One Version of the Truth - SharePoint Document Management

One of the incredible benefits of SharePoint is the ability to virtually eliminate confusion over document ownership, versioning, and security. The problem is that many organisations fail to apply basic governance to leverage these features. In this article I’ll outline the simple rules to follow and advantages that can be gained.

1: Create Authoritative Space

The first thing to understand is that document management starts with defining what it means for a document to be “authoritative” for each work group, department, or organisation. That is a library or folder in a site where a document or set of documents should be stored. Once defined, this becomes the only official location for the single original document and all other locations are copies that can be considered temporary or secondary. For instance, a server maintenance plan might originate on an engineer’s laptop, be shared via email or Teams, and uploaded to OneDrive. These multiple versions introduce uncertainty. Instead, uploading it once to a designated SharePoint library ensures everyone accesses the latest version. Copies may be downloaded and edited offline but only versions uploaded to the specified library are considered authoritative. This also means that other users will be able to browse or search that location with confidence whenever they are looking for a specific document, reducing time spent finding the document.

2: Send Links Not Attachments

Perhaps the most important, and hardest, guideline to implement in any organisation is the practice of referencing all working documents through email links to documents in SharePoint rather than attachments. For more than 30 years, staff have been trained to send attachments, and it is a hard habit to break. The problem is that this approach, while convenient, creates ungoverned copies of documents. When a link to a document in SharePoint is sent, it means that the recipient will always access the most up-to-date version. In Modern SharePoint libraries using the Copy Link command generates a unique link that will continue to work even if the file is renamed or moved to another folder or library.

Figure 1: Copy Link

3: Let SharePoint Manage Versioning

Before we moved to SharePoint, most organisations managed files in network file shares which did not have version management. So, if you wanted to keep different versions of files, you had to give them different names, e.g. “Energy Policy_v2.pptx”, “Energy Policy_old.pptx”, etc. This simple approach was effective but created confusion because it was often hard to determine which was the latest version even when a numbering system was applied. This commonly led to someone editing an older version of a document not realizing that a newer version existed. In SharePoint, the best practice is to upload a single document, with a single file name and let SharePoint manage the versions. SharePoint libraries support built-in versioning and, in SharePoint Online, can keep up to 500 old versions. Users can view and download any old version and anyone with Contribute permission can Restore a previous version if the latest one is accidentally updated or overwritten. With co-authoring in Office documents, multiple users can edit the same file without worrying about overwriting others’ work.

Figure 2: Document Versions

4: Stay Secure in SharePoint

One of the key benefits of sending links versus attachments is the added security and confidentiality. If an email is accidentally, or intentionally, sent to someone who should not have access to the document, they will be denied access when they click the link. Managing document access through SharePoint is inherently more secure than sending attachments because control over the visibility and integrity of the document remains in SharePoint. Not only can you set permissions to control who can upload and edit but also, through the Share link you can create a link which allows specific users to read the document but they are prevented from downloading it. This ensures that the only copy of the document those users can work with is in the authoritative location.

Figure 3: Document Sharing

Figure 4: Download Blocked

Conclusion

Applying the above practices may sound like it will require a strict approach by management to introduce and enforce. Experience shows that this will be the case in the beginning in order to get users to break old habits. However, once the benefits of reduced administrative efforts in managing documents and versions become clear, the practices will pick up on their own. Ultimately, defining a set of guidelines to ensure each document has a single source of truth moves an organisation a long way towards good document management.