People regularly ask where documents live.
Shared Drive & Document Cleanup
If “where is the latest version?” is a normal question, the system needs sorting.
Shared document areas rarely become messy all at once.
Folders accumulate. Copies multiply. Finished work never quite gets archived. Eventually, people spend time checking which file is current instead of simply getting on with the work.
House of Carol reviews one shared document area and gives you a simpler structure and a controlled plan for putting it right.
Suitable for Google Drive, Microsoft 365 / SharePoint / OneDrive and similar shared-document environments.
£1,250fixed fee
One team or business function · one shared document area · one primary platform
Normally returned within 7 working days once the agreed discovery inputs are complete.
Minimum access needed · read-only where appropriate · nothing moved or deleted without your approval
Does this sound familiar?
You may benefit from the review if:
Several copies appear to be “the latest”.
Current and old work are mixed together.
The folder structure makes sense mainly to the people who created it.
Onboarding includes a long explanation of where everything is hidden.
What you will leave with
A practical route from “messy drive” to a controlled structure.
A clear picture of the problem
A current-state map showing the important areas, duplication, stale material and retrieval problems.
Clear ownership and authority
Decisions about which version is current, who owns it and where it should live.
A simpler structure
A target folder or library structure with practical naming, version and archive rules.
A controlled cleanup plan
What should be kept, moved, archived or reviewed, with approval points before anything consequential happens.
A usable handover
An implementation checklist, a simple “where things live” map and a handover session for the people who will use the structure.
A bounded £1,250 review
This is deliberately one defined piece of work:
One team or business function.
One shared document area.
One primary platform.
£1,250 fixed.
If the problem spans several systems, several teams or a large-scale migration, we scope that separately rather than pretending it fits the standard review.
Will you move or delete any of our files?
No.
The standard service is a review, target structure and controlled cleanup or migration plan.
Where something looks stale, duplicated or unclear, we classify it and identify the decision that needs to be made.
House of Carol does not move or delete material under the standard review without explicit customer approval.
Bulk migration is a separate piece of work.
What happens during the review?
1. Define
Agree the shared area, accountable owner and the problems that matter.
2. Map
Review the current structure and enough representative evidence to understand how it is actually being used.
3. Sort
Identify current-version, duplication, stale-content, ownership and retrieval problems.
4. Design
Create the smallest sensible target structure, naming rules, archive approach and “where things live” map.
5. Plan
Provide an ordered, non-destructive implementation checklist with clear approval points.
What access would you need from us?
Enough to understand the problem — no more than that.
Normally we need:
- a named owner for the document area;
- a short discovery session;
- safe read-only access where appropriate, or a sufficient inventory, screenshots or directory listing;
- any existing document, records or retention rules you already follow.
We do not need to read every document simply because it exists.
We do not invent retention rules or imply legal or regulated records-management advice.
Is this the right service for our organisation?
It is designed for people responsible for a shared document area they no longer fully trust, including owners, managing directors, operations managers, office or business managers, charity operations leads, governance or administration leads and team leads.
The important question is not your job title.
It is whether document confusion is costing the team time, confidence or control.
This probably isn't worth £1,250 if…
Everyone can reliably find the current version, ownership is clear and your main objection is simply that you dislike the folder names.
In that case, keep your £1,250.
It is also not the right standard service if all you need is somebody to move thousands of files. That is bulk migration rather than this review.
Who does the work?
The review is led by Alan W Gallagher, founder of House of Carol in Bristol.
His relevant background includes IT services, information-security administration, technical and business operations, governance support and practical work with document structures, information organisation and source-of-truth control.
House of Carol keeps the scope deliberately bounded: the aim is to make the document environment more usable, not to manufacture an enterprise information-governance programme around a team that does not need one.
Start with the problem
Where does your team lose track of the right document?
Tell us which shared document area is causing trouble, what tends to go wrong and who is responsible for it.
We will first establish whether the problem fits the standard £1,250 review and define the boundary before anything is agreed.