---
id: KB-LE-029
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/legal/coming-in-to-rebuild-someone-elses-archive
idioma: en
categoria: sector-legal
subcategoria: concursal
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-LE-028, KB-LE-021]
citadoPor: [KB-LE-008]
---

# Coming in to rebuild someone else's archive

_You arrive at a company where people are leaving and systems are being switched off. Every week there is less to rebuild and fewer people to ask._

**Responde a:** rebuilding a company's documentation · access to systems of a distressed company · which documentation to secure first · people leaving and taking the knowledge

You walk into a company going through a difficult moment and your job starts with finding out what exists. **Nobody is going to tell you the whole of it**: whoever knew has left or is leaving, access is in the names of people no longer there, and the information sits across systems somebody might stop paying for next month. It is the position with the most urgency and the least context of them all.

## What degrades, and how fast

| What exists | How long it lasts | What to do first |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The people who know | Weeks | Ask and write it down |
| Personal access rights | Until they leave | Recover them now |
| Contracted services | Until non-payment | Inventory them |
| **Paper in the office** | **Until it closes** | **Locate it early** |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **The first task is not organising, it is securing.** It is counter-intuitive for anyone coming from archive work: the temptation is to start classifying, and the urgent thing is the opposite — putting beyond reach of loss whatever is about to disappear, even if it stays untidy. A messily exported mailbox can be classified in three months; an account closed for non-payment is not recovered by any later effort.

## The order that works in the first weeks

1. **Inventory where the information lives** — Which services, which machines, which cabinets, and in whose name.
2. **Secure access before contents** — What cannot be opened may as well not exist.
3. **Talk to whoever is leaving, before they leave** — It is the shortest window and the most informative.
4. **And record what was found and what was not** — A documented absence is a finding; an undocumented one is a doubt.

> [!WARNING]
> The commonest mistake in this position is **assuming information will be where it ought to be**. It rarely is: what matters usually lives on one particular person's machine, in a personal mailbox, or in a service paid for with a card that no longer works. Asking «where is this actually?» of the people still there, during the first fortnight, yields more than any orderly search of the official locations.

> [!NOTE]
> What powers you hold to access information, what must be retained by law, for how long, and what duties apply to personal data of employees and customers **is determined by the applicable rules and your engagement, and settled by your adviser**. Here we cover the organisational part: how to secure what is degrading and how to evidence what could not be found.

**Where do I start?**

With access and with people. Paper and files last longer.

**What about what does not turn up?**

Document the search and the outcome. A proven absence has value.

**How much time do I have?**

Less than it seems: it is measured in weeks and set by when people leave.

## Ejemplos

**Information is scattered across mailboxes and personal machines.**

- Gathers what is recovered into a common file

→ It stops depending on who held what.

**The person who knew the archive is leaving in a fortnight.**

- Allows collecting and storing what they provide before they go

→ The knowledge is captured before they leave.

**A key document does not turn up and no search is on record.**

- Records what was requested and what was obtained

→ The absence is documented as a finding.

**Documentation must be requested from dozens of third parties at once.**

- Sends the requests and chases automatically

→ The work does not scale with the number of contacts.

**Nobody knows what has already been reviewed and what has not.**

- Shows the status of what was requested and received

→ Progress is visible without status meetings.

**What is recovered is stored with no control over who can see it.**

- Restricts access according to who needs to consult it

→ Sensitive information is not within everyone's reach.