Guide
Small Business IT Checklist
A practical list Houston business owners can use to see what is owned, what is missing, and what to ask an IT partner next.
Who this is for
This checklist is for owners and office managers at small Houston businesses — typically 5 to 25 people — who have been acting as IT between other jobs. It is not a sales script and it does not require you to hire Need IT Help.
Use it before a consultation, after a scare, or when you are tired of solving the same printer problem every Monday.
People and access
List every person who has a company email, a laptop, or access to files. Include contractors and former staff if their accounts are still open.
Write down who can reset passwords, who pays for Microsoft 365 or Google, and who talks to the internet provider. If the answer is “whoever happens to be in,” that is a finding, not a failure.
Confirm that someone who left in the last year no longer has email, VPN, or shared-password access.
Email and Microsoft 365
Know which domain sends email and where it is hosted. If mail sometimes lands in junk for customers, write that down.
Check whether multi-factor authentication is required for email, not just “available.”
Ask whether sharing links in OneDrive or SharePoint expire, and whether files live in one place or on a mix of USB drives and personal accounts.
Backups and recovery
Name the systems you cannot operate without for two days: email, files, line-of-business software, and payment tools.
For each, ask: is it backed up, by whom, and has anyone restored a file in the last year? A backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan.
Write the phone number you would call if ransomware locked the office. If you do not have one, that is the gap.
Network and the office
Note dead Wi-Fi zones, guest access mixed with internal files, and whether cameras or a warehouse share the same network as accounting.
If you have a second building, shop, or gate, write how it connects today — trench, wireless, or “someone’s hotspot.”
Keep the internet account login somewhere the business owns, not only on a personal email.
Questions to ask any IT partner
What is included in support, and what is billed extra for onsite or after-hours work?
Who owns the documentation if we part ways?
What security or 24/7 claims do you make, and what do you actually staff?
Can you take over from our current provider without a week of downtime?