Keep company files and accounts under control

The problem

Small companies accumulate access rather than manage it. Files sit in someone's personal drive, the shared login for the analytics account is in a chat message from eighteen months ago, and three people know the password to the domain registrar because they needed it once. It works while everyone is present and trusted.

Then somebody leaves, and the questions arrive at once. Which accounts did they have? Which files are in their personal storage? Which passwords do we now need to change, and do we even know the full list? Usually nobody does, so either you rotate everything in a panic or you quietly accept that a former colleague still has working credentials.

The same disorder causes smaller daily costs: files nobody can find, duplicate documents, and the client deliverable emailed as a link that still works two years later.

What AI can actually do here

This is administration, and pretending otherwise would be selling you something. The fix is three ordinary decisions, and the tools exist to enforce them.

First, company accounts should be owned by the company. A business email and document suite means accounts are created and revoked centrally, so offboarding is a switch rather than a negotiation. Files created in company accounts belong to the company by default.

Second, shared files belong in shared spaces rather than personal ones. Team folders with access set per folder mean permissions are a structure you can inspect instead of a history you have to reconstruct.

Third, credentials belong in a password manager with shared vaults. Access is granted to a vault, not sent as a message, so revoking it is one action and the credential does not remain in a searchable chat log forever.

None of this requires intelligence. It requires doing it once, and then adding two lines to your leaver checklist.

How the tools differ

Google Workspace is the foundation: business email on your domain, documents, meetings and storage with central administration, from EUR 6.80 per user per month on annual billing with 30 GB pooled per person, rising to EUR 13.60 with 2 TB. The administrative control is the reason to pay rather than use consumer accounts.

Dropbox is the file layer for businesses that move large files externally: Plus at EUR 9.99 per month with 2 TB, Standard from EUR 12 per user per month with team folders and transfers up to 100 GB, Advanced from EUR 18 with end-to-end encryption, SSO and ransomware detection. Check whether your suite already covers this before paying twice.

1Password handles credentials: shared vaults, breach alerts and identity provider integration, with a Teams Starter Pack at $24.95 for 10 members paid annually and Business at $8.99 per user per month.

When you don't need a tool

If you are one person, you still need the password manager and you probably do not need team file storage. Personal storage plus a professional email address covers it.

If your suite already includes storage and you are using it properly, a second file service splits your files across two places, which is worse than either alone. Consolidate rather than add.

And if the real problem is that nobody knows what accounts the company has, start with a list before buying anything. An hour writing down every service you pay for, who administers it and who has access will tell you more than any tool, and it is the input the tools need anyway.