Organizations and workspaces
People belong to the organization. Data belongs to a workspace. Billing belongs to the organization. Getting those three straight explains most of the product.
- The three levels, and what each one holds
- Why more than one workspace is the normal case
- What that means for people, data and billing
- The delete button that sits on the welcome screen
01 · Why
Why do we have this?
Most companies want more than one place to keep things separate. An accountancy firm gives each client a workspace. A group of companies gives each entity one. A team that just wants to try something out gives it a scratch workspace and deletes it later.
Merchaint's own description of a workspace is the clearest one:
separate environments for organizing your data and team access
Keeping them separate means somebody working on one client's invoices cannot see another's.
02 · What it means for you
What is a workspace?
A workspace is one separate environment inside your organization, with its own data and its own team. Everything you look at in Merchaint belongs to exactly one of them.
The three levels
| Level | What it is |
|---|---|
| Organization | Your company. It holds the people, the roles and the billing. |
| Workspace | A separate environment inside it, with its own data and its own team. |
| Module | One table of records inside a workspace — Invoices, Suppliers, and so on. See Where your data lives. |
What follows from that
- People belong to the organization, and are then given access to particular workspaces. So inviting someone and giving them something to look at are two different jobs — see Who can see which workspace.
- Data belongs to a workspace. Modules, documents, workflows and accounting connections all sit inside one, and do not leak into another.
- Billing belongs to the organization, not to each workspace. See Billing and your plan.
When you sign in you pick an organization, and then a workspace inside it. The name at the top of the sidebar tells you which organization you are in, and your role in it.
03 · FAQ
Common questions
As many as you need. Add them from the chooser, or from the workspace switcher in the app.
No. Modules belong to the workspace they were made in.
Only if they have been given access to each one. Being in the organization is not enough on its own — see Who can see which workspace.
Ignore it. Some settings pages sit under an organization address but show what belongs to the workspace you are in.