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ADR 0016: Support Access Is Temporary and Logged

Decision

BooksPlus support access must be explicit, temporary, permission-limited, and logged.

Support access should not be treated as a hidden back door, shared administrator account, permanent vendor account, or undocumented override mechanism.

Rationale

Desktop accounting software may require support access for troubleshooting, recovery, migration, or setup assistance. That access can create serious trust and privacy concerns if not handled explicitly.

BooksPlus should make support access visible and reviewable.

Implications

Support access should require authorization by an owner, accounting admin, or sysadmin according to policy.

Support sessions should have:

  • clear purpose;
  • time limit;
  • assigned permissions;
  • visible status;
  • audit trail;
  • revocation path.

Draft guidance

For MVP:

  • do not create hidden vendor-access mechanisms;
  • avoid shared support credentials;
  • require explicit local authorization;
  • log support-access grant, use, and revocation;
  • allow support access to be disabled entirely by policy.