Direct answer. Put the commercial client’s emergency response plan inside the Google Workspace they already run — a Shared Drive they own, Docs for the readable packet, Sheets for the live registers, and one Form for loss intake — so the restorer builds and maintains the plan as a service and the client never buys or learns a new system.
The Emergency Readiness Plan (ERP) is property intel: who to call, where the shut-offs are, what the floor plans show, which vendors answer at 2 a.m. The contract that puts you first on the call sheet is a separate instrument. Here you assemble the living packet inside tools the facility manager already opens every morning — no new software for the client, no portal they will forget, no “our platform” demo that dies when the GM changes. You work as editor inside their house. They keep the keys.
1. Shared Drive as the plan’s home
Start with a Google Shared Drive named for the property or portfolio — not a folder in someone’s My Drive.
Personal My Drive folders follow the person. When the facilities manager leaves, ownership of those files can strand or require a scramble through IT. A Shared Drive belongs to the organization’s Workspace. Membership changes; the Drive stays. That is the whole reason to prefer it for an emergency plan: the packet must survive staff turnover the same night the sprinkler fails.
Have the client’s Workspace admin create the Shared Drive (or create it under an account with Shared Drive rights). Add the restorer as Content manager or Contributor — enough to build and update files, not enough to delete the Drive. Name it plainly: “Emergency Response Plan — [Building]” or “ERP — [Portfolio].” Boring names get found at 2 a.m.
Inside the Drive, keep a shallow tree. Deep nesting is how night engineers open the wrong PDF. One Drive, a short set of folders, and files named so a search works without a map.
2. The document set
Build the readable packet in Google Docs and supporting folders. Keep every piece short enough to use under stress.
Facility profile Doc. Address, building type, construction notes that matter to mitigation (slab vs. crawl, stories, fire-sprinkler type if known), normal hours, after-hours access, alarm company, and who can authorize work. This is the one-pager a dispatcher reads while the truck rolls. Link out to Sheets for anything that changes often.
Shut-off guide with embedded photos. Main water, domestic risers that matter, gas, electrical rooms/panels, fire pump and sprinkler control if applicable, and any specialty shut-offs (kitchen, laundry, mechanical penthouse). Each shut-off gets a photo from the walkthrough, embedded in the Doc or linked from Drive with a caption that names the room and the valve. Label the physical valve the same day you photograph it. A beautiful Doc with unlabeled brass in a dark stairwell is theater.
Communications tree Doc. Who gets the first call, who gets the second, who must approve spend, and how the restorer reports (text, email, shared folder). Separate daytime and after-hours paths. If the answering service can activate you, say so here and match it to the agreement you hold.
Agreements folder. Executed Emergency Response Agreement or master service language, certificates of insurance, W-9 if they require it, and any not-to-exceed or pre-authorization exhibits. Keep signed PDFs here. Do not bury the active agreement under marketing PDFs.
Floor plans folder. Current floor plans, riser diagrams if they exist, roof plans for roofs you may walk after a storm, and a simple wet-zones note if the building has repeat offenders. Prefer files the phone can open. If plans are outdated, mark them outdated in the filename — stale plans without a warning create false confidence.
Optional: a short “first hour on site” Doc that points to the Shared Drive link, the Form URL, and the contact Sheet. One screen. No essay.
3. Sheets as the live registers
Docs narrate. Sheets hold the rows that change.
Build four registers (tabs in one workbook or separate Sheets — one workbook is easier to permission):
- Contacts — role, name, mobile, email, backup, notes (languages, keys, who never answers after 10 p.m.).
- Shut-offs — system, location text, photo link, who is allowed to operate it, last verified date.
- Vendors — plumber, electrician, roofer, glass, board-up, alarm, elevator, and the restoration company itself with after-hours line.
- Access notes — how to request access (store gate codes only if the client insists and their security policy allows it), badge office hours, patrol quirks, loading dock rules, asbestos or other known hazards that change the first move.
Sharing discipline matters more than column beauty. Editors: the restorer maintainer plus one or two client owners of the plan (chief engineer, FM). Viewers: anyone who needs to read at night but should not invent a new phone number. Do not share the Sheet as “anyone with the link” unless the client’s security team already accepts that risk — emergency contacts and access notes are not a public webpage.
Freeze the header row. Put “Last verified” on every register. Sort will not save you; a verification date shows what is rotting.
4. Google Form for loss notification intake
Build a Google Form that feeds a response Sheet in the same Shared Drive. Purpose: when something fails, the caller (or the answering service) captures the same fields every time so dispatch does not play telephone.
Keep fields operator-short:
- Property / unit / floor
- What happened (water, fire/smoke, sewage, weather opening, other)
- Is water or hazard still active?
- When discovered
- Caller name and callback number
- Best access instructions right now
- Photos (Form file upload, if the client’s Workspace allows it)
- Authorization contact reached? Yes/No/Who
Point the Form’s destination to a Sheet named “Loss intake.” Share the Form link in the communications tree and pin it in the Shared Drive. Train the FM and the answering service once. A Form that nobody bookmarks is decoration.
This is intake, not a claim system. It does not replace carrier notice, work authorization, or your own job software. It gives the client’s people a single door that lands in a Sheet both sides can see.
5. Permissions and ownership
Hard rule: the client’s Workspace owns everything. The Shared Drive lives in their tenant. Files are their records. The restorer is an invited editor on the plan Drive (and the Forms/Sheets inside it), not the landlord of the data.
Practically:
- Client admin creates or approves the Shared Drive and retains Manager access.
- Restorer account: edit rights on the plan Drive only — not broad access across unrelated Shared Drives.
- When the engagement ends, the client removes the restorer’s membership. The plan remains. That is the point of building in their house.
- Do not store the only copy of the plan in the restorer’s company Drive with “share to client.” That inverts ownership and trains the client to depend on your tenant.
If the client uses Google Groups for facilities or risk, grant the Group view or comment access so coverage survives vacations. Still keep edit rights narrow.
Document the permission model in a five-line README Doc at the root of the Drive: who owns, who edits, who views, where intake lands, when you review. Future-you will need it when the new FM asks why an outside domain can edit.
6. Keeping it current
A stale ERP is worse than none — it sends crews to the wrong riser and the wrong phone.
Set a review rhythm the client will actually keep: quarterly light touch (contacts and vendors), annual walkthrough (shut-offs, photos, floor plans), and event-driven updates after any remodel, ownership change, or staff change in the decision chain. The restorer runs the rhythm as part of the service; the client confirms changes. Put the next review date in the facility profile and on a calendar event both sides accept.
Use Docs version history when you revise the narrative packet — restore a bad edit, show who changed the comm tree, and avoid “final_v7_REAL” filenames. For Sheets, treat the verification date columns as the operational truth; version history helps after accidents, but disciplined cells prevent the accident.
After each review, export a PDF snapshot of the facility profile and shut-off guide into a dated Snapshots folder. The live system remains Docs and Sheets; the snapshot is for phones when formatting fights them.
Where this stack strains
Google Workspace is not a restoration OS. It will not dispatch crews, push moisture logs, or run Xactimate. Offline access depends on users who actually opened the files while online; do not promise a dead-basement download you have not tested on the FM’s phone. Shared Drive membership still needs a human admin when people quit. Forms file uploads can hit organizational restrictions. Photos embedded in Docs get heavy; oversized images make the shut-off guide slow on LTE. And if the client’s security policy forbids external editors, you need a named internal owner who will accept your updates — the model fails if nobody inside will touch the Drive.
Use the stack for what it is: the client’s system of record for pre-loss intel and intake. Keep job production in the tools you already run. Honesty here is how you keep the FM’s trust when the sprinkler hits at 2 a.m.
Questions
Why not build the plan in the restoration company’s Drive and share it out?
Because ownership must survive the vendor relationship. When the client owns the Shared Drive, staff changes and vendor changes do not orphan the packet. You are editor of their plan, not landlord of their emergency data.
What if the client is on Microsoft 365 instead of Google?
Same ownership logic, different source products: a SharePoint document library as home, Lists or Excel files in that library as registers, and a Form feeding a spreadsheet. Do not drag a Google-only client onto Microsoft or the reverse to flatter your preferences. Build in the suite they already use.
Does this replace an Emergency Response Agreement?
No. The Drive holds intel and intake. The agreement is the commercial instrument for response time, rates, emergency scope, and who may activate you. Keep the signed agreement in the agreements folder; do not confuse a shut-off photo with first-call rights.
How much access should night engineers get?
View access to the plan Drive and the intake Form link is enough for most. Edit access for every tech invites quiet drift — extra phone numbers, deleted rows, “helpful” rewrites at 3 a.m. Narrow editors; wide readers.
What is the minimum viable build for one building?
Shared Drive, facility profile Doc, shut-off guide with photos, contacts Sheet, vendors Sheet, agreements folder with the signed instrument, and a Form into a loss-intake Sheet. Add floor plans and access notes as soon as the walkthrough produces them. Ship the minimum that a stranger on your crew could use tonight; thicken it on the review cycle.
Learn the stack
Official Google training for the tools in this build — free, from the source:
- Google Workspace Learning Center — start here
- Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Forms training — Google Workspace Learning Center