Getting started
Create a workspace
A short setup wizard creates your organization and the basics every leave request needs.
- Who
- Owner
- Where
- Sign up, or Organization switcher → Create new organization
- How to enable
- Always on.
A workspace is your organization in openbranchhq. When you sign up, a setup wizard walks you through creating one, and you become its Owner. You can create more workspaces later from the organization switcher.
How it works
The wizard has five steps. The first three are required; the last two can be skipped and done later.
- Workspace. Name it, usually after your company. The name also sets the workspace's web address.
- Location. Pick a country, timezone and the month your leave year starts. You can import that country's public holidays for the current year in the same step. You're assigned to this location.
- Department. Add one or more departments, such as Engineering or Sales. You're placed in the first one.
- Leave. Choose from ready-made leave types: Annual leave (20 days), Sick leave (10 days, approved automatically, available during probation) and Unpaid leave (no limit). You can adjust each one's allowance, unit (days or hours), auto-approval, pro-rating for new joiners and which locations it applies to. openbranchhq creates the leave types and their policies, and opens everyone's balances.
- Team. Invite your first teammates with a name, work email, role and location.
Until you finish, you can go back to any step after the first; saving a step again updates what it created instead of adding duplicates.
Good to know
- After setup, the dashboard shows a short getting-started checklist (finish setup, choose leave types, invite your team, add public holidays) for 14 days. You can dismiss it at any time.
- New workspaces start on the Free plan, so its limits apply in the wizard too: one department, three leave types and five members. Adding more offers an upgrade.
- Everything the wizard creates can be changed later in Settings.