Shared team passwords: Moving beyond Excel and word of mouth

"Who has the password for the supplier portal?" A simple question that can take a surprising amount of time in a small office. Someone searches through old emails, someone opens an Excel spreadsheet, and in the end the colleague on vacation gets called. When access finally works, it's sent to three more people just to be safe. The problem is solved. Until the next password change.

It's not just about convenience. A shared account needs rules: who is allowed to use it, who keeps it current, and what happens when someone leaves the company?

Not every account should be shared

The first step is not new software, but an inventory. Where an application supports personal user accounts with appropriate roles, these are usually the better choice. Each person logs in themselves, receives the necessary rights, and can be blocked individually upon departure. A shared office account, on the other hand, obscures who changed or approved something.

Nevertheless, exceptions remain. An older portal may only support one account. Technical administration cannot be completely split between individual users. For this, controlled shared storage is needed, not the next list named "Passwords_new_final".

It is important to treat exceptions as such. Just because one account needs to be shared does not automatically apply to email, accounting, or the entire administration.

A password manager is more than an encrypted list

A team password manager combines secure storage with access management. Accounting receives its required entries, the administrative team theirs, and administrative credentials remain in a separate area. With 1Password, such areas can be organized as vaults with assigned people or groups, for example. Documentation on vault management for enterprises.

The structure matters, not the product name. A single vault for everything would be convenient, but it carries over the permission problem of the old Excel spreadsheet. A better approach is a few clearly defined areas, a named responsible person, and a clear way to request additional rights.

The entry should also include the correct login page and a brief description. "Portal" as a name is not very helpful if multiple suppliers could be meant. Also indicate who is allowed to make changes to the account.

Implementation must work in everyday practice

A reasonable start is not to import all lists unchecked. Begin with regularly used business accounts. Review outdated entries, duplicate storage, and accounts whose owners no one remembers. For each account that continues to be needed, a unique, randomly generated password is then used, insofar as the application supports it.

Then comes practical training: finding an entry, completing a login, saving a changed password, and sharing credentials correctly. These four steps are more important than a long presentation. Brief hands-on practice also shows which browsers or specialized applications cause difficulties.

The old list must not silently become the second source of truth during the transition. After the checked migration, it must be retired in a controlled way. For passwords that were already widely distributed, this also includes the change at the respective service.

Include a second factor and emergency access

The password manager itself needs particularly careful protection. Its access requires strong security and a documented recovery path. Furthermore, for important business accounts, it must be clear how multi-factor authentication works. A shared account whose confirmation arrives exclusively on an employee's private phone remains a bottleneck.

For sensitive accounts, you should check whether personal accounts or separate security keys are possible. A password manager can also generate one-time codes. If the associated key is in the same vault, this does not provide a completely independent second layer of protection against compromised access to the vault. Which variant fits depends on the service and the level of protection needed.

The recovery of the password manager must also not depend on a single person. Responsibilities and fallback procedures must be established and understood before they are needed.

Upon departure, "remove user" is sometimes not enough

Removing access to the vault prevents future access via this route. However, it does not undo an already known, copied, or exported password. Therefore, during offboarding, the affected shared accounts must be reviewed. Where the secret remains usable, it is changed at the respective service. Depending on the application, active sessions or other accesses may also need to be terminated. 1Password explicitly describes this offboarding step.

This is a good reason to limit shared accounts to what is necessary: the fewer there are, the smaller this effort.

Conclusion

A password manager brings order when it supplements personal accounts and manages unavoidable shared credentials in a controlled manner. The benefit is concrete: less searching, targeted permissions, and a traceable process during personnel changes. The password of the colleague on vacation then no longer belongs to the business emergency plan.

Would you like to organise the way your team manages credentials? Talk to shinpo IT.