Hello,
Does anybody have a policy in place for using Dropbox with Clients? I have been using Dropbox with several of my clients, but I wanted to give them some guidelines for using it. I'm finding that many of them abandon the Dropbox (i.e., it doesn't appear that they've been back in their since we last worked together on the project) after their project is completed and the files remain in the dropbox indefinitely, which takes up space. I don't want to delete them from the Dropbox because I fear that I may delete them from their computer!

My intention is to use Dropbox to share files between clients and myself to save from emailing back and forth, and so they will have a copy of their documents on their own hard drive. Also as a place to share documents that I may need to reference in the course of our working together. But I don't know if they actually save these documents to their own hard drive. If I leave the folder, will they still be able to access the documents?

Any advice and/or Dropbox policy/guideline suggestions would be most appreciated!

Lisa

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Lisa Salem
Monarch Virtual Assistance LLC

If they share the folder with you and you leave the folder they will still have the files because they own the folder. If you are the owner of the folder and want to stop sharing with them you have to kick them out. If you kick them out it gives you the option to allow them to retain all the documents in the folder. Simply click allow client to keep all documents or whatever that option says.

Now when it comes to a continued shared folder that you just want to clean up. I suggest cleaning it up, but moving all the files you feel are no longer necessary for your relationship into a folder in that folder and label as such "NoLongerNeeded" or something like that. Then inform that client that you created that folder and just ask them to remove that folder from the shared folder. They can simply drag and drop it out of your shared folder and into any other folder of their choosing and do whatever they please with it.

You could put this into place in your P&P and that way when you do come up to the time it is necessary they will be at least be familiar with the idea that you were going to do it.

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Rhonda, Great advice!

I use dropbox myself with all of my clients, but I do make them initiate the folder and then share it with me.

There have been occasions that things have been deleted. Once a client had her partner share the box and the partner reviewed the info we had worked on, and then she promptly deleted EVERYTHING! 420 files of data mining. In any event, I was able to go to the trash and restore it all easily.

I like the idea of the temp file to put things in until you are sure you are totally finished with it.

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Kristina ~Success Office Solutions
Our Solutions Equal Your Success!

I always keep a file called Delete and a file called Archive. The deleted file is where I put things I think I will be deleting. I also have my team members put files in there as opposed to deleting them and I go through and review everything before it is deleted. The archive file is stuff I want to keep, but want to get out of dropbox to save space. That is moved to an external hard drive for safe keeping.

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Rhonda...thank you so much for the great advice! That is very helpful.

About the other folders that you create (i.e., NoLongerNeeded, delete, archive, etc.). It sounds like a great way to organize things!!

Do you create these folders in Dropbox? Or on your hard drive and then move the files to them from the Dropbox? I'm a little unclear on what you mean.

Lisa

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Lisa Salem
Monarch Virtual Assistance LLC

Here are my general rules:

If the client is active, all files stay but older or completed files go into sub-folders so that the information is there and available for reference.

If the client is no longer working with me, I send them an email that I will be deleting the folder in X amount of day and giving them ownership of the documents (retain all the documents). It will be up to them on what to do with it.

If they are a project client (ie website, product launch, etc) I retain the files and/or access to the shared folder for 6 month after the deliverable at which time I contact them to let them know I am completely closing their project out.

I have a few ongoing project clients so I usually leave there folder there just as I would a retainer client.

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Lee Drozak

Hi Lee, thank you so much for sharing your rules for using Dropbox with your client. That is most helpful indeed and makes a lot of sense! I'm in the process of creating a guideline sheet to give to clients when we use Dropbox.

Thanks so much! I'll be happy to share the document with all who have responded and contributed to my post here once it is completed. You can edit it to fit your own policies and procedures of course. Email me offline if you would like to receive a copy when it's completed.

Thanks again!

Lisa

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Lisa Salem
Monarch Virtual Assistance LLC

This is great advice and one I had not yet considered. It would be important to know how long to keep files without clogging up storage space.

I checked and as yet there is no way to protect files from being removed or changed without your permission. Do you link these files rather than sharing these files?

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Marcya Burton - More Than Rubies VA
http://morethanrubiesva.com/

There is something called PackRat. It saves all deleted files so you can restore them if the client should accidentally delete them. I think it's an additional $3 a month. I use it and it's well worth it.

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I think it's good practice to discuss these issues beforehand, right when you set up a dropbox with your client. If you own the shared folder, simply transfer ownership to your client before leaving the folder.

When you leave the folder, no data is lost for your client, as long as he doesn't leave the folder, too!

In my experience, when the client does not delete the files, it's because he has forgotten about the fact that they are shared with someone who may be no longer on the team any more. A simple e-mail for clarification will keep you out of trouble easily.

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Real Life Experiences from about outsourcing from an employer from Germany to Virtual Assistants all around the world.