End-of-Year Google Workspace Audit for School Admins
Review critical aspects of your Google domain to enhance security, compliance, and management for the following school year. GAT Labs’ visibility, security reports, and automation make the annual audit a hassle-free routine task.
SCHOOL ADMIN CHALLENGE
Complex Google Workspace Environments Need Comprehensive Controls
When the school year ends, it’s a perfect time to audit the Google Workspace domain. That can be a demanding task since modern classrooms rely on multiple interconnected Google applications daily. However, a lack of control and automated management makes the school’s security and student safety vulnerable.
Massive Manual Offboarding
Manually deactivating multiple accounts of students and teachers is time-consuming, and a human error can disrupt school operations. Students may lose access to shared resources, classrooms may be abandoned, and inactive users may overuse Drive storage.
Unmonitored Sensitive Data Access
User access permissions, external app usage, or folder and file sharing, while uncontrolled across the school year, create security blind spots. That increases the risk of unauthorized access and phishing.
Online Safety & Compliance Gaps
Without regular review and monitoring of online safety policies, students may be exposed to harmful and inappropriate content, and the school may become non-compliant with key privacy regulations.
GAT Labs Solution
In-depth Google Workspace Audit with One Toolset
GAT Labs offers admins comprehensive tools to audit, manage, and monitor essential aspects of Google Workspace for Education. They provide school IT teams with powerful data beyond basic admin logs.
GAT Suite is a comprehensive set of tools tailored to audit, monitor, and manage a Google domain from a single dashboard.
In-depth Overview of Every Action Across the Domain
Detailed insights on user, group, Drive, Gmail activity, external and internal file sharing, and third-party apps, everything in one place.
Security Audit within Google Workspace and the Chrome Browser
Clear oversight of key metrics for a given timeframe to review incidents, critical spots, and the current security status.
Online Safety Policies Check
Time-based activity history and real-time data on each student, classroom, and the entire school to audit compliance and web filtering policies.
Automated, Customizable Workflows
Seamless user onboarding, offboarding, and management with built-in workflows to save time, avoid errors, and ensure operational continuity.
Ongoing Monitoring, Alerting & Reporting
Personalized, automated alert rules and reports for user online activity to stay on top of every unusual or suspicious action and detect threats early.
Your Annual Overview of Google Workspace for Education with GAT Labs
Audit your Google Workspace for Education environment with precision and confidence. We will guide you through key aspects of your domain to increase visibility, clean up waste, and protect your sensitive data.
ESSENTIAL FEATURES
How GAT Labs Supports
Google Workspace Auditing
Google Workspace Auditing
- Detailed Reporting: Full overview of user access, online activity, and data lifecycle.
- Data Filtering: Advanced filters help structure information and identify trends.
- Automation: Domain data is automatically collected and shown in scheduled reports.
- Risk Management: Security threat detection, data protection monitoring, policies oversight. data is automatically collected and shown in scheduled reports.
- Seamless Integration: GAT Suite is fully integrated with the Google Workspace environment.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Google Workspace Audit for Schools
How to effectively audit activity across Google Workspace for Education?
Using a centralized auditing tool that shows structured data on user activity, file sharing, and admin actions in Gmail, Drive, and users. Google Admin Console offers only partial information spread across the platform and lacks complete context.
What are the most common issues discovered during a Google Workspace audit?
Sharing sensitive files and Drives inadvertently with too many people, suspicious third-party apps installed in the domain and their excessively broad access privileges, or users sharing personal information in the browser. With an in-depth, regular audit, admins can detect and mitigate these security risks before they escalate.
Can admins audit external files shared in their Google Drive?
Yes. GAT+ is the only tool in the market that identifies externally owned files shared with your institution’s users. That enables you to detect potential data exposure and take the necessary steps quickly.
How can we verify that our Google Workspace environment complies with FERPA and student privacy requirements?
FERPA requires from schools safeguarding privacy of student records. GAT Labs enables up-to-date compliance audits with detailed insights into user and file activity logs, as well as the personal data lifecycle across the domain.
How do we transfer ownership of files when a teacher or staff member leaves?
GAT+ allows admins to change file ownership in your domain from one former user to another, as long as the ex-user account is still active or suspended; it won’t work for archived users. To protect sensitive data, this action has to be approved by a Security Officer.
Which third-party applications have access to our Google Workspace data?
As an admin, you can review all third-party apps installed on your domain and privileges granted to them by users in GAT+. The audit also scores permission risk for each app, allowing you to restrict or remove their access if needed.
How can we verify that Multi-Factor Authentication is enabled for all school staff?
GAT+ allows you to enable 2FA for a specific group of users and monitor whenever any of them tries to disable this setting.
How do we find inactive or unused Google Workspace accounts?
As an admin, you can review all third-party apps installed on your domain and privileges granted to them by users in GAT+. The audit also scores permission risk for each app, allowing you to restrict or remove their access if needed.
How can we identify files shared publicly or with external users?
Yes. The Drive Audit section in GAT+ shows all files that have been shared and are available to everyone or for everyone with a link. From the same place, you can remove sharing permissions for a given file.
Are our Google Workspace security settings configured according to best practices?
To optimize security setup in Google Workspace for Education, check out our resources designed for school admins. You can also talk to our Support Team to review your current settings and enhance security auditing and management practices together.
Secure Your Google Workspace for Next School Year
Identify critical areas, safeguard sensitive information, and protect your students online. Audit your Google environment regularly with a toolset that digs deeper into data than any other solution. Join thousands of schools that gained unprecedented visibility and control over their domains.
- Why is an end-of-year audit critical for maintaining data security and tenant hygiene in Google Workspace for Education?
- What are the best practices for handling graduating students and departing staff accounts to ensure seamless data offboarding?
- How can school IT administrators safely transfer file ownership from ex-staff members without losing critical institutional data?
- What security risks are associated with leaving idle or orphan shared files unmanaged over the summer break?
- How can GAT Flow automate repetitive bulk tasks like updating Organizational Units (OUs) and mass-modifying user accounts during school year transitions?
- What steps should admins take to clean up, optimize, and free up domain storage before Google's storage policies impact the school's budget?
- How does auditing third-party app permissions at the end of the term help reduce a school district's "shadow IT" footprint?