Article summary: Passkeys are designed for individual users on individual devices, and most adoption guidance is written with that assumption. For small teams, the complications show up immediately: shared service accounts, staff offboarding where credentials live on personal hardware, and the question of what happens when a device is lost. These scenarios are manageable with the right structure, but they need to be identified before the rollout begins, not discovered part way through.
Your team has been logging into the company’s social media management account with a shared password for years. Everyone knows it. It works fine. Now you’re rolling out passkeys, and someone asks a reasonable question: how does that work for an account six people need to use?
The answer is more involved than it is for personal accounts, and it is the question most passkey migration guides do not address head-on.
Passkeys are built around a one-person, one-device authentication model, and that design is both the source of the security benefit and the source of friction for teams that have historically relied on shared credentials, multi-user accounts, and informal access arrangements.
Managing passkeys in shared team environments requires some planning upfront. That planning also improves general access hygiene in ways that carry security benefits well beyond passkeys themselves.
Why Passkeys and Shared Accounts Do Not Naturally Fit
A passkey is a cryptographic credential tied to a specific user’s device and verified through their biometrics or device PIN.
The private key never leaves that device. It cannot be shared the way a password can.
As covered in the fundamentals of phishing-resistant authentication, this binding to a person and device is what makes passkeys secure. It is also what creates a problem when multiple people need access to the same account.
If six people need access to a shared account and one of them sets up a passkey, the other five are not covered by that registration. If that person leaves the organisation and their passkey is the primary authentication method for the account, access may be disrupted until recovery processes are completed. These are structural problems that need to be addressed before migration, not after.
The Three Scenarios Most Likely to Cause Problems
Shared service accounts
Social media accounts, vendor portals, shared email inboxes, project management tools, and subscription platforms are often managed under a single login shared by multiple staff.
These are the most common friction points in passkey rollouts for small teams, because passkeys are inherently tied to individual users rather than accounts.
The practical approach is to restructure these accounts before migration.
Most business tiers of modern software-as-a-service platforms support multiple user seats with individual logins.
Where individual accounts are not available, a team-managed credential vault provides a workable alternative. Tools like Bitwarden for Business or 1Password Teams offer controlled, auditable access with permissions that can be revoked when someone leaves.
Staff offboarding
When a staff member leaves, their passkeys live on their personal device. Unlike a password stored in a company system, a passkey on a personal phone or laptop cannot be remotely revoked by your IT team.
The only way to remove it is to access the account directly and delete the passkey registration through the platform’s security settings.
Timing matters here.
Complete this step before the employee’s account is closed, while you still have admin access to their registered credentials.
Every account protected by a passkey should appear on your offboarding checklist with a corresponding action: log in to the platform, locate the registered passkeys under account security, and remove the one associated with the departing employee’s device.
It is a two-minute task when done promptly. It becomes a recovery problem when skipped.
Device loss
If a staff member loses the device that holds their passkeys, access recovery depends on whether those passkeys were stored in a synced keychain.
Apple users sync through iCloud Keychain; Android users sync through Google Password Manager.
For cross-platform teams, a third-party password manager like 1Password or Bitwarden provides a device-independent sync layer.
Where passkeys are synced, recovery is typically straightforward through the platform’s account recovery process.
For accounts that hold sensitive business data, document the recovery path in advance: which platform holds the passkeys, how recovery is initiated, and who holds admin access. A lost device should not become an access crisis.
What a Managed Rollout Looks Like
According to a FIDO Alliance survey in early 2025, 87% of organisations surveyed in the US and UK had either deployed passkeys or were actively rolling them out.
That adoption rate, cited by Proton, reflects how quickly the infrastructure has matured. The businesses reporting the smoothest rollouts shared a common pattern: they completed an access inventory before starting.
That review revealed shared accounts, informal credential arrangements, and offboarding gaps that would otherwise become problems mid-deployment.
The security benefit of passkeys is real: phishing resistance, no reusable credentials, no password database to compromise.
Capturing that benefit in a small team environment requires the same access governance that serves you well whether you are using passkeys, passwords, or both.
Getting Passkeys Right for Your Team
Most small teams find that the biggest challenge is the initial cleanup. Shared accounts need to be identified, offboarding processes reviewed, and recovery options documented. Once that work is complete, day-to-day account management often becomes more straightforward.
Passkeys are not just a new authentication method. They provide an opportunity to strengthen account ownership, improve visibility, and reduce the long-term risks that accumulate around passwords.
If you would like help auditing your current account structure and building a passkey deployment plan that accounts for your team’s specific access patterns, the Haxxess team can assist.
Call us at 705-222-8324 or contact us here to get started.
Article FAQs
Can passkeys be used for shared accounts at all?
Not in the traditional sense. A passkey is tied to an individual’s device and biometrics, so it cannot be shared the way a password can. The recommended approach for shared accounts is to restructure them into individual user seats where the platform allows, or to manage credentials through a team vault with controlled access. Where neither option is available, a strong password combined with authenticator-app MFA remains a secure fallback.
What happens if a staff member loses the device their passkey is stored on?
If the passkey was stored in a synced keychain, such as iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, or a third-party password manager, recovery is possible through the platform’s account recovery process. If the passkey was device-bound with no sync, the user will need to authenticate through a fallback method and register a new passkey.
Is a team password manager still necessary if we switch to passkeys?
For most small teams, yes. Password managers serve two functions that remain relevant alongside passkeys: managing credentials for accounts that do not yet support passkeys, and providing a controlled way to share and audit access for accounts that require multiple users. Tools like Bitwarden and 1Password also support passkey storage, making them a useful bridge during a transition rather than something that needs to be retired.
How often should we review passkey registrations for business accounts?
At minimum, review passkey registrations whenever a staff member leaves the organisation. A broader review every six months is reasonable for most small businesses and aligns with the same rhythm used for reviewing third-party app permissions and user access controls. The review should confirm that every registered passkey is associated with a current employee and a device your organisation is still using.
