January tends to be a slightly quieter month for a lot of small businesses, after the rush of year-end and Christmas. That makes it a genuinely good moment to work through some basic IT housekeeping that's easy to keep putting off during busier parts of the year — not because anything is necessarily wrong, but because a periodic proper check tends to catch things before they become actual problems.
Review user access across your systems
Check who currently has access to what — email, shared files, admin accounts, software subscriptions — against who should actually have that access right now. It's common for this to have drifted slightly over the previous year, particularly around staff changes.
Check backups were actually tested, not just running
A backup reporting "successful" every night isn't the same as a backup that's been properly tested with a real restore. If it's been a while since anyone actually tried restoring something from your backups to confirm they work, January is a sensible time to check.
Look at what software and licences you're actually paying for
Review current software subscriptions and licences against what's genuinely still being used. It's common for a subscription set up for a specific project or a former member of staff to keep quietly renewing long after it's needed.
Confirm security basics are consistently in place
Check that multi-factor authentication, password manager usage, and security updates are consistently applied across the business, not just on some devices or for some staff. Gaps here tend to appear gradually, one exception at a time, rather than all at once.
Revisit your incident response and backup plans
If you have a written incident response plan or a clear idea of your recovery process, a new year is a sensible moment to read back through it and check it's still accurate — particularly if staff, systems, or contact details have changed since it was last looked at.
Make it an annual habit, not a one-off
None of this needs to take long if it's done as a regular, deliberate review rather than an occasional emergency exercise — and doing it at roughly the same time each year makes it far more likely to actually happen.
If you'd like a proper IT health check for your business to start the year, our managed IT support page covers how we can help, or get in touch.
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