The 20-Minute Systems Audit
Most teams don’t notice how quickly their systems drift as they scale. A new tool here, a one-off exception there, a “we’ll fix this later” that never gets fixed. Over time, the small stuff compounds. Ownership blurs. Processes diverge from reality. And suddenly, the tech foundation feels heavier than it should.
A simple 20-minute audit can show you exactly where things are starting to slip.
List every tool your team actually uses.
Not the official list. The real list. Check browser history, expense reports, department-specific apps, Chrome extensions, and those spreadsheets that turned into “systems.”
The real list is always longer than the documented one, and that gap is your first sign of drift.
Identify the source of truth for each tool.
For every tool, write down where it pulls user and access data from:
HRIS Directory (Google or Microsoft)
Manual entry
A spreadsheet
Or nothing at all
Inconsistent sources of truth guarantee inconsistent access, messy onboarding, and surprise permissions later.
Check who has admin access.
Open each tool’s admin panel and review:
How many admins exist
Whether it’s consistent across tools
Whether any former employees remain
Whether each admin should be an admin
If every tool has a different admin set, you’re not operating a system—you’re operating a patchwork.
Look for unclear or duplicate ownership.
Unowned tools drift. Tools with multiple unclear owners drift faster.
For each tool:
Identify the owner
Identify a backup
Define what they're responsible for (access, config, reporting)
If you can't assign an owner in 10 seconds, it's a red flag.
Compare onboarding & offboarding to real life.
Not the written process. The actual process.
Ask:
Do new hires get consistent access?
Is someone manually provisioning because automation broke once?
Does offboarding reliably shut access down everywhere?
Are exceptions tracked or tribal?
Onboarding and offboarding are where system drift becomes most visible.
Why this tiny audit matters.
This quick audit surfaces the gap between how your systems should work and how they actually work.
That gap is where:
Security issues show up
Onboarding gets messy
Access goes stale
Offboarding becomes risky
Tools evolve without governance
Fire drills multiply
Closing this gap is the first step toward operational maturity, whether you're a 10-person startup or a 150-person team scaling fast.
Need help cleaning up your stack?
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