Company-owned procedures
SOPs, playbooks, quality checks, and troubleshooting methods created by your business, with rights and confidentiality reviewed.
FORM HF-1 · The never-send listREV 10/26
For owners · Read before you sign
The never-
send list
What AI buyers pay for, what you should never send them, and the eight terms worth fighting for.
Read before you sign[ ] SELL NOW[~] CONDITIONAL[X] NEVER FOR SALE
YOU KEEP RUNNING THE BUSINESS[ ] 01 · What buyers actually pay for
The method.
Not the client.
The value is in how your company does repeatable work: the sequence, the decisions, the checks, and the exceptions your team has learned to handle. That is different from the private information passing through the process.
Buyer interest is not permission to share. A buyer’s NDA is not a cure for obligations you already owe someone else.
Reusable decision-making
How you prioritize, escalate, verify, and resolve repeatable work—without real client correspondence or personal details.
Clean, bounded examples
Reviewed templates, synthetic scenarios, and properly screened operational patterns. Raw tickets and project histories do not qualify just because they show useful work.
[~] Conditional is not cleared
A candidate stays conditional until ownership, disclosure rights, content, and terms are reviewed. “Not sure” means hold it back and resolve the gap—not move it into the sell-now bin.
[X] 02 · What must never leave the building
Useful does not mean yours to send.
These exclusions apply to samples, buyer previews, evaluation sets, and final transfers. They are not bargaining chips. Keep the originals inside the business.
- [X]
Exclusion 01
Client records
Customer lists, CRM exports, account histories, contact details, purchase records, invoices, support records, and client-specific project files. A useful workflow does not make the client record transferable.
- [X]
Exclusion 02
Client communications
Emails, messages, call recordings, transcripts, meeting notes, support conversations, and attachments. Internal copies and forwarded messages carry the same boundary.
- [X]
Exclusion 03
Anything under an NDA
Confidential information received from clients, partners, suppliers, or prospective customers—even when the NDA is old, the project is finished, or the material sits in your own system.
- [X]
Exclusion 04
Anything restricted by a contract
Deliverables, licensed inputs, subcontractor work, or source material whose contract limits disclosure, reuse, assignment, or AI training. Ownership of a copy is not permission to license it.
- [X]
Exclusion 05
Employee personal data
Personnel files, compensation, performance reviews, health information, benefits, home addresses, private messages, and applicant records. Staff details are not operational know-how.
- [X]
Exclusion 06
Credentials and access
Passwords, API keys, tokens, private keys, session cookies, recovery codes, connection strings, and live access links. Check screenshots, code snippets, logs, and document history too.
- [X]
Exclusion 07
Personal or sensitive records
Payment details, bank information, identity documents, health records, precise location data, and other personal information about customers, employees, or third parties.
- [X]
Exclusion 08
Someone else’s confidential work
Client strategies, unpublished product plans, supplier pricing, partner research, proprietary designs, and third-party trade secrets. Being trusted with information does not make it yours to sell.
- [X]
Exclusion 09
Live production data
Raw database backups, system exports, unfiltered ticket archives, and production logs containing identities, secrets, or restricted material. Never send a full dump so a buyer can ‘find the useful parts.’
- [X]
Exclusion 10
Hidden copies of excluded material
Comments, tracked changes, revision history, hidden spreadsheet tabs, embedded files, metadata, filenames, backups, and screenshots. A clean-looking page can still contain information that must stay.
- [X]
Exclusion 11
Anything you cannot confidently separate
If protected material is woven into the work and cannot be reliably removed, the original stays. Mark uncertainty for review; do not send it first and ask permission later.
Reviews, Google Business Profiles, Instagram and personal profiles, followers, unsubscribed emails and toll-free numbers are a separate list: HF-6 · Never for sale.
[X] STOP RULE: If a restriction is unresolved, that material does not ship. Redaction does not erase contractual restrictions, and an owner’s approval does not create rights they do not have.
02A · How the boundary is enforced
Review. Redact.
Owner signs off.
No buyer receives a working copy before these checks.
This is the release standard, not a promise that software can certify a document as safe. The exact material and the actual rights must be reviewed by people before any disclosure.
01Review before any disclosure
Start with an inventory of document types and rough counts—not uploads. Check provenance, ownership, contracts, confidentiality, and personal information before preparing a buyer sample. A sample is a disclosure too.
Record: source, owner, restrictions, unresolved questions.
02Build a separate, redacted copy
Keep the original inside the business. Prepare only a bounded copy of the company-owned method. Remove identities, client content, secrets, attachments, metadata, and revision history. Replace real examples with clearly labeled synthetic ones where appropriate.
Record: exclusions, substitutions, and the exact version reviewed.
03Check the copy—not just the intent
Inspect the actual export, including embedded files and hidden fields. Test whether names, identifiers, or distinctive facts still reveal a person or client. Removing a name alone is not reliable anonymization. If the remaining material is still restricted, stop.
Record: reviewer, findings, and any unresolved risk.
04Get the owner’s sign-off
The owner or authorized decision-maker reviews the exact sample and final package, the exclusions, the recipient, and the proposed use. Their own counsel reviews the terms and any rights questions. Sign-off cannot override an NDA, contract, or someone else’s rights.
Record: approver, date, version, recipient, and permitted use.
05Release only the approved package
No bulk access to your systems, no extra attachments, no quiet expansion of scope. Any change to the files, buyer, or intended use returns to review. Keep a transfer record and the agreed route for questions, deletion, and incidents.
Record: what was shared, with whom, when, and under which agreement.
[X] Original stays
A client-specific runbook
Contains a client’s name, system layout, incident emails, access instructions, and contract-specific work. Removing the name alone is not enough.
[~] Separate candidate · Still requires review
Your general escalation method
A new, company-owned explanation of triage and quality checks, using a synthetic scenario. No client facts, source correspondence, credentials, or restricted wording.
[ ] 03 · Eight terms to insist on
The agreement matters
as much as the asset.
These are negotiating priorities for your own counsel—not ready-made legal clauses or guaranteed buyer concessions. If the agreement cannot respect the boundary, do not release the material.
[ ] Term 01
A precise asset schedule
Name the specific files and versions licensed, list exclusions, and keep everything else out of scope. Avoid ‘all company data’ or open-ended access.
[ ] Term 02
A defined purpose
Specify the buyer, intended use, and whether model training, evaluation, retrieval, or another use is allowed. New purposes need a new decision.
[ ] Term 03
No onward sharing by default
Address affiliates, subcontractors, sublicensing, resale, and publication expressly. Require any permitted recipient to carry the same restrictions.
[ ] Term 04
Ownership stays clear
Distinguish a license from a sale of ownership. Define exclusivity, duration, territory, and your ability to keep using your own know-how.
[ ] Term 05
Security and incident duties
Set access controls, storage protections, incident notification, and responsibility for permitted processors. Ask how the buyer will protect the actual package.
[ ] Term 06
Retention, deletion, and model limits
Agree retention periods, deletion triggers, confirmation, and treatment of backups and derived copies. Do not assume deleting source files removes learned information from an already-trained model; settle those limits before signing.
[ ] Term 07
Payment and acceptance
Define price, payment timing, sample restrictions, acceptance criteria, and what happens if the buyer declines. A sample is not permission for unrestricted use.
[ ] Term 08
Accountability and an exit
Negotiate evidence of compliance, a remedy for misuse, termination rights, and balanced warranties and liability. Have your own counsel review what your company can reasonably promise.
The owner keeps the decision
Start with descriptions.
Not documents.
Name the kinds of work your business has documented. Use rough counts. Leave out names, client facts, credentials, and restricted details. You do not need to disclose the underlying records to start an inventory.
Request your 20-minute inventoryFORM HF-1 · Release standardREV 10/26
- [ ]Restrictions resolved—or material excluded
- [ ]Exact copy reviewed and redacted
- [ ]Owner approves the package and purpose
- [ ]Own counsel reviews the agreement
- [ ]Only the approved version leaves
FORM HF-0 · INVENTORY REQUEST
Ready when you are.
A 20-minute call with the Howfold Desk. We'll reply by email with a time.