
Project management covers a wide area of tasks, but there’s one component that’s frequently left out of the mix, simply because most project management tools don’t include it: password sharing.
Your company probably uses a lot of different services, most of which require user logins. I’ve witnessed many companies that keep that login information stored on an unencrypted file, where anyone with access to a particular computer could read that file. In this day and age, that should be considered a big mistake. Instead, you should be storing your passwords in a password manager.
SEE: Hiring kit: Project manager (TechRepublic Premium)
That brings up another issue: sharing. How do you share certain passwords with a team? In Bitwarden, the primary feature for this is called Organizations. With this Bitwarden feature, you can create a separate encrypted vault for your company that is completely isolated from your personal vault. If Bitwarden’s Organizations alone is not be enough to keep your efforts organized, you may need to turn to the Folders feature.
What is Bitwarden’s Folders feature?
With Bitwarden’s Folders feature, you can get more granular with the organization of your vault items. For example, you could create an Organization to house vault items for your company and then create folders with titles like:
- WebDev
- Dev
- HR
- Operations
- Security
- General Services
- Finance
After creating your folders, you can add vault items to those folders to keep everything better organized. Although you don’t create specific folders for your Organization, when you assign an Organization vault item to a specific folder, it will only appear to those members of the organization in question. Let’s find out how this is done.
What you’ll need to use Folders in Bitwarden
You’ll need a valid Bitwarden account. You can use either the free or paid versions of Bitwarden, though note that the free version only allows you to share an Organization with one other person.
How to create a folder in Bitwarden
Creating a folder in Bitwarden is simple. First, log in to your Bitwarden account with either the web, desktop or mobile app. There’s only one difference: On the mobile app, you will create folders through Settings | Folders. I’ll demonstrate on the desktop client.
After logging into your account, you should see the Folders section in the left navigation (Figure A).
Figure A

Click + to the right of Folders and then, when prompted (Figure B), give the folder a name and click the Save icon.
Figure B

Your new folder should now appear under Folders in the left navigation.
How to add a vault item to a folder
Now comes the fun part. Since we’re talking about Organizations, make sure to select the one you created for your team under All Vaults near the top left corner (Figure C).
Figure C

After selecting your Organization, create a new vault entry as you normally would. You should see a Folder drop-down. Click that drop-down and select the folder you just created (Figure D).
Figure D

Continue filling out the information for the folder and, once you’ve completed the process, click the Save icon. If you then click the Folder, you’ll see the new entry appear (Figure E).
Figure E

Note that if you click My Vault and then click the new folder, you’ll see the newly created item isn’t there. Why? Because it belongs to the Organization and not your personal vault.
Keep it organized
Bitwarden is a fantastic password manager that goes a long way to help keep your team’s efforts organized. If you start working with Folders out of the gate, you’ll find the feature can really help you keep things more easily accessible for your teams and project management workflows.
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