IT documentation: what a small business needs

Who knows the firewall password? When does the antivirus license expire? Which number do you call if the fiber goes down? In many small businesses, these answers live in one person's head. IT documentation puts them in writing, somewhere you can find them on the day you need them.

It is often during an incident, a departure or a change of provider that you discover what is missing. Up-to-date documentation saves hours on every intervention and makes the business less dependent on any one individual.

What should IT documentation include?

• A hardware inventory: computers, servers, printers, network equipment, with purchase and warranty end dates.
• A network diagram: internet connection, firewall, switches, Wi-Fi, VLANs, address ranges.
• Access: admin accounts, equipment, online services, with where the passwords are kept.
• Procedures: onboarding and offboarding, restoring a backup, responding to an incident.
• Contracts: providers, service companies, maintenance, with contacts, customer numbers and renewal dates.
• Licenses and subscriptions: Microsoft 365, business software, security, domain names, certificates.

Should passwords go in the documentation?

No, not in plain text. The documentation states which access exists and where it is kept. The secrets themselves go into a business password manager, with per-person permissions and an access history. An Excel "passwords" file on the server is a prime target in an intrusion.

Where to store IT documentation?

Documentation is mostly needed when something has stopped working. If it lives only on the server that is down, or on a share encrypted by ransomware, it is useless. It must therefore stay reachable even when the company network is down.

Who keeps the documentation up to date?

Documentation is only worth something if it is current. The simplest rule: every change (a new computer, a new firewall rule, a new contract) is documented by the person who makes it, when they make it. A yearly review completes the picture, for example alongside license renewals.

If a provider manages your IT, keeping the documentation up to date is usually part of its job. Check in the contract what it keeps current and ask for a copy: it is the best way to find out whether it really exists.

Reversibility: getting your documentation back

Documentation specific to your environment must remain usable by your business, whatever the provider. The contract should provide for a usable copy of the existing documentation to be handed over if you change providers. Without it, the successor has to rediscover everything, at the cost of days of work and a risk of downtime.

At SysPros, the documentation specific to your environment (inventories, diagrams, procedures) is provided on request as a usable copy, which you can pass on to another provider. How it is kept up to date follows what your contract provides.