What the file is
An evidence trail is the paper you can still open later. It shows what you uploaded, who you asked, and what came back. It is not a finding that a record was deleted in someone else's database. This note is not legal advice.
What to keep
For each window, keep these pieces together:
- The name of the cycle, whether it is 30 or 45 days, and the start and due times.
- The deletion batch you uploaded, with a stable request id for each row.
- The vendors you contacted, and the time each private link went out.
- Each answer: an acknowledgment, or an exception with a reason and a short note.
- Reminders that were still queued, sent, or cancelled.
- The moment you closed the window.
- A checksum of the export, so a later copy can be compared with the file you saved.
How to store it
A CSV is easy to search. A PDF is easier to hand to a colleague. Drop Ledger helps you organize both from the same cycle. The PDF states, in plain words, that the file records what was stored in Drop Ledger. It does not claim the rows were removed from a vendor's systems.
Store the file where your team already keeps operating records. Name it with the cycle and the close date. If you later change a vendor's contact details, keep an audit note of the before and after, separate from the cycle file.