Sharepoint sites: create, collaborate

Overview: Once we (your Microsoft Partner) have added "Sharepoint Administrator" role to your user account (just ask!) then you can administer your SharePoint Online system yourself (within your Microsoft 365 Online tenant). The following articles are excellent official Microsoft guides to harness some of the best features of SharePoint; our staff-voted feature is the Sync feature that allows each user to work on files on their laptop/desktop computer as if the files were local, and allows multiple users to be collaborate on a single document simultaneously, for example 2 people editing an Excel spreadsheet.

Official Microsoft learning resources for SharePoint Online

Create a document library in SharePoint

Although a document library can contain sub-folders, each with specific permissions (for example subfolder "\Accounts\Salaries" only viewable by the Accounts Manager), most businesses will want a SharePoint site for each department such as Accounts, Sales, Directors, and so on.

Learn how: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/documents-and-library/create-a-document-library-in-sharepoint

Upload files and folders to a library

Learn how: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/documents-and-library/upload-files-and-folders-to-a-library

Sync SharePoint and Teams files with your computer

This is a powerful feature, making file access easy for anyone familiar with files/folders on a local Mac or Windows computer; don't skip this step!

Learn how: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint/sync/sync-sharepoint-and-teams-files-with-your-computer

Enable and configure versioning for a list or library

Like a Recycle Bin with a long memory, this allows you to revert back to multiple versions of a document.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/documents-and-library/enable-and-configure-versioning-for-a-list-or-library

Set up a library to require check out of files

Small organizations (generally less than 10 users) will almost certainly want to DISABLE this default feature so that everyone on your team can quickly edit files without needing to deliberately "check out" the file before editing, then "check in" after editing. It is usually enabled by default to protect larger organizations from accidental changes to files, and so that teams can see who is currently editing the document.

Learn how: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/documents-and-library/set-up-a-library-to-require-check-out-of-files

Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library

For small organizations (generally less than 10 users) simply editing permissions for files/folders for individual users is easier to manage, but using groups is recommended. For example, if John, Jane & James are in the Sales group and the Sales group is given read/write permission to a folder then only a single permission (the group) needs to be edited/maintained. If James moves to a different department of company there is no need to change or edit the group permission.

Learn how: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/sharepoint-sharing-and-permissions/customize-permissions-for-a-sharepoint-list-or-library

Where to go form here? There are some excellent 3rd-party YouTube video intros/courses on using SharePoint Online. If you have a "Microsoft 365 Business Standard" (or higher level) license, ask CoPilot AI Chat "Using SharePoint Online, how do I...." Microsoft Copilot