Sooner or later you’re outsourcing is going to involve passwords and bank accounts. People generally start off outsourcing tasks that are low trust applications like having your business cards or your logo designed. These type of tasks can be done by anyone without special access. They send you a file and they are done.
Eventually you may want to outsource tasks like managing your social media accounts or administering your website. These generally require the use of passwords. Ideally you don’t want to give them the same username and password that you have, but this isn’t always an option. Trust becomes a key part of any outsourcing arrangement.
I would recommend either holding off on high trust applications until you have some experience with somebody, are used to them, and you know how they work. It’s safer than giving them access to everything. Now with wordpress, you have the option of setting up additional users that only have certain permissions. This is a good way to let somebody create content for your site, without the risk of them making changes you don’t want. This way you always have control and you don’t have to worry about what they might do while they’re in your site.
Social Media Accounts
Now, this is not always possible with social media accounts because there typically is a single user. In these cases, you may have to set this up for them or let them have access to the information. Other challenges that you run into is that some of the services will actually check for unauthorized access. So you may, by giving out your password, you may get constant false alerts about access to your account. Be sure to use unique strong passwords for all your social media channels. This may be a pain, but if you have a problem, one key does not end up fitting all the locks. Again, get to know the people you are using before you start sharing password information.
Bank accounts are also a consideration for some outsourcing. Access to these takes an even higher level of trust. You may have an assistant making purchasing or payment decisions for you. This can be both convenient and risky at the same time. A few years ago we had someone who didn’t actually have access to our bank accounts, but did have access to the routing of transactions. This was enough for them to siphon off thousands of dollars. At a minimum have a separate account that you give access to. This gives you some level of control in the event of a problem. If you are giving assistants some authority over money, set limits either technically through systems you might use or through policy.
Your Level of Trust
Giving staff authority to make decisions around payments up to $100 might be a good threshold for a customer service role. Alternatively, having a debit card with a $100/day limit might be another way to give people purchasing ability without going overboard.
There are lots of possibilities that involve outsourcing and access to money. It’s not always possible to reserve the responsibility for fund transfers to yourself without becoming a bottleneck. Just be sure to have some safeguards in place before you trust anyone you outsource to with responsibility for money.
