How it works
How a sale or license of a company's records runs.
Some AI developers pay for real business records, such as ledgers, invoices, work orders, email and system exports, and use them to build and test software. A sale or license of those records runs in four stages, in the same order for an owner and an estate. Nothing moves without your written approval and any court, lender or creditor approval your counsel says applies, and no files are needed to start.
The process
Four stages. No files first.
Confirm control and systems
A short call or email establishes what survives: which accounting, ERP, quoting, production, email and document systems were used, how many years remain, and whether the records connect from an order to the work, the invoice and the payment.
It also establishes who can authorize a license: the owner or an authorized officer, or for an estate the trustee, receiver, assignee or plan trustee under the appointment, and whether a lender's lien reaches the records.
No files, logins or confidential details are needed.
The one-page assessment, then an unnamed profile
We prepare a one-page records assessment from the docket, notices and public filings, or from your description for a company outside a court process. It is prepared at no charge. It is not a valuation and not an offer, and it is for the file either way. See a fictional example.
With your permission, we then describe the records to several buyers without naming the company: which systems, how many years and rough counts. You approve the description and which buyers see it. No files and no logins are shared.
Proposals side by side, and a sample if one is asked for
Any proposal we receive comes to you in the same format: price, package, permitted uses, exclusivity, de-identification method and the buyer's fee to FirmLedge.
A buyer may ask for a narrow sample or schema review before proposing terms. You decide whether to provide one, under NDA and agreed access terms.
Your decision, de-identification and the written license
You choose whether to proceed, which buyer, which records, what uses are allowed and whether any buyer gets exclusivity, with any court, lender or creditor approval your counsel says is needed.
Identifying information is removed or replaced under a process you approve before evaluation, training, product use or any other agreed use. Raw-record access for extraction or de-identification requires a separately approved handling agreement limited to those steps. You review and approve the exact package, exclusions, recipients and uses separately before release. The written license limits the buyer's uses and bars re-identification and contact with employees or customers.
Originals stay with you. You keep whatever you must retain for tax, payroll, safety or court purposes.
Approvals by situation
Who has to agree depends on where the records sit.
Holding records does not by itself establish the right to license them. Source authority, third-party rights, confidentiality and exclusions are addressed for the specific package.
This describes FirmLedge's process. It is not legal advice; your own counsel decides what approvals and notices apply to you.
- operating, closing or closed company
- The board or owners authorize it, through an authorized officer. A lender with a lien on the company's assets may need to consent.
- sold company
- The purchase agreement decides which records the seller kept and what it may do with them.
- bankruptcy
- Usually a notice to creditors and possibly an order.
- receivership
- Follows your order, and lender consent where the lien reaches general intangibles.
- assignment for the benefit of creditors
- Follows your state's statute.
- liquidating trust
- Under the plan and trust agreement.
De-identification
De-identification before use.
Personal and identifying information is removed or replaced under a process you approve before evaluation, training, product use or any other agreed use.
If a buyer performs extraction or de-identification, raw-record access requires a separately approved handling agreement limited to those steps. Any other use requires separate release approval and agreed terms.
The parties agree who performs the preparation, with which tools and in which locations, before any records are shared. FirmLedge coordinates that process and your review of the proposed release.
The agreed preparation may remove or replace names, contact details, bank and tax identifiers and other personal information while preserving the links that make records useful, such as invoice to payment and job to cost.
What we will tell you plainly
Removing names does not guarantee anonymity. Distinctive figures can still identify a business or person. Release review may require further preparation, restricted access or declining a package.
NIST SP 800-188 informs identification-risk assessment. It is technical guidance, not legal clearance.
We plan to have privacy and data-licensing experts review the first transaction's process and terms before release.
Exclusions
What stays out from the start.
These are excluded from the first offer. You and your counsel can add to the list.
- 01Personnel, payroll and timekeeping files.
- 02Biometric time-clock data.
- 03Bank and card data.
- 04Government IDs, I-9s and medical notes.
- 05Privileged legal files.
- 06Customer-owned patterns and drawings.
- 07Export-controlled data.
- 08Records covered by NDAs or vendor terms that bar the use.
- 09Anything a court order did not preserve.
Boundaries
What we will not do.
These hold for every owner and every estate, from the first conversation on.
- 01Share a company's name with a buyer before you approve it.
Buyers see an unnamed profile first.
- 02Move files before access and handling are agreed in writing.
The first steps need descriptions, not records.
- 03Include personnel, payroll or timekeeping data.
They stay out from the start, with the other exclusions above.
- 04Promise anonymity by removing names alone.
Removing names does not guarantee anonymity. Distinctive figures can still identify a business or person.
- 05Cite a price before buyers have responded in writing.
A number comes only from an inventory and a buyer's written response.
- 06Proceed without the approvals your counsel says apply.
Court, creditor or lender approval comes first where it applies.
- 07Take a fee from you in the buyer-paid route.
The buyer pays FirmLedge, and that fee is shown next to its proposal.
- 08Buy the records ourselves.
FirmLedge does not buy or resell the records or take a principal position in them.
What we ask a source for
Documents and lists, not the records.
None of these is the records themselves, and not every item applies to every company. Estimates and "unknown" are fine.
- authority
- The appointing order, assignment or board resolution, and who signs
- sale procedures
- Any sale or bidding procedures, de minimis order, plan or trust agreement
- lien position
- Whether the lender's security reaches records and software, and any consent or carve-out
- privacy
- The privacy policies and employee notices in effect
- systems
- Each system, its years and rough counts, where it is hosted and whether access still works
- holds and retention
- Litigation holds, investigations and retention duties
- contracts
- Customer and vendor contracts, NDAs and portal terms with confidentiality or data-use clauses
- government and export
- Government contracts, export classifications and controlled-data handling
- prior licenses
- Any earlier data license or sale
- privilege
- Litigation files and outside counsel to exclude
For data buyers
The same process, from the buyer's side.
A buyer sees an unnamed profile first, a named introduction after the source approves, and any sample under its own intake and de-identification process, under NDA. Permitted uses, de-identification and any exclusivity are set in the written license the source approves.
No files first
Start with the assessment.
It is prepared at no charge, and it is not a valuation or an offer. Keep the first note non-confidential.