The vendor's terms on your ledger
Who owns my accounting data? What each system's terms say
Updated
Where the terms say who owns the books, they say the company does, but most vendors keep something back, and the clause that matters for a licence is the one about anonymised copies.
The company keeps the books
Oracle's NetSuite agreement says title in the Customer Data is owned exclusively by the customer, MYOB's terms say the subscriber owns its Subscriber Data, and Pilot's client agreement says the client retains all rights in it. Of the 17 systems on our board, 9 put that in writing; the other 8 say nothing on it in the documents we read.
Source: Accounting software terms on company data
The vendor keeps an anonymised copy
MYOB takes an irrevocable licence to anonymised or aggregated data derived from the books, Acumatica says it owns aggregated statistical information from the service, and Pilot may run benchmarking studies across customers. A buyer paying for exclusive access will ask whether such a version already exists.
Source: Accounting software terms on company data
What to do with that
Read your own order form beside the public terms, note any anonymised-use clause, and tell a buyer about it up front. Describe the books in the enquiry form and we read them against this board.