What are the advantages of an additional Microsoft 365 Account for our Practice Account in FYI?

FYI recommends that you set up an additional Microsoft 365 account for your practice. There are a variety of functions within FYI where this would be used, such as the OneDrive administration account, backups and exports, it can be used when sending out bulk emails and also for shared mailboxes.

It is recommended that the account is set this up with a good name to represent your practice, rather than a specific person.

When setting up the account, also ensure the account has OneDrive enabled.

Once the Microsoft 365 account is set up, you then set up a user directly in FYI that relates to it (refer to Adding New Users Directly to FYI in Managing Users). The user would be included as a licensed FYI user.

It is not recommended that you use the Microsoft 365 account and the OneDrive Account for one of your existing team members (for example, a specific practice manager or an administrator) as this can cause complications if that team member leaves your practice.

Where the Practice Microsoft 365 Account would be Used

OneDrive Account Linked in FYI for Collaboration

The additional Microsoft 365 account allows you to set up a single OneDrive location for internal Collaboration and for Client Collaboration (refer to Link your Practice's OneDrive Account).

The important fact for this is that the account is constant and enduring and this ensures the account is always available. 

If a non-enduring account was used, and this became unavailable such as if the team member leaves, this would lead to broken links when documents are Co-edited internally, or when they are shared with or Co-edited with client. Correcting this could incur significant maintenance costs.

Security
An enduring account ensures there are no issues with security.

Backup and Export
The OneDrive account that is linked to FYI is also used for Backup and Bulk Export. By using the specific Microsoft 365 acccount it is always clear where your backup files are and where to find any bulk exports. Refer to Nightly Backup and Bulk Export.

Bulk Emails
You can also use the account to send out bulk email communications. This allows you to send emails from and receive email to a single location.

Shared Mailbox 
You can use the additional account for a shared mailbox which allows documents to be filed into FYI from multiple users. This allows multiple people to edit and reply from the same mailbox, but it is no one person’s primary email account. Refer to Practice-wide Shared Email Account.

For other scenarios, refer also to How can we use a Shared Mailbox?