A password manager for your team: why and how do you get started?

Is there a sticky note with the Wi-Fi password in your office? Is there an Excel file somewhere named ‘passwords’? Or does everyone use the same password for the shared mailbox, the accounting software and the customer portal? You are certainly not alone. In many small businesses it simply grew that way. And it works, until something goes wrong.

What are the risks?

• One leak, everything open. If you use the same password in several places, one leaked website is enough. Criminals automatically try leaked combinations on other services, such as your mailbox or Microsoft 365.
• Sharing by email or WhatsApp. A password that was once sent in a chat stays there – including on the phone someone loses next month.
• An employee leaves. Which passwords did that person know? Usually nobody knows exactly, so nothing gets changed.

What is a password manager?

Think of it as a digital safe. You only need to remember one strong master password. The password manager creates a long, unique password for every website and fills it in automatically, on your computer and on your phone.

For a team, this works with shared vaults. The accountant sees the accounting logins, the whole team sees the Wi-Fi password, and nobody sees more than is needed. Most tools also warn you when a password is weak, reused or shows up in a known data breach.

"But my browser already remembers my passwords?"

True, and that is already better than a sticky note. But a browser is made for one person. You cannot share passwords within a team in a controlled way, as a business owner you have no overview and when someone leaves you cannot cleanly revoke their access.

"Isn't everything in one place actually more dangerous?"

A fair question. Good password managers encrypt your vault on your own device before anything is sent to the cloud. So the provider itself cannot read your passwords. If you also turn on two-factor authentication, your master password alone is not enough to get in.

Compare it with the situation today: an Excel file, a sticky note, or the same password everywhere. A password manager is a big step forward.

Which one should you choose?

For most small offices, these are three good choices:

• Proton Pass: Swiss, strongly focused on privacy and easy to use. This is the one I use myself.
• Bitwarden: open source, affordable and strong for teams.
• 1Password: very user-friendly, slightly more expensive.

Expect a few euros per user per month. More important than the price: choose the tool your team will actually use.

How to get started, in six steps

1. Pick one tool and start the free trial. Most providers let you test it for two weeks first.
2. Choose a strong master password. A phrase of four or five random words is strong and still easy to remember. Not on a sticky note.
3. Turn on two-factor authentication, with an app on your phone.
4. Create shared vaults by theme, for example Office (Wi-Fi, printer), Accounting and Customer portals. Give everyone access to what they need.
5. Import the passwords from your browser and then turn off password saving in the browser.
6. Change the most important passwords first: email, Microsoft 365 or Google, banking and accounting. The rest follows gradually, each time you log in somewhere.

Also agree on who can access the shared vaults in case of illness or absence and set aside half an hour to show it to your team: the biggest hurdle is not the technology, but the habit.

In conclusion

A password manager is one of the cheapest and fastest ways to make your office more secure: a few euros per person and it can be set up in an afternoon.

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