Your staff can delete your clients' files. Here's the 10-minute check to see if they can

If you run an accounting or law firm, you don't really sell tax returns or contracts. You sell the promise that your clients' files are safe with you.

So here's a question worth ten minutes this week: who in your office can permanently delete a client folder?

Most firms we talk to guess "just the partners." Then we look at the shared drive, and it turns out everyone who can upload can also delete. Nobody set it up that way on purpose. It's what happens when a shared folder is made on a busy day and "Editor" is the fastest option to click.

Why this matters more for firms like yours?

Two things make accounting and law firms different from a typical office:

- Your files aren't yours. They belong to clients, and the confidentiality duty is yours.

- Your calendar is made of deadlines. Filing dates and court dates don't move because a folder went missing.

A deleted file at a retail shop is an annoyance. At a firm, it's a phone call to a client you'd rather not make.

# The 10-minute check (no IT degree needed)

1. Open the shared folder where client files live.

2. Look at who has access and what they can do: view, upload, or delete.

3. Ask: does this person need to *delete* client files, or only add and read them? For most staff the answer is "add and read."

4. Check whether the folder is backed up somewhere your staff can't touch, and whether anyone has ever tested getting a file back.

5. Note anyone who still has access but no longer works on that client or no longer works for you.

If step 4 made you pause, that's the one to fix first. A backup nobody has restored from is a guess, not a backup.

# What we do about it?*

This is the everyday work of managed IT for a small firm. SPC set permissions so people can do their jobs without being able to wipe a client's folder, keep a backup separate from the people who use the files, and watch for the quiet problems (full storage, failed backups, a laptop that hasn't been updated in months) before they become a deadline problem.

We respond to critical issues fast. 

# Want us to run the check for you?

Book a free consultation. We'll look at how your shared folders and backups are set up and tell you plainly what's fine and what isn't. No pitch deck, no jargon.