SharePoint for Business
Files that belong to the organisation rather than to whoever happened to create them — with permissions you can actually describe.
SharePoint is included with every Microsoft 365 Business plan and is the piece most organisations never structure. It is also the piece that is genuinely hard to change later, once everyone has bookmarks and links.
One rule decides most of it. Anything the business depends on goes in SharePoint; personal drafts go in OneDrive. SharePoint content survives the person who created it leaving, and OneDrive content does not. Beyond that: a site per function rather than one site for everything, libraries rather than deeply nested folders, permissions granted to groups rather than to people, and external sharing decided before go-live instead of after.
Six things a network drive never did
Files belong to the organisation
A document in a SharePoint site survives the person who created it leaving. A document in someone's OneDrive does not — access goes with the account, and recovering it becomes an admin task at the worst possible moment.
Permissions you can reason about
Access granted by site and library rather than file by file. The alternative, which is what most organisations drift into, is a permissions state nobody can describe and nobody dares change.
Version history that is trustworthy
Every change, by whom, restorable. It is the quiet reason people stop emailing attachments named final_v3_FINAL.xlsx around the office.
Search across everything
Content indexed across sites and libraries, including inside documents. Only as good as the structure underneath it, which is rather the point of designing that structure.
Controlled external sharing
Sharing with clients and suppliers, with expiry dates and a record of what went where — rather than a permanent public link somebody created in 2023 and forgot.
Works the way people already work
Libraries sync to File Explorer so staff can carry on using folders, while the files are actually in SharePoint with all the control that brings.
Where should this file go?
Worth printing and putting somewhere people will see it. Most file chaos comes from this question being answered differently by different people.
| The file | Where | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A draft you are still working on alone | OneDrive | Personal working space. Move it when it is ready to be shared. |
| A signed contract | SharePoint | The business depends on it and it must outlive the person who filed it. |
| Files a project team works on daily | SharePoint via Teams | A Team's Files tab is a SharePoint library. Same storage, team-friendly surface. |
| A document shared with a client | SharePoint | Controlled sharing with expiry, and a record of who accessed it. |
| Your own notes and scratch files | OneDrive | Nobody else needs them and nobody should inherit them. |
| Company policies and templates | SharePoint | One authoritative copy everyone reads, rather than six divergent ones. |
Six structural decisions
SharePoint is the part of Microsoft 365 that is genuinely hard to restructure later, because by then people have bookmarks, synced folders and links embedded in other systems. A week of design is cheaper than moving everything twice.
A site per function, not one site for everything
One site with deep folders is simple to create and unusable within a year. Most organisations we work with land on somewhere between four and twelve sites — Finance, Sales, Operations, HR, and a site per major client or project where that fits how they work.
Libraries inside sites, not folders inside folders
A document library is the unit that carries its own permissions, retention and metadata. Six levels of nested folders inside one library gives you none of that and a path length problem besides.
Decide what is genuinely personal
Draft work and personal notes belong in OneDrive. Anything the business depends on belongs in SharePoint. This one distinction prevents the most common and most expensive file problem there is.
Permissions by group, never by person
Access granted to a group, and people added to the group. Granting access person by person produces a structure that nobody can audit and that quietly breaks every time somebody changes role.
Agree external sharing before go-live
Locked down, open, or per-site. The default is more permissive than most businesses realise once they actually look at it, and tightening it later means breaking links people are using.
Plan for the files nobody owns
Every organisation has a folder from a project that finished three years ago. Decide now whether it is archived or migrated, because carrying it across means paying to store it again.
SharePoint — common questions
helpIs SharePoint included in Microsoft 365?
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Yes. Microsoft states SharePoint Plan 1 is included with Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium. It is not included with Apps for business, which is the desktop Office apps without the online services. Checked 21 September 2026.
helpWhat is the difference between SharePoint and OneDrive?
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OneDrive is personal storage attached to an individual account; SharePoint is organisational storage attached to a site. Technically they are closely related, and practically the distinction is ownership: when someone leaves, their OneDrive becomes an administrative problem, while a SharePoint site carries on unchanged. Anything the business depends on belongs in SharePoint.
helpHow does SharePoint relate to Microsoft Teams?
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Every Team has a SharePoint site behind it — the Files tab in a Team is a document library in that site. That is useful and it is also how organisations end up with dozens of unmanaged sites, because creating a Team creates a site. Controlling who can create Teams is therefore a SharePoint governance decision as much as a Teams one.
helpHow many SharePoint sites should we have?
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For most businesses we work with, between four and twelve. One site with deep folders is easy to set up and unusable within a year. A site per department or major function, each with a few libraries, is the structure that still makes sense later. The right number depends on how your business is actually organised, which is what the design conversation establishes.
helpCan staff keep using Windows File Explorer?
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Yes. SharePoint libraries sync to File Explorer, so people can carry on working in folders exactly as before while the files actually live in SharePoint with version history, permissions and search. For most staff this is the difference between adoption and quiet resistance.
helpCan we share SharePoint files with clients?
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Yes, and it is better than emailing attachments — links can expire, access is recorded, and the recipient always sees the current version. External sharing needs to be configured deliberately rather than left at the default, which is more permissive than most organisations expect. That decision is part of the setup.
helpIs SharePoint backed up?
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Not in the way most people mean. SharePoint has versioning and a recycle bin, and Microsoft protects its own infrastructure. That is not a backup you control, and it will not help with something deleted and discovered months later. If that matters to you, third-party backup is a separate product.
helpWe already use SharePoint and it is a mess. Can that be fixed?
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Usually, and it is common work. The typical state is a single site with thousands of nested folders, permissions granted person by person, and sharing links nobody can account for. Restructuring is done alongside the existing setup and moved across in stages, rather than by asking everybody to stop working for a week.
Related pages
File Share to SharePoint Migration
Moving network drives, NAS or Dropbox into a structure that works.
OneDrive for Business
The personal half of the story, and where the boundary sits.
Microsoft Teams for Business
Every Team creates a SharePoint site — govern both together.
Microsoft 365 Backup
Why versioning and a recycle bin are not a backup.
Microsoft 365 Implementation
Where the file structure gets designed and built.
Microsoft 365 Licensing Explained
Which plans include SharePoint, and which do not.
Microsoft 365 Services
Licensing, implementation, migration, security and support.
Google Workspace Shared Drives
The nearest equivalent on the Google side.
Design your SharePoint structure
Tell us how your business is organised and roughly how much data you have. We will come back with a site and library structure, a permissions model, and a fixed-scope quote.
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Structure designed before anything is copied
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Permissions by group, so it can still be audited later
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External sharing decided deliberately, not left at the default
For document-heavy organisations — publishers, colleges, law practices — our page for Microsoft 365 partner in Kottayam shows how a library replaces attachments and copied templates.
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