BLOG | 5 Questions Every Business Owner Should Be Able to Answer

You don't need to be an IT expert to run your organisation.

Whether you're running a small business, a charity, a sporting club or a community organisation, you rely on technology every day. Email, accounting software, cloud storage, payroll, client records and websites all keep things moving.

You don't need to know how every system works—but you should be able to answer a few simple questions about them.

If you're unsure of the answers, there may be risks hiding in plain sight.

1. Who has access to your important systems?

Think about your accounting software, email, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, CRM, payroll and shared files.

Do you know exactly who has access today?

Access usually grows over time. A volunteer joins a committee. A contractor helps with a project. An employee leaves but their account stays active. Someone gets extra permissions that are never removed.

Before long, more people have access than anyone realises.

This isn't about mistrusting people. It's about reducing unnecessary risk. Every unused account or unnecessary permission creates another opportunity for something to go wrong.

2. If something stopped working today, who would you call?

Imagine your email suddenly stopped working.

Or your accounting system became unavailable.

Do you know exactly who owns the problem and who to contact?

Many small organisations rely on a mix of internal staff, volunteers, software vendors and IT providers. When responsibilities aren't clear, everyone assumes someone else is handling it.

The result is longer downtime, more frustration and unnecessary disruption.

Having clear ownership before something breaks saves valuable time when it matters most.

3. When were your backups last tested?

Most organisations have backups.

Far fewer know whether those backups will actually restore their data.

Setting up backups is only the first step. They also need to be tested.

A backup that has never been restored is really just an assumption.

Unfortunately, many businesses only discover there's a problem when they urgently need their data back.

If you can't remember the last successful restore test, it's worth checking.

4. Where does your organisation's data actually live?

Business data has a habit of spreading.

Some files are in SharePoint or Google Drive.

Others are attached to emails.

Some are stored in project management tools, accounting software or cloud applications. Others might still be sitting on someone's laptop.

Without a clear picture of where your information lives, it's difficult to know whether it's protected, who can access it or how to recover it if something goes wrong.

For organisations handling customer information, donor records or personal data, that's an important question to answer.

5. Which external providers can access your systems?

Every new piece of software, integration or service provider potentially has access to some part of your business.

• Bookkeeping software.

• Website developers.

• Marketing platforms.

• Payroll providers.

• Cloud storage.

• IT support.

There's nothing wrong with trusted partners having access—but you should know who they are, what they can access and whether that access is still appropriate.

Many organisations are surprised by how long this list has become.

If these questions are difficult to answer, that's worth paying attention to.

None of these are highly technical questions.

They're simply about knowing:

• Who has access.

• Who is responsible.

• Whether your backups work.

• Where your data is.

• Who else can access it.

As organisations grow and change, systems evolve, staff and volunteers come and go, and new software gets added. It's easy for visibility to disappear over time.

A mid-year review is a good opportunity to make sure everything still makes sense.

If even two or three of these questions made you stop and think, it might be time for a conversation.

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