What to ask a software vendor about your employee data
Echipa HR 365 · reviewed 2026-09-15 · 5 min read
The useful questions are not about certifications, they are about operations: who on their team can reach your data, what happens when one of their employees leaves, where the backups live, and what your data looks like on the day you end the relationship. A prepared vendor answers in two minutes; one who is improvising asks for time to think on every single question.
Why a certification is not the first question
A certification says that, at some point, somebody checked a set of procedures. It does not say who has access to your database today, or what happens if one of their laptops is stolen. It is not useless — it is a starting point that many people treat as a conclusion.
The practical difference is that a certificate can be emailed, while the answers below cannot be invented on the spot. A vendor who has thought this through answers briefly and concretely. One who has not is recognisable by the length of the answer.
The nine questions
| The question | The answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Who on your team can see customer data? | “Only authorised people” — no number, no roles, no approval process |
| How do I find out that someone at your end opened my data? | “That does not happen”, or no log you can ask for |
| Where are the servers and the backups? | Hesitation, or “in the cloud” with nothing more specific |
| How long do you keep backups after I delete something? | Unknown, or “forever, just to be safe” |
| What do I get if we end this tomorrow? | “We will make you an export” — no format, no deadline |
| What happens to my data after we leave? | “We keep it, in case you come back” |
| Who are your subcontractors? | There is no list, or it is not shared |
| How will you tell me if there is an incident? | No deadline and no agreed channel |
| Can you restore my data from three weeks ago? | “In theory, yes” — never actually tried |
The question about their own access
Every software vendor has, technically, some way of reaching your data — otherwise they could not fix anything. The question is not “do you have access?”, because the honest answer is always yes. The question is how that access is controlled: who approves it, whether it expires, and whether it leaves a trace.
- Is access granted for a specific case and time-limited, or standing for the whole engineering team?
- Is there a log that you, the customer, can request?
- What happens to an employee’s access on the day they leave the vendor?
- Is there data even they cannot read — payroll, for instance?
The last point separates vendors who have thought about this from the rest. Not everything in an HR system needs to be readable by the system administrator, and if the answer is “we see everything”, at least you know that going in rather than finding out later.
The exit question, asked at the entrance
The most uncomfortable question for a salesperson is what happens when you leave. Ask it exactly then, at the start, while you still have negotiating power — not in two years, when all your data is there and you have no alternative.
What to ask for, specifically
- The format — an export in an open format (CSV or similar), not a proprietary file only they can read
- The contents — including history — timesheets, requests, attached documents, not just the current employee list
- The deadline — how many days from the request, written into the contract rather than promised verbally
- Deletion — how long after termination the data is deleted, backups included
The second point is the one most often lost. An export containing only active employees, with no leave or timesheet history, is not a migration — it is a list of names. Everything you built over two years stays behind.
How to ask them, in practice
In writing, all at once, before the demo. The reason is that in a live demo these questions get lost — the mood is presentational and you end up watching the interface. Sent by email, they get answers you can compare across vendors and return to a year from now.
A serious vendor will not take offence; on the contrary, these questions let them stand apart from the ones with no answer. Their reaction to the list is itself a piece of information.
What if the vendor refuses to answer in writing?
That is an answer in itself. A vendor who cannot put in writing who accesses customer data either has no process or will not commit to one — and either way you learned what you needed.
Are these questions too harsh for a small vendor?
No, but expectations shift. A small vendor can honestly say “two of us have access, we have no automated log, but we can set one up”. That is more useful than an evasive answer from a large one.
Who should ask — HR or IT?
HR asks, IT reads. These are questions about process, not technology, and the person who will use the system daily is the one who needs to understand the answers.
Where to start
Copy the table above into an email and send it to every vendor you are evaluating, on the same day. The differences between the replies will tell you more about them than any product demo.
Access logs and configurable roles on every module
You can see who opened what and when, and payroll access is separate from the rest of the platform — so the questions in this article have answers you can verify yourself.
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