What this means for your team

The signed version stays the signed version

Lock the executed contract for its term and the years after it, so nobody replaces it with a later draft. Earlier versions are kept, and deleting one early needs approval from two different administrators.

An NDA that does not spread

Only the owner can share a file, only inside your organisation, and recipients cannot pass it on. That is the opposite of a sharing link that gets forwarded twice and ends up somewhere nobody intended.

Recordings without the storage argument

Knowledge-transfer sessions and meeting recordings are big and they accumulate. Files up to 5 TB are supported and you pay for the data you keep — not per person — so the answer to "can we keep this?" stops depending on someone's mailbox quota.

Who watched the handover session

Every download is recorded against the person who asked for it. When a dispute or an exit interview raises the question of who had the material, you answer from the record.

Where the usual tools struggle

Collaboration platforms are built for working on documents, not for keeping the final one untouched for seven years.

Anyone can edit the final copy

In a shared drive, the person who can open the executed PDF can usually replace it. Retention makes that impossible for as long as you set, whoever they are.

Links travel

Sharing links are designed to be passed around, and reconstructing who actually opened one is painful. Here the list of people who could see a file is closed and recorded.

Cost grows with headcount

Seat-based platforms charge for people, so archives compete with licences. DataFrugal charges for the data you protect, which suits material that must simply sit there for years.

What DataFrugal does not do

  • No preview or playback. To watch a recording or read a contract you download it. That is deliberate — it is why every look at a file's contents leaves a record.
  • It is not a collaboration tool. No co-editing, comments or approval workflow — keep those where you draft.
  • Search covers names and labels, not the words inside a document or the speech in a recording.

So it sits after the work, not during it. Draft and negotiate wherever you do that today; when a document is signed or a session is recorded, it goes here to stay unchanged and accounted for.

Label files as you upload them — counterparty, contract type, expiry — and you can find them later without opening anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this replace SharePoint or Google Drive?

Not for day-to-day work. Keep drafting where you draft. This is for the finished article — the signed contract, the NDA, the recording — which needs to survive unchanged and be accounted for long after the project ends.

Can people watch a recording in the browser?

No. There is no preview or playback: they download it to watch. The trade-off is that there is no way to view material without it being recorded, which is what makes the access record complete.

Can we stop a contract being deleted before its term ends?

Yes. Set a retention period and it cannot be changed or deleted until it expires. Early deletion needs a request approved by two different administrators, and nobody can approve their own request.

How do we find a contract years later?

Search by file name and by the labels you added when uploading — counterparty, contract type, renewal date. DataFrugal does not read inside your files, so the labels you set are what makes them findable.

Can an outside counterparty collect a copy?

Sharing works inside your organisation, so you would give them an identity in it and share the folder — the same approach used for partner file exchange. Their access can be withdrawn when the matter closes.

Start with this year's signed contracts

Upload the executed copies, set a retention period, and see who opens them from then on.

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