Documentation that works for you, not against you
Documentation is not static. It should be thought of as a living repository of information that’s constantly evolving. By regularly updating and refining it, you ensure that when it’s time to perform service for a client, your documentation is as useful and accurate as possible. Whether you’re troubleshooting an issue or onboarding a new client, well-maintained documentation becomes an essential tool for delivering efficient and consistent service.
But, let’s be honest — keeping documentation up to date can sometimes feel like managing a cluttered desktop. Files pile up, things get messy, and it’s easy to lose track of what’s important. For MSPs and IT technicians, this clutter can lead to slowdowns, mistakes, or worse — missteps that could have been easily avoided with a bit of organization.
The good news is that maintaining documentation doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right tools and strategies, you can keep everything organized and up to date, allowing you to find what you need, when you need it. Let's talk about how to ensure your documentation remains an asset to your team and your clients.
Stay ahead of the clutter
In our fast-paced, information-heavy world, staying on top of critical changes is key. With alerting, you can ensure that important updates — like expiring domains, warranties, or SSL certificates — never slip through the cracks. Alerts in our platform help you proactively manage key pieces of information BEFORE they become issues, all while keeping your team in the loop.
Alerts act as your safety net, ensuring critical information is always in focus and nothing important gets overlooked. By setting these alerts, you can maintain control over the details that matter most, even when juggling multiple priorities.
Prioritize what needs attention
When documentation piles up, it's easy for critical updates or missing information to get lost in the shuffle. That’s where flagging becomes your go-to tool for quickly marking and prioritizing important items. Think of flagging like adding a sticky note to that one document you know you need to revisit. In the same way you might highlight something on your messy desk, flagging lets you quickly identify what needs more work. Whether it’s an incomplete section, an outdated asset, or you'd just like someone else to review, flagging ensures that nothing gets forgotten.
Almost any record in Hudu can be flagged — from assets and passwords to Knowledge Base articles and beyond. Once flagged, you choose the relevant flag type, add detailed notes, and the flagged item is instantly visible at the top of the record in its assigned color. This helps team members quickly identify high-priority items while navigating through the system.
By leveraging flagging, you ensure that nothing important is overlooked and that items requiring attention are front and center, ready to be reviewed and resolved. The key here is to prioritize. You don’t need to fix everything all at once, but by flagging critical areas for improvement, you can focus on what matters most — and return to the flagged items when you have the time.
Make sure it’s actually useful
Quality matters, whether it's the way your desktop folders are organized or how complete your documentation is. Measuring the quality of your documentation is like doing a quick audit of your files — ensuring everything is where it should be and easy to access.
Our system provides a quality score by evaluating how well asset layouts are being used. This gives you a bird’s-eye view of where documentation needs improvement. Keeping an eye on this score helps ensure that what you’re documenting is not just clutter but valuable and organized information that’s actually helpful to your team.
Keep track of everything
You know that feeling when you accidentally delete an important file and wish you had an earlier version? Change control in documentation is your safety net. With features like revision history and the ability to archive out-of-date information (our "museum" feature), you can always go back to previous versions if needed.
Similarly, knowing who's touched what documentation and when can be tremendously insightful. Audit trails ensure that every action is logged, so if there’s ever a question about who made a change or when something was updated, you’ve got the answers at your fingertips. They provide transparency and accountability, making it easy to trace changes and updates. This is especially useful when managing sensitive information or making significant updates that could impact the whole team.
This ensures that your documentation is not only current but traceable. If something goes wrong, you have the full story of who changed what and when. It’s like having a detailed record of every decision made along the way, ensuring nothing gets lost in the shuffle.
Leverage your team’s knowledge
Documentation isn’t a one-person job, much like keeping a shared workspace organized. Collaboration helps distribute the load and ensures that you’re capturing the best information from the right people. Peer reviews and feedback loops allow team members to spot gaps or inaccuracies, leading to better, more reliable documentation.
When your team contributes to documentation, it ensures that the knowledge doesn’t sit with just one person. It’s an ongoing effort to improve quality and consistency across the board.
Let technology do the repetitive work
There’s no need to manually update every piece of documentation, just like there’s no reason to manually organize every file on your desktop every week. Automation can take care of many routine tasks — whether it’s updating document statuses or reminding you when it’s time for a review.
Automation ensures that nothing slips through the cracks. You can set it up once and then let it run in the background, freeing you up for more important work.
By leveraging integrations and the API, much of the manual work of data entry can be accomplished for you. This allows technicians access to the most critical information from each of their software, while ensuring that it's always as up to date as the rest of your stack.
Wrapping it up
Remember, maintaining your documentation doesn’t have to feel like cleaning up a messy desktop. With the right tools — alerting, flagging, automation, and more — you can keep everything tidy without needing to overhaul the entire system every few months. The key is to stay proactive, collaborate with your team, and leverage technology to handle the repetitive work.
Start small, focus on continuous improvement, and make documentation maintenance a regular part of your workflow. By doing so, you’ll create a system that not only supports your team but also enhances your service delivery to clients. After all, clean, organized documentation is more than just a nice-to-have — it’s a critical part of staying competitive in the MSP world.