[M0-D25a] Decide retention of firm advisory material when a client offboards

[smiggleworth]

Note

Follow-up discovery issue from M0-D25 #123. It produces a recorded decision, not product code.

Decision needed

When a client organization is offboarded, what happens to firm-owned advisory material that lives inside that client's tenant?

M0-D25 (2026-09-22) decided that advisory working notes live in the advisory compartment of the client organization, and M0-D27 decided that attest workpapers stay in the attest team's own audit software. It did not decide the firm's own retention obligation for advisory material once the client leaves, because that depends on the firm's engagement letters and professional obligations, not on a product rule.

Questions to answer

• Does the firm need to keep advisory working notes after a client offboards, and for how long?
• If so, may the firm retain them in a firm-controlled export, or must they stay in the disposed client tenant under an offboarding hold?
• What does the client receive in its offboarding export, and does it include the firm's advisory notes?
• Who approves final disposition of the tenant and its advisory compartment?

Involve

Firm leadership, legal counsel, product owner.

Done when

• The decision, rationale, decision owner, and date are recorded in this issue.
• F1-01 and its backend child reflect the decision.

Source

M0-D25 remaining uncertainty, 2026-09-22.