Download or delete your records

What this is for

Everything you record in Worklog belongs to you, and you can take a copy at any time without asking anyone. Business Hub has a card called “Your data” where you can download the lot, or delete it when you are done.

Only the owner of the business sees this page. It gathers staff ID numbers and bank details, so it is not something a team member can pull.

Download everything

1. From your dashboard, tap “Business Hub”, then the “Your data” card.
2. Tap “Download everything”. A bar shows it working through your records — on a busy account this takes a few seconds.
3. Your browser saves one ZIP file, named after your business and today's date, into your Downloads folder.

Inside are 47 spreadsheets grouped into folders — money, documents, people, work, items, tax and history — plus a README that lists what each file holds. The history folder holds your whole Audit Log: who added, changed or removed what, and when. The proof you kept comes too, in a proof-of-purchase folder: the slips and invoices kept with your expenses, the tax invoices kept on supplier invoices, and credit notes. Each is named by its date, the supplier or payee, the amount and whether it is a payment, a supplier invoice or a credit note. If you bought used goods from private sellers and claimed notional VAT, their signed VAT 264 and a copy of each seller's identity document come too, in proof-of-purchase/second-hand — keep them safe: they hold the sellers' personal details. The spreadsheets are ordinary CSV files, so they open in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice or any accounting package that imports spreadsheets.

If the download doesn't seem to happen

• While it gathers, the button greys out and a progress bar names each set of records as it's read — a full export takes a moment.
• When it finishes, one ZIP lands in your browser's Downloads folder and the screen names the file and how many rows went into it.
• If the connection drops or Worklog has a problem while it works, you get an error on screen and no file at all — deliberately, so half an export can never be mistaken for a complete backup. Try again.
• If a slip or a seller's paper you kept is no longer in storage, one missing file does not stop the copy. The ZIP still downloads with every spreadsheet complete, the screen says how many files could not be included, and the README inside lists each one: what it was, whose, which date and why.
• Pressing the button again while it's busy does nothing — that's the greyed-out state doing its job, not a fault.

You can still download after your plan ends

If your trial runs out, a payment fails or you cancel, Worklog goes read-only rather than locking you out. You can still open this page and download everything. Closing your account never traps your records inside it.

How long Worklog keeps your records

While your account is active, we keep everything. Once it closes — you cancel, or the subscription lapses — a clock starts, because holding your staff's personal details for an account nobody uses puts them at risk for no good reason.

• After about 3 months we delete the most sensitive details: staff ID numbers, tax numbers, dates of birth, addresses, contact numbers and bank details, and your own saved banking details.
• After about 12 months we delete the rest of your records. We also empty any login that then belongs to no business we still keep records for: its email address becomes a placeholder and its password goes, so it can no longer sign in.
• We email the owner of the account before each step — about 14 days before the first and 30 days before the second — so there is time to download a copy. If a warning goes out late, we wait at least 7 days after it. If it cannot be sent at all, we delete no later than 30 days after the date of that step, because the law does not let us keep records longer than we need them.
• The email before the 12-month step also tells the owner that any login left in no business with records is about to be emptied. We do not email each of those logins on its own.
• Start a plan again before those dates and the clock stops. Nothing is deleted.

Delete your records for good

If you are finished with Worklog you do not have to wait out the clock. At the bottom of “Your data” there is a small “Delete my records” link.

1. Download a copy first. Once this is done there is nothing left to download.
2. Tap “Delete my records”. A red panel explains exactly what goes and what stays.
3. Type DELETE in the box to confirm, then tap “Delete everything”.
4. Tap “Sign out” on the confirmation.

This clears everything you recorded — money in and out, invoices, quotes, contacts, staff, payslips, time, travel and stock. It also stops every debit order for this business first, so you won't be charged again. If Worklog can't stop one, nothing is deleted, our support team is told (if we couldn't tell them, the screen asks you to message us on WhatsApp), and you can try again in a few minutes. We keep only our own record of what you paid us for Worklog, which the Companies Act requires us to hold for seven years; it has no details of your customers, staff or jobs in it.

If your subscription was still running, your account stays open until it ends, and the usual warnings follow when it closes. If it was not, we send no further email. Your login is not emptied when you delete. If it then belongs to no business we still keep records for, we empty it about 12 months after your account closes: its email address becomes a placeholder and its password goes, so you can no longer sign in.