A client and an outsourcing provider may both rely on a workforce report while assuming the other party owns its history. A platform retention change is a useful prompt to make that responsibility explicit, before an older comparison becomes unavailable.
In an October 8, 2026 announcement, Zendesk says enforcement of its Workforce Management retention policy will roll out from January 18 to February 17, 2027. The rolling windows are 37 months for agent activity, scheduling, reporting and monitoring data, and 60 months for historical ticket counts used in forecasting. Older data will be deleted. These are future WFM limits, not a statement that all Zendesk records share those windows.
The announcement recommends exporting needed older history before enforcement and identifies WFM Reports export and the Public API as options. This article concerns reporting operations; the product policy does not determine an organization’s legal retention obligations.
Identify the reports that depend on older history
Our recommendation is to start with the reports people actually use. A monthly service review, a multi-year comparison and a staffing forecast may draw on different data. Record each report’s owner, its source, the oldest period it queries and the decision it supports.
Ask the client and provider to review that inventory together. A report that sits in the provider’s account can still support a client’s business decision. Conversely, an old dashboard may no longer serve any useful purpose. The discussion should establish what is needed rather than assume that every available record must be copied.
Consider a fictional contact-center engagement with a four-year staffing comparison. The team should check exactly which fields and periods that comparison needs. A general assurance that the platform keeps several years of data would not answer whether this particular report remains reproducible.
Assign the export and the acceptance check
If an export is needed, identify who is permitted to obtain it, where the approved copy belongs and who will verify that it works. The recipient should know what the export contains and what it leaves out. A downloaded file is only useful if the authorized team can interpret it later.
Test a small, representative sample before relying on a larger transfer. Check dates, time zones, field definitions and whether the totals reconcile with the report being preserved. Record any transformation used to make the export readable. These are suggested quality checks, not claims about defects in Zendesk’s export tools.
Use the organization’s existing access and information-handling rules. A reporting need does not automatically authorize a provider to move employee-level information into an additional system. Where responsibilities are unclear, the parties should involve the appropriate data owner before making that transfer.
Update the reporting agreement
The ongoing service plan should say who monitors platform policy changes and how the other party is informed. It should also describe where accepted historical reports can be found when personnel or suppliers change. This avoids leaving a recurring obligation attached only to someone’s personal knowledge.
Separate preservation of an agreed report from preservation of every underlying record. The right approach depends on the purpose and the organization’s requirements. If a longer retention requirement exists, the responsible team should resolve it through its normal process and the vendor’s support route.
Prepare before the deadline becomes an incident
The announced rollout leaves time for a deliberate review. A useful completion record would identify affected reports, decisions about needed history, any verified export and the owner of the continuing process.
For an outsourced operation, the central question is shared accountability. The client and provider should be able to explain what history they rely on, where it will remain available and who has checked that the planned arrangement supports the service.
AI-generated conceptual editorial image; not actual Zendesk staff, software or a documentary photograph.