Glossary
The words you’ll meet when licensing your records
Licensing a company’s records comes with its own words, and the trades bring theirs. Here each one is in a sentence or two, with where it comes from.
Where a definition quotes a buyer, the Source line under each entry names the page of ours that quotes it. The two buyers’ programmes: 30 or more people, or 29 or fewer. The word “estimate” means two things on this site, so it has two entries.
Change order
A signed change to a job’s scope or price after the work has started. The rotten decking, the extra circuit, the customer who wanted a different tile. It records what changed, why, and what the customer agreed to pay.
Client-owned material
Records you hold for a client under a contract that gives the client ownership: their drawings, their fleet lists, their files. The buyer for 29 or fewer people says such material “cannot be licensed regardless of value, and only the contracts separate the two.”
Source: the buyer’s wording, quoted on our chat archives page
Data licensing
Giving a buyer the right to use a defined set of your records, for a defined use and a defined term, while your company keeps them. Here the use is to train AI models, on a de-identified copy.
Source: How it’s safe
De-identification
Removing or replacing the fields that identify a person before anyone works with the record. Both buyers publish how they do it. The buyer for 29 or fewer people says names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers and addresses are removed or replaced by a specialist partner first.
Deletion
The buyer destroying its prepared copy of your records. The buyer for 30 or more people says data is deleted on request or at the end of an engagement, under the agreed retention and deletion terms. Your own systems are untouched either way.
Digital vehicle inspection
A technician’s inspection of a vehicle, recorded in the shop software and sent to the customer by text or email for approval. Kept with the repair order, it shows what was found against what was sold.
Source: Tekmetric, digital vehicle inspection
More: Auto repair shops
Discovery call
A step in the application of the buyer for 30 or more people. If there is a potential fit, it asks for more information and schedules “a discovery call to discuss your data and privacy requirements.”
eDiscovery
Microsoft’s search-and-export tool for Microsoft 365. After a search, it exports mailbox items as PST files or as single messages.
Source: Microsoft Learn, export search results in eDiscovery
More: Email archives
Estimate (a trade’s quote)
The priced proposal a contractor sends before the work: the measurements, the line items, the price. Years of them, with the ones you won and lost, are among the records buyers value.
Estimate (our range)
The range TrustPast shows from your answers to five questions. It is not an offer. The buyer prices each company itself.
Source: our estimate
More: What a company’s records are worthEstimate (a trade’s quote)
Exclusive licence
Only that buyer may use the records, for the agreed use and term. The buyer for 29 or fewer people licenses “exclusive by default unless we agree otherwise”, and its four published deals were each a “perpetual exclusive license”.
Source: the buyer’s wording, quoted on our email archives page
More: the programme for 29 or fewer peopleWhat companies have been paid
Headcount
Everyone the company employs: office, field crews, drivers and part-timers. It alone decides the buyer. Our estimate counts the larger of your people now or at your peak; 30 or more, or 25 or more for a closed company, goes to one programme.
Source: the programme for 30 or more people
More: the programme for 30 or more peoplethe programme for 29 or fewer people
Intake
The first step with the buyer for 29 or fewer people: “Intake asks for record counts, not files or exports.” It asks about your records, not for the records.
Licence and sale
A licence grants the right to use the records and the company keeps ownership. A sale transfers ownership. Both buyers publish that the company keeps its records.
Source: How it’s safe
Licence term
How long the buyer may use the records, written into the agreement. A perpetual licence has no end date. The buyer for 29 or fewer people publishes four deals, each perpetual; its published scope says “a defined term”.
Maintenance agreement
A recurring service plan with set visits, often sold as a membership: the spring and autumn tune-up, the yearly drain check. The visits and renewals build a long service history per customer.
NDA
A non-disclosure agreement: a contract that says what counts as confidential and what you may do with it. Pricing sheets, drawings and terms in your email may sit under one, so list every NDA before you apply.
More: Is licensing your company records legal?Email archives
Non-exclusive licence
The buyer’s rights don’t stop you licensing the same records to someone else. Whether a deal is exclusive is set in its agreement, so read that line before you sign.
Operating records
The records a company keeps while doing the work: estimates, job files, change orders, the CRM, email and chat, standard procedures, project histories. The buyer for 30 or more people lists “SOPs, internal documentation, knowledge bases, CRM metadata, project histories, QA processes, and operational communications.”
Ownership
Who holds the records after a licence. Under both buyers’ published terms, your company does. The buyer for 30 or more people says: “Companies retain ownership of their underlying data.”
Personal data
Anything that identifies a person: names, emails, phone numbers, account numbers, addresses. The buyer for 29 or fewer people says it is removed or replaced by a specialist partner before the buyer sees the record; the buyer for 30 or more people says it is removed when relevant.
Source: the programme for 29 or fewer peoplethe programme for 30 or more people
More: How it’s safe
Price book
A trade’s list of tasks, materials and flat-rate prices, used to quote from the field. Its changes over the years show how a company priced its work.
Source: Housecall Pro, price book
Privileged records
Communications with your lawyer, protected by attorney-client privilege. We advise leaving them out of any licence. That is our advice, not a buyer’s.
PST and mbox
The two common mailbox file formats. Google Vault exports mail as PST or mbox files; Microsoft 365 eDiscovery exports PST files.
Source: Google Vault Help, Vault export contents
More: Email archives
Redaction
Blacking out or deleting a field or a passage in a record. The buyer for 30 or more people defines the “anonymization and redaction requirements” with each company before any participation.
Source: the programme for 30 or more people
More: How it’s safe
Referral fee
What the buyer pays TrustPast when a company that applied through our link completes a deal. Your company pays us nothing at any stage.
Source: Referral disclosure
Referral link
The counted link on our site that takes you to the buyer’s own page: we count clicks on it, not who clicked. You apply to the buyer directly, and the buyer alone reviews, prices and licenses. We never handle your files.
Source: Referral disclosurePrivacy policy
More: Referral disclosure
Repair order
An auto shop’s record of one vehicle visit: the complaint, the inspection, the parts and labour, the price, what the customer approved and what they declined.
Source: Tekmetric, estimate building and repair orders
More: Auto repair shops
Representative sample
A small set of prepared records you review before the buyer uses any. The buyer for 30 or more people says companies “are given the opportunity to review representative samples before prepared data is used.”
Source: the buyer’s wording, quoted on our ownership article
More: How it’s safe
Retention
How long the buyer keeps its prepared copy. The buyer for 30 or more people says data is “retained only for a limited period based on agreed retention policies”, so the period is set in your agreement.
Scope
The systems, record types and use a licence covers. The buyer for 29 or fewer people: “Defined systems, a defined term, and exclusive by default unless we agree otherwise. Nothing outside that scope is covered.”
Source: the buyer’s wording, quoted on our email archives page
Supplement
A roofer’s request to the insurer for more money on a claim. Roofing software such as AccuLynx keeps a Supplements page that tracks the amounts requested, approved and added; the back and forth records how each claim was argued.
Source: AccuLynx, fall 2024 product updates (the Supplements page)
Synthetic rewrite
Rewriting a record so the way the work ran survives but the tie to the original is reduced. The buyer for 30 or more people says some datasets “may undergo synthetic rewrites that preserve workflow structure while reducing direct ties to original records.”
Source: the buyer’s wording, quoted on our article on getting paid
More: How it’s safe
WARN notice
The written notice a US employer with 100 or more employees must give 60 days before a plant closing or a mass layoff, under the federal WARN Act. States post the notices, which is how many closed companies are found.
Source: 29 U.S. Code § 2101 (who it covers)29 U.S. Code § 2102
Work order
The record of one job, also called the job file: what the crew found, what they did, the parts and hours, the photos and the sign-off.
See where your company stands
Five questions, two minutes. The estimate checks your headcount, names your buyer and shows a range, not an offer. Your company pays us nothing; how we are paid is in the referral disclosure.
See your estimate