Documents
Part of Board portal software
Reviewing archive and export options before a vendor contract
Check whether a board portal can return usable packs, minutes, decisions, actions and context before signing a vendor contract.
Before signing a board portal contract, ask the supplier to return a small meeting record in the form your organisation would need after leaving the service. An in-app archive helps current users find material, but it does not establish that the whole record can be moved elsewhere.
Define the record to take away
Use a fictional past meeting with an agenda, final pack, corrected paper, confirmed minutes, decision and action. Decide which items your organisation must retain under its own records policy. Include restricted committee material if a future archive must preserve its context.
| Item | Sample evidence to request |
|---|---|
| Papers and pack | Files that open, with meeting and agenda position identifiable |
| Earlier release | A previous pack or corrected paper if your policy requires it |
| Minutes and decision | Final records tied to the meeting |
| Action | Owner, status and required updates |
| Context | An inventory linking files, meetings and restricted groups |
| Access | A permissions record or an agreed reconstruction plan |
Treat private annotations separately. Decide whether they are organisational records or personal working notes.
BoardPro says administrators and its support team cannot access or recover a user's private annotations. Its guidance describes a setting that can remove notes when minutes are confirmed. Do not assume those notes form part of an account export.
Read the published routes narrowly
BoardPro's repository displays past meeting documents. Confirmed minutes are stored permanently in BoardPro, and its decision register provides a PDF download for an individual decision. These are retrieval routes, not evidence of bulk export.
BoardPro's cancellation guidance says there is no automatic data extraction feature. It tells customers to download required meeting and governance records manually before cancellation and offers a paid extraction service. Ask for the service scope, available roles, timetable and cost if manual retrieval is impractical.
BoardEffect's platform offers document libraries and archives. Its minutes guidance covers Word export. Ask for a sample extraction and written terms covering what will be supplied, its format, who will prepare it and when access ends.
Archive and Export Capabilities: BoardPro vs BoardEffect
- Bulk Export Feature
- No automatic extraction (BoardPro); Available via platform (BoardEffect)
- Manual Download Required
- Yes, before cancellation (BoardPro); Yes, but supported by export tools (BoardEffect)
- PDF Decision Export
- Yes, individual decisions (BoardPro); Not specified in provided sources
- Word Export for Minutes
- Not available (BoardPro); Available (BoardEffect)
- Private Annotations Included
- No – not part of export (BoardPro); Not specified in provided sources
- Paid Extraction Service
- Available (BoardPro); Not mentioned in sources
Key Data Export Metrics from Supplier Documentation
- Export Format (BoardEffect Minutes)
- Word (.docx)
- Decision Export (BoardPro)
- PDF per decision
- Data Extraction Cost (BoardPro)
- Paid service available
- Private Annotation Access
- Not accessible by admin or support team
- Manual Retrieval Required
- Yes, prior to cancellation
- Restrictive Material Preservation
- Context must be explicitly retained
Reconcile a sample before signing
Have someone other than the portal administrator compare the returned files with the source meeting. Open the pack and minutes, identify the corrected paper, find the decision and check the action status. Note missing fields and any manual naming or reconstruction. Repeat for a restricted committee meeting if that is essential to your archive.
Ask whether your staff can repeat the extraction with their proposed roles and how a full archive would be delivered securely. Put material gaps and supplier assistance in the agreement before signing. A successful single-file download is not an exit plan.
