Email record retention

WorkZerk keeps a record of every email your account sends: who it went to, when, and what happened to it afterwards. That record is what the Activity log is built from. It is not kept forever, and once a record has aged out there is no copy to recover.

What is stored

Two things, with two different lifetimes.

The log entry. Written for every send, including ones refused before they left. It holds the recipient, the subject, what kind of email it was, who sent it, and the delivery outcome. This is the row you see in Activity. It holds no message text.

The message text. Kept only for client-facing mail, such as a portal invite sent to a client contact. Invites, reminders and other emails to the people you onboard never keep their text, and neither do notices to you and your team. That is why the details panel on most rows shows a delivery history and no message.

How long each lasts

Log entries: about two years, from the date the email was sent.

Message text: about one year. Shorter because the thing the email was about is still in your account; the stored text only answers "what wording did we use?"

What happens at the end

When a log entry passes its window, the row goes. The email drops off Activity and its delivery result goes with it.

When stored message text passes its window, the text goes and the log entry stays until its own, longer window runs out. So a send can lose its text and keep its delivery record, never the other way round.

Records are cleared by a scheduled sweep, so a record can stay a little longer than the stated window. It never goes earlier.

What is not on this clock

These windows apply to email records only. They do not touch:

• Portals, and everything on them: requests, notes, files and links.
• Contacts, including their email addresses and custom fields.
• Documents people uploaded to you.
• Request responses, including accepted terms and their signatures.
• The suppression list. When an address hard bounces or reports spam, we keep remembering that after everything else about the email has gone. Forgetting it would mean sending to a dead address again and hurting delivery for everyone.

If you need something for longer

Export the log. Activity has an Export CSV button that downloads whatever your current filter shows, with the delivery result on every row. It stops at 5,000 rows, so narrow the dates for anything larger. If you keep an annual compliance file, this is what belongs in it.

Export the account. Your data produces a full export of your account, including your email records.

Take the copy before you need it. Once a window has passed there is nothing to recover.

Deleting your account removes your email records along with everything else, whatever their age.

Getting help

If something here does not match what you see on screen, email [email protected] and we will take a look.