Your team shrank. Which headcount belongs in a data appraisal?
A smaller team today and a larger account directory describe different parts of your archive. Give the appraisal current and peak staff separately, then confirm which count the proposed route uses before planning around a company-archive benchmark.
You open a data appraisal and it asks how many people work at your company. Your team has shrunk, years of work remain in its systems, and the account directory is much larger than today's payroll. Which number should you enter?
Start with full-time staff today, or when the company closed. Add the historical peak separately, as Rightmark's operational-data appraisal requests. Keep user and mailbox counts in the inventory of systems. They describe different things, and none alone establishes how much of the archive can be licensed.
This is a practical problem in the current intake. Eight of 14 distinct open company intakes report a larger peak team than their current staff. A separate illustration from that same group reports 32 current staff, 32 peak staff and 230 users or mailboxes. The last field does not establish a 230-person workforce. Nor do these numbers establish a price.
The stakes are practical: three of these 14 intakes report fewer than 30 staff now but at least 30 at their peak. Thirty staff is one published fit check for a common company-archive route. The counting basis can therefore matter to the routing discussion, even though it cannot establish acceptance or price. For archives in the 30 to 99 staff band, the published program summary is $185,000 to $720,000 per company, depending on years and region. That is a reason to get the scope checked before committing to preparation, not a price for any intake here.
Today's team does not tell the whole history
We read all 16 company-archive submission records visible in the admin inventory on November 10. After excluding one closed-lost submission and combining two forms from the same company, 14 distinct open company intakes remained. These are owners' reported counts, not independently verified payroll or archive measurements.
14 distinct open company intakes. Owner-reported staff, checked 10 Nov 2026.
| Reported peak compared with current staff | Distinct company intakes | What the owner should clarify |
|---|---|---|
| Peak was higher | 8 | When the larger team worked, and which of its records remain |
| Peak was the same | 1 | The dates and systems covered by that count |
| Peak was not given | 5 | Whether the figure is unknown or simply omitted |
Visible calculation: 16 submission records − 1 closed-lost record − 1 repeat form = 14 distinct open intakes. The categories sum to 8 + 1 + 5 = 14. Eight out of 14 is about 57%; this small intake group is not a market-wide estimate.
A missing peak is not zero, and it does not mean the team never changed. For the repeated company, both forms reported the same current headcount; one supplied a peak and the other omitted it. We retained the reported peak and counted the company once.
If your team has contracted, show the historical count with its period. Then establish whether records from that period survive in the proposed archive. A larger past workforce is context for that question; it does not prove that the corresponding records were retained, that rights are clear, or that the archive meets a buyer's requirements.
Keep people and accounts in separate columns
One intake makes the distinction especially clear. Its owner reported three figures:
| Intake field | Reported count | What it establishes at this stage |
|---|---|---|
| Current staff | 32 | The owner's answer about today's team |
| Peak staff | 32 | The owner's answer about the largest team |
| Users or mailboxes | 230 | A combined intake field that still needs its contents defined |
The 230 figure is not verified as 230 mailboxes, 230 different people, or 230 people whose records are included and licensable. The form groups “users or mailboxes” together. We do not add it to headcount or turn the difference into a count of former employees.
For your own inventory, identify which system each count came from, its date and what it includes. Distinguish active staff accounts, former staff accounts, shared mailboxes, guests and service accounts where those categories exist. These are questions to resolve, not categories we verified in this case. Record overlap between tools rather than adding their user totals together.
Then ask which accounts actually have retained records in the proposed export. An account list is useful evidence about a system; the deliverable is the defined archive, with its records, relationships and permission scope.
The money: $185,000 to $1M+ is per company
Rightmark's current Price Index gives an indicative $185,000 to $1M+ USD per company for operating-company archives with 30 or more staff and mostly English records, with Medium confidence. This is a September 2026 summary of public program calculators and stated ranges, carried in the Q4 edition published October 26. No single underlying public page states the combined bands.
For 30 to 99 staff, the same index gives a narrower typical program band of $185,000 to $720,000 USD per company, depending on years and region. It remains a published aggregate with the same source limits, not a quote for the 32-staff intake. Headcount alone does not establish that the package falls within the benchmark's scope.
The priced unit is an archive licensed as one company package. The index describes lump sums as usually exclusive for a term. It names full-time staff, region, retained years and linked tools as appraisal inputs, but it does not provide a numeric per-employee or per-mailbox tariff that would price the intake above.
| Public dollar reference, checked November 10 | Scope and evidence stage | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| $185,000 to $1M+ USD per company | Rightmark's operating-company program aggregate; 30+ staff and mostly English records; Medium confidence | Context for an appraisal, not a minimum payment or an offer |
| $185,000 to $720,000 USD per company | The same public program summary for 30 to 99 staff; depends on years and region; Medium confidence | A more relevant size band to discuss, without treating headcount as proof of value or qualification |
| $170,000 to $300,000 USD for one company archive | The public appraisal's built-in example: 30 staff, 3 years, 3 tool types; indicative model result, Medium confidence | An example of a specified model scope, not an estimate for the 32-staff intake |
The public appraisal example starts below the broad index band's lower endpoint: $170,000 is below $185,000. That alone shows why you should not treat $185,000 as a minimum payment. The two references have different scopes. They do not measure a change in market prices, and we have not run controlled scenarios to isolate the effect of headcount.
The commercial insight: use the benchmark to decide whether to seek a scoped appraisal, then budget against the actual proposed agreement. None of these public ranges represents net owner proceeds, an accepted offer or a completed payment for the intake in this note. Replacing 32 staff with 230 accounts would not be a defensible way to calculate its value.
Before commissioning preparation, establish the package being considered, the rights requested and the conditions attached to payment. Obtain a quote for the required export, masking and delivery work. Compare the amount contractually payable to you with those costs, applicable fees and taxes. No offer or preparation-cost evidence is established for this case, so there is no defensible net-proceeds calculation or promise that preparation will pay for itself.
Match the counts to what the program needs
The public operational-data guide uses 30+ staff as one fit check for a common lump-sum route. It also checks retained history, linked tools, region, English records and willingness to consider an exclusive term. These are program-fit questions, not universal requirements for every data license. Crossing a headcount threshold does not establish acceptance.
Three of the 14 open company intakes report current staff below 30 and peak staff of at least 30. This is a second view of the same intake group, not three new cases.
Visible calculation: count each distinct open intake once where current staff < 30 and reported peak staff ≥ 30: 3 of 14. A missing peak is not counted as meeting that condition.
For these owners, the date attached to headcount changes the comparison with the public fit check. It does not establish that their archive qualifies. Ask: “Does this route count full-time staff today, at closure or at peak, and which retained records must support that count?” Provide both dated figures; do not silently substitute the larger one. Resolve that basis before paying to prepare a full archive.
Current buyer records were also reread for this note. They contain qualification questions and unresolved terms; they do not turn this intake's counts into a cleared public offer. We keep those private terms and identities out of the article. The public company-archive lot remains in preparation, and the Wanted board had no open public request entry when checked on November 10. The appropriate next step is qualification and appraisal, not preparation against an assumed purchase.
| If this describes your archive | Prepare this next | A realistic expectation |
|---|---|---|
| The team was once larger | Current or closure staff, historical peak and its period; which records remain from that period | A reviewer can distinguish past scale from the retained package |
| There are far more accounts than staff | A dated account inventory by tool and account type, with overlap and export coverage explained | A reviewer can interpret the counts without treating every account as an employee |
| Headcount is near a program threshold | The accurately defined staff count and evidence of the other fit requirements | A routing discussion; peak or account totals alone do not prove eligibility |
| You already have an estimate | The inputs, date, model/version if supplied, proposed license scope and a preparation quote | A cost decision tied to a specific package; no assured payment |
Keep these facts on one inventory sheet. The improvement you can make now is the accuracy of the proposed scope, not an artificially larger number. Ask the reviewer which gaps could change qualification, what evidence would resolve them, and which preparation work is needed before any priced proposal.
Source, scope and limits
The admin inventory and all 16 linked company-archive records were read live on November 10, 2026, with the inventory count checked before and after extraction. The 14-company group excludes the closed-lost record and deduplicates the repeated company. Missing peak values stay missing. The selected intake is already part of the group, not a second independent sample.
Counts are owner assertions. No saved systems list or verification checks appeared in the corresponding sections of these open submission records; that does not establish that no supporting material exists elsewhere. Intake answer versions vary across v1, v4 and v5. The latest appraisal entries on the open records show model 1.7.0+index/2026-q4. We do not compare their private dollar outputs or infer a relationship between headcount and prices from them.
Compared with the November 4 check, the inventory now contains one additional company intake, submitted on November 5. It reports 30 current staff and no peak. The distinct open group therefore increases from 13 to 14, and the higher-peak share changes from about 62% to about 57%. The eight higher-peak cases, the three threshold-spanning cases and the 32-staff/230-account illustration are unchanged. This is a small intake update, not evidence of a market-wide shift.
Public source pages and their current displayed price references were reread on November 10. Sources: Price Index and scope, operational-data definitions and fit checks, public appraisal example, company-archive lot and Wanted. These references establish published estimates and program guidance, not a case-specific offer, accepted archive, payment or preparation budget.
Company operating archives with connected records
Rightmark is assembling company-owned chat, tickets, documents and wikis from agencies and software companies, across several years and tools, mostly in English. Preserve the links that show how work moved between systems.
See what qualifies for the company-archive lot. Describe current or closure staff and historical peak separately from account counts. Identify export and use rights; flag client-confidential material and records needing permission or masking review. The lot has no published price or named owner and is not a buyer offer.
An indicative operating-company benchmark
$185,000 to $1M+
USD per company · 30+ staff, mostly English records · Medium confidence.
Rightmark's September 2026 public-program summary, carried in the Q4 Price Index. Usually an exclusive lump sum for a term. This separate reference does not price the assembling lot or the intake above, and it is not a per-person rate, minimum payment or net payout. No single underlying public page states the combined bands.
Price Index, Q4 2026 · Checked November 10, 2026. Indicative estimate, not an offer. Final offers depend on the systems you connect, data size and quality, access terms and due diligence.
Start with a dated inventory of the archive you can actually provide
Enter the staff figures as defined, then describe the tools, retained years and records available. The initial appraisal needs answers about your data, not an upload of your files or access to your systems.
Unsure which count or permission scope applies? Talk to us before committing to preparation.