Free templates
The checklists and policies we use with clients. Take them, use them, change them. No email required.
These are the actual checklists and policy templates we work from. We have put them here because a small business should not have to pay someone to find out what goes on a new hire checklist.
No email required, no form, no follow-up campaign. Click and download. Each one comes as a PDF to print and a Word file to edit. The trackers also come as a spreadsheet, set up with dropdowns and a frozen header so it is ready to fill in.
Insurance
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Cyber insurance readiness checklist
The controls insurers now ask about on renewal forms, in plain language, so you can answer honestly before the form arrives.
Useful if: Any business with a cyber policy coming up for renewal.
Incident response
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We think we have been hacked: the first hour
A one-page plan for the moment something looks wrong. Print it and keep it somewhere that does not depend on your email working.
Useful if: Everyone. Fill in the phone numbers while things are calm.
Security
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Employee offboarding checklist
What to do the day someone leaves, in the order that matters. Includes the two things that quietly cost businesses money later.
Useful if: Owners and office managers handling a departure.
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Administrator access review
Who has admin rights to each of your systems, whether they still work here, and whether the account has multi-factor on it. Twenty minutes, quarterly.
Useful if: Anyone who has never checked, which is almost everyone.
Backups
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Backup restore test guide
The five minute version and the proper quarterly version, plus a log. A backup nobody has restored is a hope with a schedule attached.
Useful if: Everyone. This is the single most revealing thing on the page.
Choosing a provider
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IT provider evaluation scorecard
Twelve questions, scored out of three. Use it on a prospective provider, then on your current one, which is the more interesting exercise.
Useful if: Anyone shopping for IT support, or quietly unhappy with theirs.
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SLA and contract review checklist
What should be in the paperwork before you sign, and what "four hour response" actually leaves unsaid.
Useful if: Anyone holding a managed IT agreement they have not read closely.
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Managed IT quote comparison guide
Two quotes at $125 and $220 per user can both be fair. This makes them comparable, with current Metro Vancouver market ranges included.
Useful if: Anyone comparing more than one proposal.
Onboarding
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New hire IT setup checklist
Everything that should be ready before someone's first morning: accounts, device, encryption, access, and the day-one handover.
Useful if: Anyone who has ever set up a laptop the night before a start date.
Policy
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Password and multi-factor policy
A short, readable policy you can adapt and hand to staff. Written to be read rather than filed.
Useful if: Businesses that need a written policy for an insurer or a client.
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Acceptable use policy
A short, readable policy staff will actually finish, covering accounts, devices, email, payments, monitoring and data.
Useful if: Any business with employees and no written IT policy.
Operations
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IT asset inventory template
A simple record of what you own, who has it, and whether it is encrypted. Includes the table most people forget until renewal season.
Useful if: Anyone who cannot currently answer 'how many laptops do we have?'
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What we run and where
One document recording every system, who administers it, where the data lives, and when it renews. The thing most small businesses have never had.
Useful if: Any business that cannot currently describe its own setup.
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New office IT setup checklist
Working backwards from move day, because the items with lead times are the ones that ruin move weekends.
Useful if: Anyone moving, opening, or fitting out a space.
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Quarterly IT review
Ninety minutes, four times a year. Most of what goes wrong in small business IT was fine at setup and drifted.
Useful if: Owners who want a rhythm rather than a rescue.
Continuity
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Business continuity one-pager
What happens if you cannot work from your usual place, on your usual systems. One page, not a binder, with a test you can run on a Tuesday.
Useful if: Owners who know they should have a plan and do not want a project.
Planning
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Windows 10 to 11 readiness plan
The dates, the ESU pricing, the version 22H2 prerequisite nobody mentions, and how to sort your machines into upgrade, replace, and bridge.
Useful if: Anyone still running Windows 10 on anything.
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Device replacement planner
Pick a replacement age, divide the fleet by it, and turn an occasional shock into a predictable budget line.
Useful if: Owners who replace laptops only when they die.
Vendors
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Questions to ask a software vendor
Where your data will live, who can reach it, what happens if you leave, and whether they will tell you about a breach.
Useful if: Anyone about to put client data into a new platform.
Fraud prevention
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Payment change verification procedure
The one-page rule that stops a fraudulent invoice: any change to bank details gets verified by voice, on a number you already had.
Useful if: Anyone who pays suppliers, which is every business.
Automation
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Manual task audit
Find the half day to full day a week that disappears into retyping. Log it across one week, then do the arithmetic at the bottom.
Useful if: Anyone who suspects they are paying people to copy data between systems.
Can I use these in my own business?
Yes. Use them, edit them, put your own logo on them, hand them to your staff. You do not need to credit us and you do not need to ask. They are more useful in your hands than in ours.
The one thing to keep in mind: the policy templates are a starting point, not legal advice. If you are in a regulated field, have someone qualified read them before you rely on them.
Want a hand with any of it?
If you work through the cyber insurance checklist and find more unticked boxes than you expected, that is exactly what our free 30-minute insurance-readiness review is for. We will tell you what is solid, what is risky, and what we would fix first. No pitch, and you get the summary either way.
Let’s make your tech boring. In the best way.
Get a free 30-minute insurance-readiness review. We’ll tell you what’s solid, what’s risky, and what we’d automate first. No pitch. No obligation.