Data Retention Policy
Last updated: 20 May 2026
Purpose
This policy explains how SiteBalance Ltd handles retention of customer records, workplace records, audit trails, uploaded photos and signatures, backups, account data, company data, site records, user records, and accounting, invoice, or payment records where applicable.
Who controls retention
Customers and companies decide what workplace records are created and how long those records need to be kept. SiteBalance Ltd provides the software and a default retention approach for UK companies using SiteBalance.
Customers should set retention rules based on their legal, safety, employment, contract, insurance, and operational requirements. SiteBalance should not silently delete submitted safety or workplace records.
Default retention periods
| Record type | Default retention | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Account/company data | While the account is active | May be retained for a reasonable period after closure for legal, audit, account, or support reasons. |
| User accounts | While active, plus a reasonable period after deactivation | User identity may need to remain linked to audit history and submitted records. |
| Daily diaries | Default up to 6 years after submission or account closure | Customers may request a different period where lawful and appropriate. |
| Vehicle checks/faults | Default up to 6 years after submission or account closure | These may be workplace, safety, operational, or compliance records. |
| Plant checks/faults | Default up to 6 years after submission or account closure | Includes plant pre-use records and defect/fault records. |
| HAVS/HSEQ records | Default up to 6 years after submission or account closure | Customers should check whether law, occupational health, insurance, or internal policy requires longer retention. |
| Uploaded photos/signatures/files | Retained with the related record | Uploaded media is treated as part of the customer record. |
| Audit trails | Retained for the same period as the related record | The audit trail records who changed what, when, and why. |
| Accounting, invoice, or payment records | Normally up to 6 years | Retained where applicable for accounting, tax, legal, invoice, payment, and customer account purposes. |
| Backups | Normally up to 90 days | Backups are for operational recovery and may retain changed or deleted data temporarily until overwritten. |
| Security/technical logs | Limited operational/security period | Retention depends on hosting, security, investigation, and operational needs. |
| Draft records | Shorter period where cleanup is enabled | Draft or unsubmitted records may be deleted by the user or removed after a shorter period if the customer enables cleanup. |
Submitted records and audit trail
Submitted workplace/safety records may be compliance, audit, operational, employment, insurance, or legal records. They are not normally hard-deleted by normal users. Corrections should usually be made by amendment or edit with an audit trail where possible.
Field users and supervisors can amend their own submitted records for 24 hours where the app policy allows, with an audit trail and reason. Managers, owners, and platform administrators can amend records according to permissions, with an audit reason. Audit logs should be retained with the related record.
Where deletion is requested, SiteBalance may handle the request by archive, anonymisation, deletion, export, or another appropriate action depending on legal, audit, contractual, and operational needs.
Customer requests
Customers can request export of records, correction of records, lawful archiving or deletion, a change to retention period, or closure of an account. Some requests may need to be assessed against legal, safety, employment, insurance, audit, accounting, invoice, payment, and contractual requirements.
User requests
Individual users should usually contact their employer or company administrator first because workplace records belong to the customer workspace. Privacy requests can also be sent to privacy@sitebalance.co.uk.
Backups
Backups are used for disaster recovery and operational recovery. They may retain deleted or changed data temporarily until overwritten. SiteBalance does not promise instant deletion from backups. Backups are retained for operational recovery, normally up to 90 days.
Account closure
When a customer leaves SiteBalance, export can be requested. Records may be retained for a reasonable period for legal, audit, accounting, invoice, payment, support, security, or dispute reasons. Records may then be deleted, archived, or anonymised according to agreement, law, and operational requirements.
Legal holds
SiteBalance may retain information for longer where needed for disputes, investigations, legal obligations, security, fraud prevention, enforcement of terms, or protection of the service.
Contact
For retention questions, contact support@sitebalance.co.uk. For privacy or data protection requests, contact privacy@sitebalance.co.uk.