Article

Which of your company records a buyer wants

By TrustPast

Updated October 20, 2026

A company with 30 or more people keeps more records than anyone has counted. Some are in systems the company pays for. Most are in shared folders, inboxes and chat channels nobody thinks of as records. This page takes micro1’s published list and shows where each item sits inside an ordinary operating company: a distributor, a property manager, an insurance agency, a logistics firm, a commercial contractor. Then what is not wanted, what is never included, and what makes one record more useful than another.

The short answer

micro1 licenses de-identified company records to train AI models. It says what it is looking for in one line: “data that reflects how work is actually performed within an organization.”

So the records it wants are the ones that show the work being done. The written procedure. The wiki page someone wrote after the third time a new hire asked. The ticket that was reopened twice. The CRM note that says why a deal stalled. The email thread where a manager approved an exception and said why.

What is not wanted is just as plain. Customer names and payment details are never the point. micro1 says personally identifiable information is removed when relevant. How the work was done is what has value.

If you run a trade business, the cornerstone page on what data buyers want from a trade business walks through estimates, job notes and change orders for four trades. This page is for every other kind of company with 30 or more staff.

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micro1’s list, and its six areas

micro1’s data partnerships page lists “SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, CRM data, project histories, and QA processes,” and its referral page adds “operational communications”; the full list, in micro1’s words, is on who buys company records, and why. In our reading, that last item is the email and the chat.

micro1 also names six areas the records can come from. Each comes with its own short list:

Software and engineering: “Source code documentation, engineering workflows, bug tracking, product planning, and technical knowledge bases.”
Finance and accounting: “Financial processes, SOPs, reconciliations, approvals, reporting workflows, and operational documentation.”
Customer support: “Support documentation, ticket workflows, QA processes, customer operations, and knowledge management.”
Sales and CRM: “CRM data, sales processes, playbooks, customer lifecycle documentation, and revenue operations.”
Legal and contracts: “Policies, contract workflows, review processes, governance documentation, and compliance procedures.”
Operations and logistics: “Operational SOPs, logistics processes, fulfillment workflows, inventory management, and internal operations.”

None of those words appear on a folder in your office, so the next five sections translate them. Each company below is a hypothetical, and each translation is our own reading, not a list from micro1.

Inside a distributor

Take a wholesale distributor of electrical supplies with 60 staff, in business since 2008.

The written procedures are the receiving checklist, the returns policy, the steps for a backorder, the credit-hold rule. Some sit in a binder at the counter. Most sit in a shared drive folder with a name like Ops. That is micro1’s “Operational SOPs” and “inventory management”.

The CRM holds every account, every quote and every note the inside sales team typed after a call. The quotes that didn’t convert carry a reason, when someone bothered to write one. That is “CRM data” and “sales processes”.

The warehouse keeps its own record. The cycle-count sheets show which bins were wrong and by how much. The adjustment notes say why: a mis-pick, a return put back on the wrong shelf, a supplier that shipped the wrong size. Years of those are how the company learned where its stock goes missing.

The purchasing desk keeps another. The reorder rules for each product line, and the notes when a buyer overrode them before a price rise or a long lead time. An override with a reason is a decision written down.

The decision record is in the exceptions. A contractor wants net-60 instead of net-30. A shipment arrives short and a job site is waiting. The branch manager and the purchasing lead settle it in four emails, and one of them says why. That is “How teams evaluate information and make operational decisions”, in a distributor’s own inbox.

Inside a property manager

Take a property management firm with 45 staff, running residential and small commercial buildings.

The written procedures are the move-in and move-out checklists, the after-hours emergency steps, the rule for which repairs need the owner’s approval. The work order system holds every maintenance request: what was reported, who was sent, what they found, what it cost, and whether it came back.

That work order history is a project history and a QA record at once. A leak reported in March, patched, reported again in May, and finally traced to a roof drain is a diagnosis in four entries. Ten years of those is how the firm learned its buildings.

The inspection reports add another layer. The move-out walk-through with its photos and notes. The annual unit inspection. The list of items that went to a vendor and the date each one was closed. Together they show what the firm counted as acceptable, unit by unit, year after year.

The turnover file is a small project each time. A unit empties, the scope is written, the painter and the cleaner are booked, the unit is listed. The file shows how many days that took and what slowed it down.

The decision record is in the vendor threads and the owner reports. A property manager asks for three bids, explains to the building owner why the middle one is the right one, and gets a yes. The reasoning is in the email. The tenant’s name on the original request is the kind of detail micro1 says is removed when relevant.

Inside an insurance agency

Take an independent insurance agency with 35 staff, selling commercial and personal lines.

The written procedures are the new-business checklist, the renewal timeline, the steps for a certificate request, the rules for what an account manager can bind without a producer. The agency management system is the CRM: every account, every policy cycle, every activity note.

Those activity notes are the record most agencies undervalue. A renewal note that says the carrier raised the rate, the account manager shopped three markets, and the client stayed after a call about the deductible is a decision written down. micro1’s “customer lifecycle documentation” is close to a description of that file.

The marketing file is another. When a commercial account goes out to market, the account manager writes up the risk, sends it to several carriers, and records each answer: declined, quoted, quoted with conditions. The comparison sent to the client shows how the options were weighed.

The service desk keeps the small decisions. The endorsement request, the vehicle added mid-term, the question about whether a new building is covered. Each has a note on what was checked and what was answered.

This is also the company where the line on what is wanted matters most. The policyholder’s name, the policy numbers and any health or claims detail are not how the work was done. Our own advice: list where those fields sit before the discovery call, and ask micro1 how they are handled. The scope is agreed before anything moves.

Inside a logistics firm

Take a regional freight and warehousing company with 120 staff.

The written procedures are the dock procedures, the load-planning rules, the hazmat checklist, the steps when a driver runs out of hours. micro1 names this area directly: “logistics processes” and “fulfillment workflows.”

In our reading, the exception log is the most useful file in the building. A shipment damaged in transit, a missed appointment, a carrier that didn’t show. Each one has an incident report, a decision on who pays, and often a change to the procedure afterwards. The report is the problem. The changed procedure is what the company learned from it.

The claims file follows the same pattern. A customer says a pallet arrived crushed. Someone pulls the photos from the dock, the signed delivery receipt and the driver’s note, and decides whether to pay. The file shows the evidence and the call.

The warehouse side keeps its own record. Slotting rules, pick-path changes, the notes after a peak week that went badly. Each change has a before and an after.

The decision record is in the dispatch channel. A dispatcher reshuffles four loads at 5am because a truck broke down, and explains the order in the chat. That is a decision made under “competing priorities”, which is the phrase micro1’s October announcement uses for real business operations.

Inside a commercial contractor

Take a commercial interiors contractor with 80 staff.

The project files are the bid, the revised bid, the schedule, the submittals, the RFIs, the change orders, the punch list and the closeout. That is micro1’s “project histories”, start to finish, for every job the company ran.

The QA record is the inspection log and the punch list. It says what a finished job meant at that company, and what had to be fixed before the client signed off.

The daily reports are the record nobody counts. The superintendent writes down the crew size, the weather, the delivery that came late and the area that couldn’t be started. Read in a row, they show how a schedule slipped and how it was recovered.

The bid-review notes are another. Before a number goes out, the estimators and the operations lead decide which risks to price and which to exclude. The exclusions list on the final proposal is the short version of that argument.

The decision record is in the RFI answers and the change order threads. The architect asks for a substitution, the project manager prices it, the superintendent says it adds two days, and the owner of the company decides. Four messages, and a decision with its reasoning. The cornerstone page covers the estimate side of this for four trades; at 80 staff, the project files are the longer record.

What is not wanted

Say this plainly, because it is the first thing owners ask. Customer names and payment details are never what is wanted.

micro1 says “Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed when relevant.” It says some records “may undergo synthetic rewrites that preserve workflow structure while reducing direct ties to original records.” It also says “access is restricted to a limited number of authorized team members.”

Payment details are not how the work was done. A card number, a bank account or a tenant’s ledger tells nobody how a job was run. Our own advice is to name where those fields sit and raise them on the discovery call, not to put them in anything you share.

Our safety page covers the protections in plain words, and is it safe to license company records goes step by step.

What makes one record more useful than another

micro1 publishes the factors that decide what it pays. Volume, quality and uniqueness are micro1’s own factors; its estimate also asks for years. What follows is our own reading of what four factors mean inside the five companies above. It is not micro1’s guidance.

Years. A procedure with ten years of edits shows how a company learned. A procedure written last month shows only where it is now.

Completeness. A project file with the bid, the changes and the closeout is a chain. A folder with only the final invoice is the end of a chain with nothing before it.

The reasoning written down. A work order that only says it was fixed is a fact. A work order that says what was checked, what was ruled out and what turned out to be wrong is a diagnosis. The second kind is what micro1’s phrase “decision-making processes” describes.

Breadth. A company whose sales, operations and finance teams all wrote things down covers more of micro1’s six areas than one that only kept a CRM.

How those factors move a number is on what a company’s records are worth. We don’t repeat it here. micro1 prices each company.

What this means for a company with 30 or more staff

micro1 looks for “operationally mature companies with 30+ employees, established documentation, and high-quality operational data.” It wants documentation primarily in English, and its FAQ says it is looking for companies that “maintain their documentation, workflows, and knowledge bases in English.”

Here is a short inventory to run before you apply, as our own advice. For each item, write down the system and how many years it goes back.

Written procedures: the SOP folder, the binder, the templates, the onboarding pack.
The internal wiki or knowledge base, with its edit history if the tool keeps one.
Ticket and QA histories: the work order system, the support desk, the inspection log, the defect or callback list.
Project files: one folder per job or account, from the first quote to the closeout.
The CRM, including the notes on lost deals and the old CRM you replaced.
Decision threads: count the channels and the shared inboxes. The project channel per job, the managers’ channel where approvals happen, the shared mailbox for complaints. Leave them as they are.

Check the exports from systems you stopped paying for; those years count too. The page for companies with 30 or more staff explains why the line sits at 30, and the estimate turns your headcount and years into a range in five questions. Worth two minutes to see yours?

What is never included

micro1 says every partnership comes “with clear controls over what is shared, how it is handled, and what is never included,” and that the scope is defined with each company before any participation. Here is where the sensitive files sit in the five companies above, as our own reading.

The insurance agency holds the most: policyholder details, claims files that can carry health information, and sometimes Social Security numbers on applications. The property manager holds rental applications, tenant ledgers and bank details for rent. The distributor holds customer card numbers and credit applications. The logistics firm holds driver files, which can include medical and testing records. The contractor holds drawings and specifications a client may own under contract, and the correspondence from any dispute that went to lawyers.

Our own advice: keep privileged records, health information, payment-card and financial-account details, Social Security numbers, minors’ data, biometric data and classified or export-controlled material out of what you put forward, and raise them with micro1 before you apply.

Anything a client owns under contract belongs to the client, and only the contracts say which is which; have counsel read them before the discovery call. micro1 says the anonymisation and redaction requirements are agreed with you before any participation; you don’t need to edit the records first.

What the company keeps

micro1’s answer to “Who owns the data?” is one sentence: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.” What that means for retention and deletion is on do you keep ownership of your records.

Where we fit

We, TrustPast, explain the process 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. You pay us nothing, and we never see your files.

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Questions and answers

Which records does micro1 say it wants?

micro1 lists operational documentation: SOPs, knowledge bases, internal documentation, CRM data, project histories and QA processes. It adds decision-making patterns, which it describes as how teams evaluate information and make operational decisions. Its referral page adds operational communications.

Does micro1 want our customer list or payment records?

Customer names and payment details are never what is wanted. micro1 says “Personally identifiable information (PII) is removed when relevant,” and that the anonymisation and redaction requirements are defined with the company before any participation.

Our procedures are out of date. Do they still count?

micro1 publishes data quality as one factor in what it pays, along with size, workflow complexity, domain expertise and uniqueness. It does not publish a rule on old versions. Our own reading is that the old version next to the new one shows how the company learned; micro1 decides what it licenses.

Do we need a wiki or a ticket system to qualify?

micro1 looks for companies with 30+ employees, established documentation and high-quality operational data. It does not name a required system. Procedures in shared folders, project files and CRM notes are the kinds of records it lists.

Do we have to clean up the chat before applying?

No. Our own advice is to leave it as it is. micro1 says the approved scope and the anonymisation and redaction requirements are defined together before any participation, so what is shared is agreed first.