Archive old customer records

Archive old customer records so our database team can stop syncing stale accounts. Identify customers with no charges and no active subscriptions for 36 months, move their profiles and payment methods into an archived_customers export, remove personal data fields per our retention policy, and notify legal and support by email on Friday before the archive runs.

Before I archive customers, make the archive reviewable by support and compliance: surface why each customer qualifies (last_charge_date or never_charged), flag any with open disputes or refunds in the last 24 months, and make the customer.email and created_at fields easy to find. Highlight records where billing_address exists so compliance can review before deletion.

I just found a customer who hasn’t paid in three years but still shows as having a default payment method and a saved billing address. I don’t know if that’s due to a failed archive run, a subscription with a $0 plan, or a webhook that reactivated metadata. What should I check right now to determine whether the record is safe to archive or if it’s tied to anything we must keep?

We keep postponing archiving and our customer table grows messy, slowing exports and increasing dev time for migrations. What habit or small regular process should we adopt so stale customer records are reliably flagged and archived every quarter without throwing up compliance or support surprises? Specify triggers, who signs off, and a retire checklist.