Check who can see documents after transfer

What this means for your practice

Check access wherever transferred documents are stored or downloaded. The receiving arrangement should follow the organisation's agreed information boundaries, including later shared-folder or export use.

Questions to take to your supplier

Ask an unrelated test role to open a fictional transferred file. The result should match the organisation's agreed boundary. Include a receiving-team change in the review. Successful delivery should not quietly broaden the audience simply because a convenient shared folder was used.

Agree the working process

Trace the document's route beyond its first destination. A receiving folder, a working application and an export may have different access arrangements, so review the places where the intended users will actually encounter it. The organisation's responsible owner should define the permitted audience and purpose. Ask the supplier to demonstrate those boundaries with fictional material and test accounts representing intended and unrelated roles. Include shared links and downloads where they are part of the process.

Agree who reviews access when the receiving team changes or the document is moved. A one-time check during implementation will not cover every later organisational change. Keep a clear owner for resolving uncertain access rather than relying on the sender to guess what the destination allows. During acceptance, record the observed result at each relevant stage. The business can then distinguish successful delivery from appropriate availability, which are both necessary for a useful and well-controlled document handover.

How to check the result

Track transfers whose receiving access has not been verified.