Which three tools does this post cover?
Box, Slack and Microsoft 365 OneDrive each keep deleted items for different lengths of time, and administrators can change some of those periods. If you run a small office or keep the books, it helps to know these periods before you need them, because the window to recover a deleted file can be shorter than you might expect. The sections below explain what each vendor's own help pages say, where those statements stop, and what to do about it. Nothing here replaces checking the settings in your own accounts.
Key takeaways
- Box: the default Trash period is 30 days, and administrators of business and enterprise accounts can shorten or lengthen it.
- Slack: free plans can choose 90 days or one year, while paid plans keep data for the lifetime of the workspace by default.
- OneDrive: when a user is deleted, their OneDrive moves to the site collection recycle bin after seven days and is kept for 93 days.
- Microsoft 365: retention policies and retention labels take precedence over the standard OneDrive deletion process, so check them.
- All three: check each setting in your own accounts before you rely on it.
How long does Box keep a deleted file?
Box keeps items you place in its Trash for a set period. The default is 30 days, and administrators of business and enterprise accounts can shorten or lengthen it. Box's help article on the Trash describes the setting, and it is the place to start if your invoice folders live in Box. Managing Trash – Box Support
Treat that 30-day number as a starting point rather than a guarantee for your account. An administrator may have left the default alone, shortened it, or lengthened it. The number by itself will not tell you which one applies, so you need to ask whoever manages the account. A bookkeeper who assumes the default is in place may wait too long to look, and a shorter setting leaves even less room.
The same article says that items in the Trash do not count toward total storage allocations. That detail matters for a business that keeps large amounts of scanned invoices, because a deleted file sitting in the Trash does not use up the storage your plan includes. It does not change how long the file lasts, though. Storage and retention are separate questions, and only the retention period decides when a deleted file is gone.
Illustrative example: a deleted invoice file
A bookkeeper removes an invoice from a shared folder on day 0, and the default period is unchanged. The file should still be in the Trash for roughly 30 days. Noticing it on day 15 leaves 15 days to act, but noticing it after day 30 means the default alone will not help, and another copy is needed.
How long does Slack keep messages and files?
Slack's answer depends mostly on your plan. On the free plan, you can choose to retain data for 90 days or one year. On paid plans, data is kept for the lifetime of your workspace by default. Both statements come from Slack's help article on customizing data retention, and they are the first things to check before you plan around Slack.
On a free workspace, the choice between 90 days and one year matters a great deal for chat history. The same article says Slack will delete messages, edits, and deletions after 90 days. If your workspace uses that period, a vendor's invoice sent as a chat message, or a payment confirmation posted in a channel, could be gone by the time someone goes looking for it. A search that turns up nothing is not proof that nothing was sent, so check the retention setting before you decide that a message never existed.
On a paid plan, the default is much longer: data is kept for the lifetime of the workspace. That is a reason to find out which plan you are on, not a reason to assume the history is safe.
Files follow their own rule. The same article says files with no shares have a 30-day grace period, and after that they are hidden from the organization. Files that have been shared are a separate case that this sentence does not cover, so read the full article for them rather than assuming the same timing.
How long does OneDrive keep files after a user is deleted?
When a user account is deleted, Microsoft says that after seven days the deleted user's OneDrive is moved to the site collection recycle bin, where it is kept for 93 days. That sequence is set out on the OneDrive retention and deletion page on Microsoft Learn. Note that these figures describe a deleted account, so do not treat 93 days as the answer for every deletion, such as one person removing a single file from a OneDrive they still use.
That distinction matters when staff leave. The sequence covers the OneDrive of a deleted user, so the invoices stored in a former employee's OneDrive fall under it. The page also describes two stages, a move and then a keep period, so the files are moved and kept rather than erased the moment the account is removed.
For a small business, the practical step is simple. Before any employee leaves, make sure the invoices and payment files they hold are copied to a location the business controls.
Can an admin retention policy change these periods?
Yes. The OneDrive page says that retention settings from retention policies and retention labels take precedence over the standard OneDrive deletion process. The same page warns that content included for OneDrive retention could be deleted earlier than the standard process would delete it, or kept for longer than the OneDrive retention period. OneDrive retention and deletion
In plain terms, a retention policy can override the periods in this post, in either direction. A file you expect to disappear after a standard period may stay longer because a policy covers it, and a file you expect to keep may go sooner. That follows directly from how the page describes precedence, so it is not a fault in your setup.
A business owner who has never set up a retention policy may still be under one. An outside IT provider or an earlier administrator may have applied one. The only reliable way to know is to ask someone who can see the Microsoft 365 admin settings, and to ask specifically about policies and labels that touch the folders where invoices live.
Why do the three tools give such different periods?
Each vendor sets its own defaults, and those defaults often depend on the type of account or plan you hold.
The numbers also measure different things, so comparing them directly can mislead you. Box's figure covers the Trash. Slack's figures cover messages, edits and deletions, along with files that have no shares. OneDrive's figures cover the files of a deleted account, while retention rules cover whatever a policy says to keep. A short period in one product says nothing about the others, and a long period in one does not make the others safe.
Read as this post's own interpretation rather than a vendor statement, a trash folder is for recovering your own mistakes, a messaging workspace keeps conversations for the people in it, and a cloud drive holds files for a person or team that may change over time. Administrators can change some of these defaults, as shown above.
The lesson is to stop thinking in terms of one number for all your records. Think in terms of each tool, each plan, and each setting that could change the outcome. That takes a little more work up front, and it is far less work than rebuilding a month of invoices after a file goes missing.
How do I find out which plan or account type my business has?
Start by checking which plan your Slack workspace is on, and whether your Box account is a business or enterprise account, because the periods above depend on those account types. The account type shapes what you can see and change in these tools, so this check comes before the others. Doing it first also tells you which of the sections above apply to your business and which can be skipped for now.
Slack's periods depend on whether the workspace is on the free plan or a paid one. The article distinguishes the free plan, where you can choose 90 days or one year, from paid plans, where data is kept for the lifetime of the workspace by default. If you do not know which applies, the workspace owner or an administrator can tell you.
Box's periods depend on account type too. The default 30-day Trash period is paired with the ability to shorten or lengthen it, and that ability belongs to administrators of business and enterprise accounts. So do not assume you can change the period yourself on another account type.
For OneDrive, the plan question is really a question about your Microsoft 365 setup. Ask who can see the retention policies and labels, and write down the answer. Microsoft's page is clear that those settings override the standard process, so they are the first place to look when a timing question comes up.
What does a month-end cleanup look like across these tools?
A month-end cleanup can touch all three tools at once, and the periods above show why it deserves a plan. Consider a bookkeeper who tidies a client's invoice folder in Box on the last day of each month, while the team posts payment confirmations in a Slack channel during the same week.
If the Box default is still in place, anything removed from that folder in the last 30 days should still be in the Trash. Anything removed longer ago is less likely to be recoverable from there. A cleanup at month end therefore leaves about a month of margin, and a missed check can use up that margin. If an administrator has shortened the period, the margin is smaller, which is why the administrator's answer comes first.
The Slack side needs its own check. If the workspace uses the 90-day option, a payment confirmation posted more than 90 days before a year-end review may already be deleted by the time the review starts. The fix is not complicated. Export or save the confirmations that matter, or record them in your accounting records during the month they arrive. For a method, see reconcile invoice payments with your bank.
The OneDrive side matters mostly when staff change. If the person who maintained the invoice files leaves and their account is deleted, that account goes through the deleted-user sequence, and any retention policy may change the timing again. A good month-end routine includes saving a copy of the final invoices somewhere the business controls, not just a check of the trash.
What should a small business do with these periods?
Start with a list of where your records live. For each place, write down the tool, the plan or account type, and who manages its settings. That list takes less than an hour and gives you a map for everything else in this section.
Then check each setting:
- Box: ask your administrator whether the default 30-day Trash period is still in place, or whether it has been shortened or lengthened.
- Slack: confirm the plan, and whether the free-plan 90-day or one-year setting is selected, or whether the paid default applies.
- OneDrive: ask whether any retention policy or retention label covers the folders where invoices are kept.
Once you know the settings, the next step is to keep your own copies. Trash periods are not a backup plan. For invoices and payment records, keep final copies in a place you control, such as your accounting software or a dated folder that you back up on a regular schedule. For how to check electronic invoice records, see Electronic invoice records: 3 audit checks. A copy you can open without asking anyone is worth more than a recovery window you may not be able to use.
Ask your accountant or tax adviser how long you need to keep particular records. The periods in this post are platform settings, not record-keeping rules. Those answers come from your advisers and from the rules that apply to your business, which this post does not cover.
What should you do if a file is already gone?
Act quickly, and check the place the file was deleted from before you try anything else. Each tool has its own starting point, and the fastest route is usually the one that matches where the file lived.
In Box, look in the Trash first. Box's article says it stores items you place there for a certain period of time, so a recent deletion may still be present. In Slack, check whether the file is hidden rather than removed. A recent file with no shares may still be within its 30-day grace period, and an administrator should confirm what is possible. The article's term is 'hidden', so do not treat the 30 days as the final date. In OneDrive, check the recycle bin for the account, and if the owner's account was deleted, ask an administrator what stage the files are in.
Two habits help most. First, avoid more deletions in the same folder while you search, so you can see what is still there and compare it with what you expected. Second, tell your administrator the file name, the rough date you noticed it was missing, and the tool it was in. Administrators can see settings and recovery options that a regular user may not, and a precise report gets a faster answer.
Recovery is easiest when you check early, so make it a habit to review these periods before a file goes missing, not after. A quick look at the settings now costs far less than an invoice hunt later.
Assigning ownership helps here too. Name one person in the business who is responsible for each of the three tools, and record that name next to the settings you wrote down. For login safeguards, see invoice login security safeguards. When a file goes missing, the question 'who can check this?' should have an answer already, instead of starting a search through email to find out who set things up. Revisit the list when someone joins or leaves, because a change in staff is the moment when accounts get deleted and retention settings get reviewed, if they get reviewed at all.
Next step today: open the list you wrote, and mark the person who can check each of the three settings. No signup or purchase is needed.
Related guides: ACH and PayPal limits on invoice payments: 6 to know · Client invoice questions: 2 ways to reply promptly · Deposit invoice: 4 steps to split the remaining balance.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still recover a file from the Box Trash?
Yes, until the retention period ends, which is 30 days by default unless an administrator has changed it.
Do Slack messages stay forever?
It depends on your plan: free workspaces choose 90 days or one year, and paid workspaces keep data for the lifetime of the workspace by default.
Does an admin retention policy change OneDrive timing?
Yes, because Microsoft says retention policies and retention labels take precedence over the standard OneDrive deletion process, so they can change timing in either direction.