to be, the best map you’ll get of where the records are and when they walk out.

The 60 days are also a records window

The rules say “a worker’s last day of employment is considered the date of that worker’s layoff.” They also say “the first and each subsequent group of terminees are entitled to a full 60 days’ notice.” So a closing often runs in waves, not on one day.

Here’s what that means for the records, as our own reading. The estimators may go in the first wave, because there’s nothing left to bid. The project managers stay to finish the open jobs. The office manager stays to the end. Each wave takes with it the one person who knew where a set of files sat, and often the only login to the system that holds them.

Then the subscriptions go. In a closing, the per-seat bills are among the first to be cut. Email, chat, the job software and the shared drive all run on a card. When the card stops, the export usually stops with it. Our page on what a closing company’s records are worth sets out what Google and Slack publish about exports after a subscription ends.

So the useful deadline isn’t the closing date. It’s the day the person who knows a system leaves, or the day its bill is cut, whichever comes first.

The records a closing company holds

A company big enough to owe a WARN notice has run a lot of work. It has written most of it down, whether anyone meant to or not. This is our own list of what a closing trade or services company usually holds, not a list from any buyer.

Job files. Every job from the first call to the closeout: the scope, the crew, the materials, the inspection, the punch list. Our page on job files and work orders explains what a job file shows that an invoice doesn’t.

Estimates. Every bid, won or lost, with its revisions and the notes on why the number moved. Our page on estimates and quotes covers why the lost bids count as much as the won ones.

Project history. The schedule and what happened to it. Change orders, RFIs, delays and the reason for each. Our page on project history explains why the line through a job matters more than any one document.

Email. The estimators’ and project managers’ mailboxes, and the shared ones. Email is where a price was argued and a change order agreed. Our page on email archives covers why the threads beat the attachments.

Slack or Teams. The channels where the field asked the office a question and got an answer. Our page on chat archives covers what an export holds.

micro1 says it’s looking for “data that reflects how work is actually performed within an organization.” It names “internal communications, SOPs, project histories, CRM records, support tickets, and other business documentation.” It also says “companies with several years of records across multiple business systems are generally a stronger fit.” A company that has run long enough to employ 100 people usually has both.

Our cornerstone page on what data buyers want from a trade business sorts a contractor’s files that way. Records are de-identified before use. Customer names and payments are never what is wanted. What is wanted is how the work was done.

Use the notice as your export list

This part is our own advice, not the Department’s. The notice you’re already drafting can double as a records plan.

Take the list of affected job titles. Next to each title, write the systems that role used. Estimators: the estimating program, their mailboxes, the bid folders. Project managers: the job software, the change-order log, the project channels. Service coordinators: the dispatch board and the service history. The office manager: the shared drive and the admin logins.

Then take the separation schedule. Put each system’s export date before the first separation of the people who know it. If the estimators leave in week three, the bid archive is exported in week two. If the office manager stays to the end, the admin accounts stay alive to the end too.

Last, check each export. Open it on a different machine. Make sure the attachments came with the messages and the older years are there. An export nobody opened is a hope, not a record.

Store everything somewhere the company controls, not on a departing employee’s laptop. Write a one-page map: each system, the years it covers, where the export sits, who knew it best. It takes an hour. The step-by-step guides for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 email and Slack cover the mechanics.

You don’t have to decide what to do with the records yet. You only have to keep them.

Who can still sign after the last day

This is the question we can’t answer for you, and we won’t pretend to.

While the notice runs, the company is still trading. The people who signed contracts for it last month are still in their posts. After the last day, who can sign for the company depends on how it closes. A formal wind-down, a sale of assets and a bankruptcy case can each put the decision in different hands. The state matters, and so do the papers the company signs on the way out.

The WARN rules show one way the answer can move. On a sale of part or all of a business, they say “the seller is responsible for providing notice” up to the effective date of the sale, “and the buyer is responsible” after it. That’s about notice, not records. As our own reading, it’s a reminder that a sale can move responsibilities a seller assumed it kept. A sale agreement may move the records as well, and only counsel can read yours.

What official pages say about a dissolved company, a sale of assets and a Chapter 7 trustee is on our page on whether a closed company can still license its records. The court side is on bankruptcy and company records.

Our own advice is about timing. Raise the records with counsel during the notice period, not after it. Ask who will have authority over them once the company closes. Ask whether any sale or wind-down paper should mention them. And ask whether any client contract keeps certain jobs out. That’s one short conversation now instead of a long one later.

What micro1 publishes for closed and closing companies

micro1’s referral page lists two partnership cards. The first, the Enterprise Data Partnership, covers “operational data partnership using existing business documentation and operational datasets.” Its requirements are “30+ employees,” “US and Western markets,” “English” and “All industries.”

The second is the Defunct Company Data Partnership: “We are acquiring data from companies that are no longer operating.” Its requirements include “30+ employees,” “English” and “All industries.” Company compensation on both cards is “$100K-$2M+ for approved data packages” (indicative, not an offer).

micro1 doesn’t say which card fits a company that is still inside its notice period. It decides at application, and “all companies must complete micro1’s qualification and evaluation process.” Our own estimate counts a closing company at its peak headcount, not its last week.

The steps are published. The company sets up a profile and “completes data manifest.” The team “reviews the application.” Then “qualified companies are invited to connect with a Data Partnership Manager to discuss their data, licensing terms, and next steps.” After that, “the company moves through contracting, data transfer, and data approval.”

On timing, micro1 is candid. “Timelines vary depending on the company’s eligibility, the complexity of its data, legal requirements, and how quickly it completes each step.” And: “There is no guaranteed timeframe between application and partnership completion.” So don’t plan the exports around an application. Export first; the application can come after the doors close.

On ownership, micro1 says “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.” Its payout page says “Final payout is determined based on data sources, volume, quality, access terms, and due diligence.” Access terms and due diligence, in our reading, are where the authority question comes back. On 9 October 2026 micro1 announced a commitment to spend $1 billion over 12 months acquiring and licensing “enterprise operational data.” It says it uses de-identified company data to train AI models on how real businesses work.

How many companies are in the same position

You’re not the only one. Our table of WARN notices by state counts 11,238 companies in our database with at least one notice since January 2020, across 46 states and the District of Columbia. Every one of them names 50 workers or more on its notice.

That table counts companies, not records kept. Many of those companies closed one site and kept running elsewhere. Others closed for good, and most of their records went with the last subscription. Our page on closed companies covers the three ways records usually get lost.

What this means for an electrical contractor

Take a hypothetical commercial electrical contractor with 140 people, closing its main shop after 22 years. It’s our own example, not a case micro1 has published.

The notice. Counsel decides whether the closing is covered. The rules have a passage worth asking about: “Employers in agriculture and construction frequently hire workers” for “work on a particular building or project.” Such work “falls under this exemption if the workers understood at the time they were hired that their work was temporary.” The same rules add that permanent employees who work continuously “are not included under this exemption.” Which of your people fall where isn’t for this page.

The records. Twelve years of bids in the estimating program, each with its takeoff and its revisions. Job files for every commercial fit-out: the drawing markups, the RFIs, the inspection reports and the punch lists. Change orders on the hospital wing, with the emails where the price was settled. Service tickets where the first visit reset a breaker and the second found the failing feeder. The project channels in Teams, where the foreman asked the office which panel schedule was current.

The plan. The estimators go in the first wave, so the bid archive is exported in week two. The project managers stay to finish three open jobs, so the job software stays live to the end. The office manager keeps one admin login on every system until each export has been opened and checked. The three projects under confidentiality terms are marked and left out.

After the last day. The owner books an hour with counsel, brings the one-page map and asks who signs for the company now. Then the owner runs our estimate with the peak headcount and the years the records actually cover. Twenty-two years in business may be twelve years of records. That’s still a long run of how electrical work gets bid and built.

What is never included

micro1 says “Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed when relevant,” and that personal and identifying information “is removed or transformed before your data is shared with third parties.” Asked whether a company must anonymize its data first, it answers: “No, micro1 has processes for de-identifying and transforming sensitive information.” micro1 doesn’t publish a list of records it excludes.

What follows is our own advice, not micro1’s. A closing company holds a few records that never belong in a licence.

The WARN notices themselves, and the list of affected workers. The notice to a union names “the workers currently holding affected jobs.” That list stays out.
Payroll, final pay, severance and benefits records for the staff.
The legal files on the closing: the board papers, the sale agreement, anything from a bankruptcy case.
Health information, payment-card and bank details, Social Security numbers and attorney-client privileged files.
Anything a client owns under its contract with you.

Keep all of those as your counsel and accountant advise. Just keep them out of scope. Our page on what is never included shows where those records tend to hide, and How it’s safe gives the short version of the protections.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain how this works and give you a range with our estimate. Five questions, two minutes. The range is ours, not an offer. You apply to micro1 yourself, through the button below. micro1 pays us a referral fee if a deal completes. You pay us nothing. We never see your files, we don’t decide who signs for a closing company, and nothing on this page is legal advice.

If our email is how you heard of us, how we use your email address says where the address came from and how to opt out.

The notice has a date on it. The records don’t, until someone cancels the last account. Worth an hour this week to put the exports on the same calendar?

TrustPast

Questions and answers

Who has to give a WARN notice?

The Department of Labor says the WARN Act covers employers “with 100 or more employees (generally not counting those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months and those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week).” They must give “at least 60 calendar days advance written notice of a plant closing and mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees at a single site of employment.” Whether it applies to your company is a question for counsel.

Who receives the notice?

The affected employees, or their union representative if they have one, the State dislocated worker unit and the chief elected official of the local government, under the Department of Labor's rules at 20 CFR 639.6. The Department adds that managers and supervisors are entitled to notice too.

Does micro1 take records from a company that is closing?

micro1's referral page has a card for companies that have closed, the Defunct Company Data Partnership: “We are acquiring data from companies that are no longer operating.” It lists “30+ employees” among the requirements. micro1 doesn't publish which card fits a company still inside its notice period. It decides at application.

Who can sign a licence once the company has closed?

That depends on how the company closes, the state and the papers it signs on the way out. We don't give legal advice. As our own advice, raise the records with your counsel during the notice period, while the company's officers are still in place.

What should we export before the last day?

As our own advice: the job files, the estimates with their revisions, the project history, the mailboxes and the chat, each to storage the company controls, and checked that it opens. Do it before the people who know each system leave, not on the closing date.