What LightInventory stores
A complete list of what lives in your Google Sheet and what LightInventory keeps on its own servers, with retention periods.
Last updated October 28, 2026
Your inventory data stays in your Google Sheets. LightInventory does not keep a copy of your spreadsheet contents on its servers; it processes them in memory only to perform the actions you request. It stores only what it needs to run your account: sign-in and security details, team roles, billing references and tamper-evidence hashes.
In your Google Sheet
Everything about your stock is written to spreadsheets in the Google account of the person who connected them. These tabs are created or added when you connect:
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
Items | Your catalog: SKU, name, description, category, unit, cost, sale price, reorder point, status |
Locations | Warehouses, stores, bins and other locations |
Movements | Every receipt, issue, transfer and adjustment, with quantity, reference, note and who made it |
Stock | Stock per item and location, calculated by a formula from Movements |
Log | The full change history, including the values before and after each change |
Requests | Changes waiting for approval, with the proposed values |
_meta | Hidden: the template version and a link to your organization. It contains no secrets |
Other files LightInventory may create in your Google Drive:
- A backup copy of an existing spreadsheet, made when you connect it, named
<name> (LightInventory backup <date>). - Archive spreadsheets that hold older movements and history once the main file grows large.
These files are yours. They stay in your Drive if you stop using LightInventory, and Google stores and encrypts them.
On LightInventory's servers
Our database, encryption keys and history anchors are in London. Email delivery records are held by our email provider in the United States, and payment details by our payment provider. None of this contains your cell values.
| Data | Purpose | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, language, time zone; organizations, memberships, roles, location scopes; invitations (only a hash of each invite token) | Running your account and team | The life of the account, plus 30 days |
| Passkey public keys, TOTP secrets (encrypted), hashed recovery codes | Multi-factor sign-in | Until you remove the sign-in method |
| Google refresh token (encrypted) | Reading and writing your spreadsheet | Until access is revoked or the spreadsheet is disconnected |
| Spreadsheet file ID, tab IDs, template version, lock setting | Finding and checking your file | While the spreadsheet is connected |
| Row fingerprints: a keyed hash per row | Detecting edits made directly in the sheet | Current state only |
| Audit chain: entry numbers, codes, actor ID, action type, time | Proving your history is unchanged | Until the organization is deleted; daily anchors for 7 years |
| Approval request status, requester, reviewer | Running approvals (the proposed values stay in your sheet) | Until the organization is deleted |
| Billing references: customer and subscription IDs, status, seats | Billing | As long as accounting law requires |
| Security events: sign-ins, permission failures, IP address, browser | Detecting abuse | IP address for 90 days; the event for 1 year |
| Application logs, with cell values, tokens and codes removed | Fixing problems | 30 days |
The fingerprints and chain codes are keyed hashes. They let us tell that something changed, not what it was, and they cannot be turned back into your values. The security page explains how they are used.
While you use the app
To show a page, compare changes, build an export or save your update, our servers read the cells they need into memory. A short-lived in-memory cache of up to 20 seconds may hold those values on the server that handled your request. It is never written to disk or shared between servers. In your browser, the app keeps data in memory only, not in local storage.
What we never do with your data
- Use it for advertising or to train AI models.
- Transfer it to anyone except as needed to provide the service.
- Let our staff sign in as you or open your spreadsheet through a support tool.
- Put your inventory data in emails we send.