Updated October 2026
Can I keep certain clients or folders out?
Yes, and you should decide what before the first call. Buyers say any system, folder or record type can be left out, and they agree the systems and date ranges with you before export. Some also leave out client-held data and sensitive employee and health records by default. Write your exclusions into the agreement, then check the cleaned samples to see they held.1,2,3,4
Build the list
What owners usually leave out
People: HR files, payroll, reviews, medical notes, anything about a complaint or a lawsuit. Clients: your most sensitive accounts, anyone under a confidentiality agreement, anyone who would feel betrayed. Money: bank details, card numbers, tax returns. Edge: your pricing workbook, bid sheets and anything a rival would pay to see. Some buyers promise data is not sold to competitors, but leaving the crown jewels at home is simpler.5,6
Systems: whole tools can stay out. You might license the job software and the shared drive but not the owner's inbox, and scope is agreed as part of the written offer.7
Write the list down before the first call, not during it. It is easier to add records later than to pull them back once a buyer has priced them in, and the quiz introduces you to the buyers we work with once your list is ready.
Dropped anyway
What buyers drop without being asked
Buyers remove names, contact details, account numbers and passwords before anything moves on, sometimes through an outside specialist. Some also drop whole categories, such as sensitive employee and health records, and Spirit Airlines' passenger records were left out of the archive put up for sale. Your list adds to theirs.1,7,8,9,4,10
The trade-off
Every exclusion has a price
Less data, lower value. Buyers price on the sources, volume and quality you share, so if you exclude half the archive, expect the offer to reflect it. A buyer that will not take client-held data can remove most of a bookkeeper's or MSP's records on its own. Decide which exclusions you will not trade, and which you would drop for a better price.11,12,3
Checking it held
How to check your exclusions held
Ask for cleaned samples before release. Search the samples for the names, accounts and words on your list. Keep your own copy of the exclusion list with the agreement, and ask what happens if an excluded record turns up after transfer. Frankfurt Kurnit's checklist tells sellers to exclude high-risk categories and to control how names and details are removed.13,14
FAQ
Questions, answered with sources
Review cleaned samples before release and search them for the names on your list. Keep a copy of the list with the agreement.13
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Which records must be excluded because of agreements we have signed with clients or suppliers?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
- Could the data include privileged material or trade secrets?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?