Data export and account
Your data is yours. ZekoHR can hand over a complete archive of your organisation on request, and the account lifecycle (cancelling, pausing, coming back, final deletion) follows fixed windows so nothing disappears without warning. Both are available even when the account is in a payment grace period or suspended, because a locked-out customer must still be able to get their data and leave.
Who can do this: The full export needs `account.export`, which only the Admin bundle holds by default (it is deliberately separate from the per-person `gdpr.export_user_data`). Subscription changes are reserved for the recorded account owner, normally the person who signed up; where no owner is recorded, any Admin may act.
Where to find it
Neither action has a page in Settings. For an export, ask the ZekoHR team at [email protected] from an Admin account, stating your workspace address; for subscription changes, write to [email protected] from the account owner's address.
The full data export
What you get: one ZIP containing every organisation-scoped table as data files plus every uploaded file (documents, receipts, logos, letters), with row counts recorded on the export.
How it runs:
- You ask the ZekoHR team for an export. One export runs at a time per organisation; if one is already in progress you get that one rather than a second.
- ZekoHR builds the archive. Depending on size this takes minutes.
- When it is ready, the requester receives the always-on notification Your data export is ready in-app and by email, with the expiry time.
- The archive is downloaded through the short-lived link in that notification. It stays downloadable for 7 days, after which the link reads "This export has expired. Request a new one."
The export always includes data from modules that are not on your current plan: the data still belongs to you even when the screens are hidden.
Cancelling the subscription
Ask the ZekoHR team to cancel. They record a reason for the platform's roadmap (it is shown nowhere in your portal) and, the first time, may offer a pause, a discount or a downgrade instead; a discount or downgrade is applied by the team and confirmed by email. After cancellation the account is read-only: people can sign in and view, nothing can be written, and the export still works. Settings → Billing shows the status Cancelled.
Pause and resume
A pause stops billing and access for an agreed window, by default up to 90 days. Everything is kept. The account resumes automatically at the end of the window, or earlier on request to the ZekoHR team. Settings → Billing shows the status Paused while it lasts.
Retention and deletion
| Event | Window (default) | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Payment fails | 7 days past due | Account stays fully usable while retries run |
| Retries exhausted, or trial ends unpaid | 14 days grace | Read-only; paying restores it immediately |
| Grace ends | Suspended | Sign-in blocked except the billing path; paying still restores it |
| Cancelled | 90 days retention | Read-only and exportable; warnings sent 30 and 7 days before the end; the account can be reactivated with everything intact |
| Retention ends | Purged | Every table and file is deleted; only the platform's audit record of the deletion survives |
Windows can be longer on enterprise plans. Grandfathered and billing-exempt organisations are never dunned, suspended or purged automatically.
What happens next
- Every status change is written to your audit log (`subscription.cancelled`, `subscription.paused`, `subscription.activated` and so on) and, for suspension, cancellation and purge, to the platform's permanent audit log.
- Export requests are logged with the requester's id and the row counts.
Rules and limits
- Downloading an export needs the same Admin permission as requesting it; the link cannot be used by someone without it.
- Expired archives are deleted from storage; request a fresh one.
- A purged organisation cannot be reactivated; take an export before the retention window closes.
- The retention offer is made once per organisation.
Troubleshooting
The export has been pending for an hour. Ask the ZekoHR team at [email protected] to check on it.
I downloaded the ZIP but documents are missing. Files that failed to copy are listed in the archive's row counts; report this to the ZekoHR team.
We cancelled and now want to come back. Within the 90-day window, ask the ZekoHR team to reactivate; nothing has been lost.
Which plan features count during grace? All of them, read-only. See Plans and trial.