I HATE when I solve a problem and the problem keeps coming up over and over again.
Like passwords with my kids.
“Dad, what’s my password?”
ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!
We’ve saved this password to LastPass. I’ve told you to get LastPass on your phone. Why? Just why!?!?
This is what they look like when this happens:
Passwords with my kids is one thing.
With OFS it’s another.
Although…is it really that different? For me it’s not.
When I was first starting this was totally an issue for me. I did not want to give them passwords because I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know if I gave them the password to my hosting account, they would take over my hosting account, destroy everything and leave. I didn’t know if they would not leave, make a mistake, and ruin something.
I just didn’t know so I didn’t give them passwords.
Then I realized a little bit in that it was making my life harder. They couldn’t do the job because they couldn’t access the site they needed. I quickly realized I had to give them access to my stuff.
Well back then, there wasn’t a great solution. Today, there’s a really good solution to this. You’re still going to give them access to your accounts but if you use LastPass for this, you don’t have to give your passwords. They never see your passwords.
Anjali had the same problem so she wrote to me about it.
I also am having difficulty handing over my passwords for things like email and contract software. Although I feel comfortable having my OFS onboard clients and follow up with clients, I don’t feel comfortable yet about the OFS having my passwords as they started about 2 months ago. For Google, it turns out that as an admin I can always lock the person out if there’s ever a problem. But for some other things, like Adobe DocuSign, I don’t think that’s possible.
Use Lastpass. It lets you share a password with their LastPass account. Then it lets them login to the website, but doesn’t give them the password. You can revoke the sharing anytime you want.
For things where LastPass won’t work, give them the password if you trust them. If something goes wrong, you can change the password. Keep a list of passwords you give them.
For some reason, my OFS don’t seem to have problems keeping track of passwords like my kids do!
John
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