A guide from Rosie Glassey

The Business Vault

The logbook for your business

Everything in one place. Findable in seconds.

rosieglassey.co.uk

01

The logbook for your business

Every business has information that lives in the wrong place.

The VAT number is on a letter somewhere. The domain renewal date is in an email from three years ago. The insurance policy number is written on a Post-it that moved when you cleared your desk. The login for the trade account you use twice a year is in your head, approximately.

None of this information is complicated. None of it is secret. It just has no fixed home -- so every time you need it, you spend ten minutes finding it instead of ten seconds.

The Business Vault gives every piece of essential business information a fixed home. Fifteen tabs covering everything from insurance renewals to machine settings to the NI number of the person who helps out at busy times.

Worth knowing You do not need to fill in every section. Fill in what is relevant to your business and leave the rest. Even half-completed, this is more organised than most one-person businesses will ever be.

Rosie Glassey, May 2026

02

The one feature you need to know

This searches every tab simultaneously. Type any word -- a supplier name, a policy number, a login detail, a contact -- and every matching entry across all fifteen tabs appears instantly.

Search the whole Vault in one go

Windows Ctrl + Shift + F
Mac Cmd + Shift + F

Type it. Find it. Done.

You will never open five notebooks looking for your VAT number again. You will never spend twenty minutes finding the login for the trade account you use twice a year. You will never wonder which email address you used to register for that platform.

03

Before you start

The best approach is to work through one tab at a time, with the relevant documents open beside you. Start with the tabs where you know the information off the top of your head -- Key Contacts, Social Media, Bank Accounts -- and work outwards from there.

What you will need

  • Insurance documents
  • Domain and hosting confirmation emails
  • Subscription confirmation emails
  • Equipment manuals and purchase receipts
  • Any correspondence from HMRC

This is not a one-sitting task -- and it is not meant to be. The Vault is designed to be filled in gradually, as you find information, not all at once from memory.

A note on sensitive information The Personnel tab contains fields for NI numbers and tax reference numbers. These are personal data. Do not share this spreadsheet with anyone while those entries are present. Full account numbers, card numbers and PINs should never be stored in a spreadsheet -- see the Passwords and Security tab for guidance on what to store elsewhere.
If anything goes wrong If you accidentally overwrite something and the sheet stops behaving correctly, download a fresh copy from the original link and copy your entries across. The master is always there.
04

What is in the Vault

Fifteen tabs covering everything your business needs to reference regularly.

Tab 1
Start Here
Emergency and handover information. Where the keys are, who to call, where the files live. The tab you hope no one ever needs and the one that matters most if they do. Update it at least once a year.
Tab 2
Business Registration and Tax
Your UTR, VAT number, tax code, Self Assessment deadlines, HMRC contact details. The numbers that live in your head but should not have to.
Tab 3
Subscriptions and Renewals
Every recurring payment with renewal dates, costs and cancellation links. Colour-coded to show what needs attention -- red for overdue, amber for renewing within 30 days, green for more than 30 days away.
Tab 4
Supplier Accounts
Every supplier you buy from -- account numbers, login details, payment terms, account manager contacts. The trade account you set up two years ago and can never remember the login for.
Tab 5
Insurance
Every policy with renewal dates, policy numbers, what it covers and who to call in an emergency. Add each renewal date to Google Calendar with a six-week reminder.
Tab 6
Domain Names and Digital Assets
Every domain name, its registrar, renewal date and login. One missed renewal and your website disappears. This tab prevents that.
Tab 7
Bank Accounts and Financial
Partial information only -- enough to identify accounts and find the right login quickly. Full account details belong in a secure password manager, not a spreadsheet.
Tab 8
Key Contacts
The people you need occasionally but urgently -- accountant, solicitor, IT support, tradespeople, local authority contacts. Find the right person in seconds rather than hunting through old emails.
Tab 9
Personnel
For businesses that use occasional helpers, assistants or contractors. Contains sensitive personal data -- see the data protection note at the top of the tab.
Tab 10
Social Media and Online Presence
Every platform, handle, URL and email address used to register. Your complete online presence in one place, including follower counts updated periodically.
Tab 11
Equipment and Maintenance
Serial numbers, purchase dates, warranty expiry, service schedules and service providers for every piece of equipment essential to your business.
Tab 12
Consumables and Settings
A consumables tracker and a machine settings reference. The tab that saves hours of hunting through old test pieces and notes.
Tab 13
Essential Reference
Your trade knowledge in one searchable place. SOPs for infrequent tasks, technical specifications, ratios, procedures.
Tab 14
Memberships and Professional Bodies
Trade associations, craft guilds, professional bodies, networking groups. The things you pay for annually and occasionally forget you have access to.
Tab 15
Passwords and Security
Guidance only -- no passwords stored here. Advice on password managers, two-factor authentication and what to do if you think you have been hacked.
05

Getting started

Start with the tabs you can fill in from memory or with documents you already have to hand.

This week -- the quick wins

  • Start Here -- who to call in an emergency, where the files live. Do this first.
  • Key Contacts -- your accountant, solicitor, key suppliers. Ten minutes.
  • Social Media -- your platforms and handles. Five minutes.
  • Bank Accounts -- partial details only, enough to identify each account. Five minutes.
  • Subscriptions -- open your bank statements and work through what is leaving your account. This one will save you money.

This month -- the deeper tabs

Once the quick wins are in place, work through the tabs that need documents beside you.

  • Insurance -- get your policy documents out
  • Domain Names -- find your registrar confirmation emails
  • Equipment -- check purchase receipts and manuals
  • Business Registration -- find your HMRC correspondence

Ongoing

Every time you sign up for a new subscription, buy new equipment or take on someone new to help -- add it to the Vault the same day. Two minutes in the moment means you never lose track of it.

The Vault is not a one-off exercise. It is a habit.

Once a year, work through every tab, update what has changed and remove what is no longer relevant.

06

The calendar reminder habit

For every tab with a renewal or service date, add it to Google Calendar now. It only takes thirty seconds per entry and you only have to do it once.

Subscriptions2 weeks before renewal
Insurance6 weeks before renewal
Domain names4 weeks before renewal
Equipment service4 weeks before due date
Tax deadlines6 weeks before due date
Memberships4 weeks before renewal

The Vault shows you dates. Google Calendar reminds you about them. Together they mean nothing renews without you making a conscious decision about it.

Name the event exactly as it appears in the Vault -- "Adobe Creative Cloud renewal £54.99/yr" not just "subscription renewal." When the reminder arrives, you know immediately what you are deciding and what it costs.

Build the habit Every time you add a new entry to the Vault with a date, add the calendar reminder the same day. Two minutes now prevents a missed renewal or an unexpected charge later.
07

What next

The information that was living in your head, a notebook, an old email or nowhere at all now has a fixed home. Searchable, updatable, yours.

Every time you need a policy number, a login, a serial number or a contact -- open the Vault, press Ctrl+Shift+F, type what you are looking for. Done in seconds.

About Rosie Glassey

I have been running Pooil Vaaish Engraving on the Isle of Man for 27 years -- a bespoke commission business where every job is different, every client is someone's something, and I am the person who does all the things.

I built the Business Vault because I spent years keeping this information in too many places at once. Some of it was in my head. Some of it was in a notebook. Some of it was in an email I could never quite find again. None of it was where I wanted it to be when I needed it.

The Vault is the reference library I wish I had had from the start.

Ready to go further?

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