Enterprise passwords are mission-critical for companies of all sizes and types, so they need to be available around the clock to tackle potential crises. If a user with access to critical passwords is unavailable to share them with you (for example, on a vacation), the productivity of your entire enterprise could be affected. Zoho Vault bails you out in such moments by allowing super admins to nominate themselves or specific users as emergency contacts. These emergency contacts can temporarily access all enterprise passwords in Zoho Vault. 

Configuring emergency access

1. Select Settings, then click Emergency access under the Admin configurations section.
   
2. Click Add under the Emergency contacts section, then add the users as emergency contacts.
   
3. Set the validity of the emergency access for the emergency contact, then click Add contacts. The user's emergency session will end after this specified time limit.
   

Note: A new emergency contact can declare an emergency only after 24 hours of being added as an emergency contact. 

How to declare an emergency?

1. Select Settings, then click Emergency access from the Admin configurations section.
   
2. Select the Emergency access tab, then click Declare emergency.
   
3. Enter a valid reason for declaring the emergency, then click Declare Emergency.
   

The emergency contact can view all the enterprise passwords in the organization for the time period specified during configuration. All users in the organization will be notified through email when an emergency is declared.

Terminating an invalid emergency access

Super admins can forcefully end an emergency access, as well as remove the corresponding user from emergency access contact list if their reason for declaring an emergency is found to be invalid. As a super-admin, you can:

1. Select Settings, click Emergency access from the Admin configurations section, then select the Emergency contact that declared an emergency. 
   
2. Select Emergency declared, then click Revoke emergency access.
   
3. If you wish to delete an emergency contact, select Settings, click Emergency access from the Admin configurations section, select the Emergency contact, then click Delete.