Year-end IT checklist for growing businesses

Key takeaways

• Clean up first: licenses nobody uses, old devices with company data, shared logins and the accounts of people who've left.
• A backup only counts once you've restored something from it.
• Plan ahead: old computers, next year's renewals and a budget range for IT.
• Turn on two-step login for every email account, and write down who to call when something breaks.

Part 1: clean up before the year ends

Clean-up removes cost and risk you may be carrying without knowing it. Each item is something to check, and what to do about it.

• Software licenses nobody uses. Compare what you pay for with who actually uses it, and check your bank and card statements for subscriptions you forgot. Cancel or reassign what's left over.
• Old computers or drives with company data. Find laptops, desktops, USB sticks and external drives that are no longer in use. Before they're sold, donated or thrown away, wipe them properly or have the drives destroyed. Deleting the files isn't enough.
• Shared logins. When more than one person uses the same username and password, you can't tell who did what, and you can't remove one person without changing it for everyone. Give each person their own account where the software allows it, and keep any login that must be shared in a password manager.
• Accounts of people who've left. Close or hand over the email, software and cloud accounts of anyone who left this year. Check that their laptop and phone came back, and change any shared password they knew.
• Backups, actually tested. Pick a file, a mailbox and a computer, and try getting each one back from your backup. Until you've restored from a backup, you don't know that it works. If the restore fails, or takes far longer than you expected, fix that first.

Part 2: plan ahead for next year

Planning now turns next year's surprises into dates on a calendar. Each item takes a list and a few decisions.

• Computers over five years old. Write down how old each computer is. Older machines tend to be slower, fail more often and can stop getting security updates. Decide which ones to replace next year, and roughly when, so a failure doesn't turn into a rushed purchase.
• Renewals coming next year. List every renewal date for software, domain names, warranties and insurance, with the person who owns each one. A domain name that lapses can take your email and website down with it.
• Next year's IT budget. Set a range for three things: keeping things running, replacing what's old and any new projects. A range is enough, and it means a failed laptop is a planned cost, not a shock.
• Two-step login on every email account. Turn on two-step login, also called multi-factor authentication, for every email account, starting with the owner's and any admin account. A stolen password on its own is then far less useful to whoever has it.
• Who to call when something breaks. Write down who to call for each kind of problem: computers, internet, phones, email and the website. Include their phone numbers and your account numbers, and keep a printed copy where people can find it when the internet is down.

What should you do with the items you couldn't tick?

Each item you couldn't tick is a place to start in January. Take them in order: first anything that could stop the business, such as untested backups or open accounts of people who've left, then the rest.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes, our free IT assessment is a 30-minute call about how your business runs, with no pitch. Or send us a message with the items you're stuck on.

How we wrote this: from the questions businesses ask about IT at the end of the year, reviewed against the way we work. No outside statistics are used.