What's the difference between a central locking bar and individual drawer locks on a filing cabinet?

Most commercial vertical file cabinets use a central locking bar — a single key locks a metal bar that runs the height of the cabinet interior and physically blocks all drawers from opening at once. This is convenient: one key, one turn, locks everything. Some filing cabinets offer individual drawer locks instead — each drawer has its own lock and key. Individual locks let you secure only certain drawers while leaving others accessible, which is useful when different staff need access to different records in the same cabinet. Individual locks cost more and require managing multiple keys. Central locking bars are standard for most general-purpose filing; individual locks are worth the upgrade when different drawers contain records with different access levels. FindOfficeFurniture.com — call 888-719-4960.