Resource · Telling your customers
Customer notice obligation worksheet
Who you owe notice, by when, from your own contracts — and how much of that time your vendors leave you.
The sum the worksheet exists to force
Days you actually have = the vendor’s window − the notice you promised.
Every one of the 36 published sub-processor notice clauses in the record states 30 days or fewer. The median is 15, and 14give ten days or fewer. So if your own enterprise agreement promises a customer 30 days’ notice of a sub-processor change — the common ask — 22 of those 36 vendors leave you late before you start, 14 leave you exactly none, and 0 leave you any slack at all.
And the vendor’s window runs from their notice rather than from your discovery, so a notice defined as a page update has already spent part of it by the time you read the page.
What each promise costs you, against the record
| If you promised | Vendors leaving you late | Leaving exactly none | Leaving a day or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 22 of 36 | 14 of 36 | 0 of 36 |
| 14 days | 14 of 36 | 1 of 36 | 21 of 36 |
| 10 days | 2 of 36 | 12 of 36 | 22 of 36 |
| 5 days | 0 of 36 | 2 of 36 | 34 of 36 |
The promise column is written rather than measured — we hold no customer agreements, and never will. What is counted is the vendor side, from the published clauses.
The six columns
Four are the record of the clause and two are the arithmetic. The first four you fill once per counterparty; the last two you recompute every time a vendor moves.
- Counterparty
- Who you owe the notice to. One row per agreement, not per customer — a master agreement with three orders under it is one row.
- What triggers it
- A new sub-processor, a security breach, or a material change. Three different clocks, and most agreements state all three.
- The clause, quoted
- The words, not your summary of them. A summary is what you will disagree with your own counsel about at the worst moment.
- Your period
- The number and whether it is business days. “Ten business days” and “ten days” are four days apart over a holiday.
- The vendor's window
- How long their agreement gives you to object. Published by 36 of the vendors in the record, and it starts at their notice rather than your discovery.
- Days you actually have
- Their window minus your period. This is the only number that decides whether you make the deadline, and it is often negative.
A worked fill
Three illustrative clauses, read by the same extractor the product runs over an agreement you upload. The rows below are what it found, not what we typed it would find.
| Counterparty | Trigger | Your period | The clause, quoted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise customer (MSA) | Notice of a new sub-processor | 30 days | “Supplier shall notify Customer in writing at least thirty (30) days prior to appointing any new sub-processor that will process Customer Personal Data, and Customer may object on reasonable data protection grounds within that period.” |
| Enterprise customer (DPA) | Notice of a security breach | 24 hours | “Supplier shall notify Customer without undue delay and in any event within twenty-four (24) hours of becoming aware of any personal data breach affecting Customer Personal Data.” |
| Public sector framework | Notice of a material change | 10 business days | “The Supplier will inform the Authority no less than ten (10) business days before implementing any material change to the Services or to the manner in which Authority Data is processed.” |
The clauses are written in the register a negotiated enterprise agreement uses and are nobody’s actual contract. Your own wording is what the worksheet is for.
How to keep it
One row per agreement, not per customer. A master agreement with three orders under it is one obligation and three people to email.
Quote the clause. A summary is what you will disagree with your own counsel about at the worst possible moment.
Record whether the period is business days. Ten business days and ten days are four days apart over a holiday, and the gap always falls the wrong way.
Recompute the last column when a vendor moves, not when your contract does. Theirs is the one that changes. The notice itself is a separate template.
Take it with you
The columns, the arithmetic and a blank sheet as a Word document. It is generated when you download it, so the vendor windows in it are the ones the record holds that day.
How this was assembled
The columns and the sample clauses are written. The vendor windows are quoted from agreements the vendors publish — 36clauses, each with its source URL and read date on the record. The trigger and period on each sample row are produced by running the product’s own clause extractor over the sample text. How the record is kept.
Common questions
- How do I work out who I owe notice to when a sub-processor changes?
- From your own agreements, one row per agreement rather than per customer. Record the counterparty, what triggers the notice, the clause quoted, and your period — then subtract that period from the vendor's own objection window to get the days you actually have.
- How long do AI vendors give you to object to a sub-processor?
- Every one of the 36 published clauses in the record states 30 days or fewer, the median is 15, and 14 give 10 days or fewer. The window runs from the vendor's notice rather than from your discovery.
- What if I promised my customer 30 days' notice?
- Then for 22 of those 36 vendors you are late before you begin, and for 14 more you have exactly none. No vendor in the record leaves any slack against a 30-day promise.
- Should I record a summary of the clause or quote it?
- Quote it. A summary is what you will disagree with your own counsel about at the worst possible moment, and the words are what the obligation actually is.
- Does it matter whether the period is in business days?
- Ten business days and ten days are four days apart over a holiday, and the gap always falls the wrong way. Record which, in its own column.
Telling your customers
Work out who you owe notice, and by when.
- What happens downstream when an AI vendor changes a page
One edit, three contracts: the vendor, the company that embeds it, and that company's enterprise customer.
- Telling your customers a sub-processor changed
The notice to pass on, rendered from the same function the product uses to draft it — so the two cannot drift apart.
- What counts as a material change, and why
Our own alerting ruleset, published in full — a change is material when a fact moved, which suppresses 96% of page diffs.
- Do you have to tell your customers?
Six questions in the order worth asking them — and the first is not what your contract says, because 96% of vendor page changes move no fact at all.
This is not legal advice, and the columns are a starting point rather than a set anyone has approved for your situation. The vendor clauses counted here are published documents read on the dates the record holds; your negotiated contract governs, and the clause you signed may differ from the public template. The record is free to read, and corrections are free to request.