Set Up Your Organisation and Team

Nobody can open Paperwork without a seat, and nobody gets a seat until an organisation Owner hands one out. This page gets your own seat first, then your colleagues'. Seats are handed out in Account, not in Paperwork.

Before you start

• Paperwork is switched on for your organisation. See Before you start with Paperwork. If Paperwork is not offered anywhere on the Members page in Account, it is not switched on yet.
• You are an organisation Owner. Only organisation Owners can invite people and hand out seats. Anyone else sees Invite member greyed out with "Only organisation owners can invite members".
• You have signed in to Account at least once. Your user record is created when you sign in to Account, and Paperwork only reads it. Someone who has never signed in cannot be given a seat, so invite new colleagues from Account and they sign up when they accept.

If your organisation is not in Account yet, create it or claim it first — see Claim your organisation.

Take your own Paperwork seat

You need a seat of your own before you can give seats or roles to anyone else, and you need one to open Paperwork at all. Being an organisation Owner does not give you one.

Open Members in Account

Open Account from the app switcher, choose your organisation and click Members in the sidebar. The page is titled Organisation members.

Click Add on your own row

In the Product access column of your own row, click the dashed Add pill and choose Paperwork. The menu shows how many Paperwork seats are in use, for example 0/5.

Open Paperwork

You are granted access at once — you will see "Granted Paperwork access". There is no role to choose: the first Paperwork seat in an organisation always gets the Paperwork Owner role, so there is always someone who can administer Paperwork. Open Paperwork from the app switcher in Account or Dashboard.

Give your colleagues a seat

There are two routes. Use the first for people already in your organisation, and the second for people who are not.

Give a seat to an existing member

Click Add on their row

On the person's row in Members, click the dashed Add pill and choose Paperwork.

Choose a role and click Grant

Under Role for Paperwork, choose a role and click Grant. The list holds the Paperwork system roles Owner and Viewer plus any custom roles you have made, and it starts on Viewer. You will see "Granted Paperwork access" and the person can open Paperwork straight away.

If you click Add on someone else's row before you hold a seat yourself, the menu stops you with "Take a Paperwork seat first so you can manage its roles." and a Take my seat button. Click it, then carry on.

Invite someone new

Click Invite member

Click Invite member at the top of the Members page and enter their Email address.

Choose their membership type and product access

Choose a Membership type of Member or Owner (the organisation Owner). Under Product access, tick Paperwork (and Dashboard if they need it) and choose a Role for each. The role travels with the invitation. If you have no seat yet, the form shows "Paperwork: take a Paperwork seat first so you can invite people into it." with the same Take my seat button.

Click Send invitation

You will see "Invitation sent to" followed by their address. They accept from the email. Someone who already has a Dsposal account sees a Pending Invitations banner when they sign in to Account, and a new user signs up from the link and joins in one go.

Choose the organisation Owner type sparingly. An organisation Owner can open References and Settings in Paperwork, hand out seats, and change who else is an Owner.

Know how seats are counted

Each person needs a seat of their own, and pending invitations count towards the cap before anyone has accepted. Revoking an invitation, or the invitee declining it, frees the seat again. If you hit the limit, Account says "Paperwork at cap" with the counts followed by "contact us to expand seats", or shows at cap on the menu and "No seats left — contact us to expand Paperwork seats." Email [email protected] to raise it. The seat counts also appear on Billing.

Understand the Paperwork access screens

Anyone who opens Paperwork without access lands on one of these screens. They are the next step telling you what to do, not errors.

Screen	What it means	What to do
Paperwork isn't enabled here	The organisation has no active Paperwork subscription, or it is past due	Ask Dsposal to switch Paperwork on, as in the previous step. The screen links to Manage Paperwork billing in Account
You need a Paperwork seat, with Allocate yourself a seat	Paperwork is on, you are an organisation Owner, and you have no seat	Click Manage members in Account and take your own seat, as above
You need a Paperwork seat, with Ask an Org Owner for access	Paperwork is on, you are not an organisation Owner, and you have no seat	Ask an organisation Owner to give you one, then refresh the page

A person who belongs to several organisations also sees Switch organisation, with Access available or No access against each one.

Know which Owner you mean

This is why the person following this section should be an organisation Owner who also holds a Paperwork seat. Steps 4 to 7, and steps 10 and 12, happen in Settings and References, which no role can open for you.

What people can do once they are in is decided by their roles. The system roles are enough to start with, and Members and Roles covers custom roles, including the rule that every member keeps at least one role.

If you skip this

• No Paperwork seat for you — you see You need a Paperwork seat and cannot open Paperwork, so you cannot do any of the setup that follows.
• Colleagues invited without Paperwork ticked — they join the organisation but see You need a Paperwork seat in Paperwork.
• Seats left until later — nothing breaks, but the people who raise your first jobs are blocked until they have one.
• Someone made an organisation Owner by mistake — they can open References and Settings and change numbering and lists for everyone.

Check it worked

• Your own row in Members shows a Paperwork pill, and the seat count on Billing has gone up by one.
• Open Paperwork from the app switcher. You land inside Paperwork and the sidebar shows References and Settings under Admin.
• Click Members under Admin in Paperwork. Your row shows the Paperwork Owner role and no dashed No seat badge.

What to do next

Step 3, Add your company profile and logo, sets what your quotes and invoices say about you. It happens in Dashboard, and needs a seat there.

• Members and Roles — custom roles and what each permission allows
• Manage members
• Invite team members