How long does it take to set up IT documentation?

For a small business with ten to thirty employees, a first version can often be made in a few half-days. Most of the work is gathering information that is now scattered. After that, keeping it up to date takes little time if you do it straight away with every change.

Where is the best place to keep IT documentation?

In one fixed place that more than one person can access, such as a restricted SharePoint site or your IT partner’s documentation tool. Keep passwords separately in a shared vault in a password manager.

Do I also need a paper or offline copy?

For the most important details, yes. During a major outage or ransomware you may not be able to reach your online environment. Keep the incident plan, supplier contact details and the break-glass account details offline in a safe place too.

Does the documentation belong to me or to my IT partner?

Information about your own IT should belong to you. Put in the contract that you always have access to it and that the documentation is handed over in full when the contract ends.

IT documentation: what an SME should record so IT does not depend on one person

Many SMEs have one person who “knows everything about the IT”. A handy colleague, the owner or a long-standing supplier. As long as that person is around, things work. But when they are ill, on holiday, leave the company or you switch to another IT partner, it suddenly turns out nobody knows where the admin passwords are, which subscriptions are running or how the firewall is configured. Good IT documentation stops an outage or a change of supplier from turning into days of searching.

Why one person is a risk

Depending on one person only feels like a problem when that person is not there. A colleague who has looked after the IT “on the side” for years has often written nothing down, because they know it anyway. A former supplier keeps the details in their own system and does not always hand them over quickly. You see the result during an outage: the internet connection is down, but nobody knows who the provider is or what the customer number is. Or an employee leaves and nobody knows which accounts are still in their name. That costs time, money and sometimes access to your own systems.

What you should record at minimum

The goal is not a thick manual, but an overview that lets someone else take over your IT. Start with these parts:

Accounts and admin rights: who is an administrator in Microsoft 365, who has access to the firewall, the NAS, the website and the accounting software. Also record which break-glass accounts exist.
Licences and subscriptions: which software you use, from whom, how many licences, what it costs and when it renews or can be cancelled.
Domain name and DNS: which registrar holds the domain name and who can log in there. See also who holds the keys to your domain name.
Network and devices: internet connection and provider, router, firewall, switches, wifi, printers and the laptops with their users.
Backups: what is backed up, where the copies are, how long they are kept and how to restore something.
Suppliers and contracts: contacts, customer numbers, support numbers and the agreed response times.

Passwords do not belong in the documentation itself

A common mistake is a Word or Excel file with every password in it, on a shared drive or in someone’s mailbox. That is exactly what an attacker looks for. In the documentation, record which accounts exist and where the credentials are kept, and store the passwords themselves in a shared vault in a password manager. That way you can grant and revoke access per person, and see who opened what.

Keeping it current is the real work

Documentation that is two years old barely helps during an outage. So agree who records changes: a new employee, a new laptop, an extra licence or a different provider. Tie that to fixed moments, such as your joiner and leaver checklist. On top of that, review the whole overview twice a year. Use that moment to check that your IT incident plan still matches what is actually in place.

When you switch IT partner

The moment you change IT partner is when you find out how good the documentation is. Ask the previous partner for a complete handover: all admin credentials, the network configuration and the list of subscriptions that run through them. Put in your contract that the documentation belongs to you and is handed over when the contract ends. Then remove the previous partner’s access, as described in cleaning up a former IT partner’s access.

How Floor ICT handles this

At the start, Floor ICT maps your IT in full: accounts, licences, network, devices, backups and suppliers. We record it in a managed documentation environment and keep passwords separately in a secure vault. We update the documentation with every change, and twice a year we go through it with you. The information stays yours: if you ever want to switch, you get a complete handover. That way your IT does not depend on one person, not even on us.

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