---
title: "Overview: administer your organization"
description: "What an IoTFlows administrator owns and where each setting is documented. Four things constrain what a person can do: the organization they belong to, their role, their machine access, and the boards they are on. Settings live on three screens, Organization Settings at /settings/organization with its Settings and Webhooks tabs, your account at /settings/user, and billing at /settings/billing, which only the Organization Owner can open. Three Organization Settings sections are documented under the job they serve instead: auto-downtime rules, operator stations, and webhooks. Set the time zone and shifts before anyone reads a report; everything else can be changed later."
category: "Start here"
source_url: "https://www.iotflows.com/docs/admin/overview/"
---
# Overview: administer your organization

What an administrator owns, and where each setting is documented.

An *organization* is the container IoTFlows creates for your company. Every machine, member, team, board and report belongs to exactly one, and nothing is shared across two. IoTFlows creates it for you: there is no self-serve signup, so start at [Quickstart: set up a new organization](/docs/admin/quickstart/) once yours exists.

**Before you start.** Almost everything on this page needs one of two roles. An *Organization Owner* is the role IoTFlows bills and the only one that can hand the organization to someone else. An *Organization Administrator* has the same authority minus billing and ownership. See [Roles and permissions](/docs/admin/roles-reference/).

## What an admin owns
Four things, and each one narrows the next.

Diagram: A diagram of one large box labeled Organization, created by IoTFlows, holding everything else. Inside it a tall box on the left reads Member, one person, one role. Three arrows leave it. The first points to Role, Owner, Administrator, Member or Observer, annotated what they can do, anywhere in the organization. The second points to Machine access, a list of machines, annotated which machines they can do it to, and an empty list means every machine. The third points to Team, a named group of members, which points on to Board, a Scheduler or Maintain board, annotated a board carries its own Owner and Member roles, on top of the organization role.

*Organization, members, teams, boards and machine access, and how they constrain each other.*

**People.** You [invite someone](/docs/admin/invite-members/), give them a role, and later [change that role or remove them](/docs/admin/manage-members/). One person holds one role in one organization.

**Machine access.** A role says what a person can do; machine access says which machines they can do it to. An empty list means every machine, which is the default. See [Roles and machine access](/docs/admin/roles-reference/#machine-access).

**Teams and boards.** A *team* is a named group you add to boards in one go. A Scheduler or Maintain *board* carries its own Owner and Member roles on top of the organization role, so an Administrator is not automatically the owner of every board. See [Create and manage teams](/docs/admin/teams/).

**How the organization measures time.** The organization time zone and your work shifts decide which shift a stop lands in and which day it is reported on.

> **Warning:**
> **What has to be right on day one?**
>
> Set the time zone and shifts before anyone reads a report. Both are used to bucket data as it arrives, so correcting them later does not re-bucket the history you already collected. Every other setting on this page can be changed at any time without invalidating what is already recorded. See [Define shifts and your time zone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/).

## The settings screens
Three screens hold what is labeled "settings". Everything else an admin owns lives on the page for the thing it configures.

**Organization Settings**, at `/settings/organization`, opened by the gear icon at the top right of the header. It has two tabs, **Settings** and **Webhooks**.

**Your account**, at `/settings/user`. Your avatar, username, per-organization handles, phone number and two-step authentication. It follows you across every organization you belong to.

**Billing**, at `/settings/billing`. Organization Owner only.

### Settings router
| Setting | Screen | Documented at |
|---|---|---|
| Name, logo, description, handle | Organization Settings, **Settings** tab | [Set your organization name, logo, and handle](/docs/admin/org-profile/) |
| Time zone and work shifts | Organization Settings, **Schedules** | [Define shifts and your time zone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/) |
| Auto-downtime rules and scheduled breaks | Organization Settings, **Auto-Downtime Classifications** | [Classify downtime automatically](/docs/monitoring/auto-downtime-rules/) |
| Operator station pairing | Organization Settings, **Assign to Local Device** | [Set up a dedicated operator station](/docs/monitoring/operator-stations/) |
| Webhooks | Organization Settings, **Webhooks** tab | [Send events to your own endpoint](/docs/alerts/webhooks/) |
| Leaving or deleting the organization | Organization Settings, **Settings** tab | [Leave an organization](/docs/admin/leave-an-organization/) |
| Invites, roles, removals, ownership | Member directory, `/members` | [Invite people](/docs/admin/invite-members/), [change roles and remove members](/docs/admin/manage-members/) |
| Machine access | Member directory, `/members` | [Limit which machines a member can see](/docs/admin/machine-access/) |
| Teams | Member directory, `/members` | [Create and manage teams](/docs/admin/teams/) |
| Sensors, firmware, calibration | Devices, `/devices` | [View and manage your devices](/docs/hardware/view-devices/) |
| Chat integrations | Integrations, `/integrations` | [Send alerts to Slack, Teams, or Discord](/docs/alerts/chat-integrations/) |
| Which events alert whom | The bell on a machine's page | [Set alert rules for a machine](/docs/alerts/asset-event-rules/) |
| Downtime categories | The **Classify Downtime** modal, or Organization Settings | [Manage downtime categories](/docs/monitoring/downtime-categories/) |
| Status colors and downtime thresholds | Assets page, the **Utilization** tile | [Set status colors and downtime thresholds](/docs/monitoring/status-colors/) |
| Uptime goals | Assets page, the **Utilization** tile | [Set OEE and utilization goals](/docs/monitoring/oee-goals/) |
| Payment cards and invoices | Billing, `/settings/billing` | [Manage payment methods and invoices](/docs/admin/billing/) |
| Your avatar, phone number, two-step auth | Your account, `/settings/user` | [Update your profile](/docs/admin/profile/) |
| Who changed what | Logs, `/logs` | [Review the audit log](/docs/admin/audit-log/) |

## Settings documented under the job they serve
Three sections of Organization Settings are not documented here. Each configures one job, and you reach it while doing that job rather than while administering the organization:

- **Auto-Downtime Classifications** puts reasons on short stops and scheduled breaks without asking an operator. See [Classify downtime automatically](/docs/monitoring/auto-downtime-rules/).
- **Assign to Local Device** pairs a shared tablet or PC to one machine so it boots straight into that machine. See [Set up a dedicated operator station](/docs/monitoring/operator-stations/).
- The **Webhooks** tab posts machine events to a URL you own. See [Send events to your own endpoint](/docs/alerts/webhooks/).

You do not need any of the three to run IoTFlows. Reach for auto-downtime rules once operators complain about classifying the same two-minute stop every hour, for an operator station once a machine has a dedicated screen beside it, and for webhooks only when you are feeding another system.

## What only the Owner can do
Four actions are Owner-only. An Administrator gets "Only organization owners can access this page." on the billing page, which is where three of them start.

| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| Open billing, add a card, pay an invoice | [Manage payment methods and invoices](/docs/admin/billing/) |
| Clear a suspension | [Restore a suspended organization](/docs/admin/suspended-account/) |
| Transfer ownership | [Change roles and remove members](/docs/admin/manage-members/) |
| Delete the organization | Organization Settings, **Settings** tab |

Plan for the consequence. A suspended organization puts every member behind a modal whose only action goes to billing, so if your one Owner has left the company, nobody left can clear it. Transfer ownership before they go, or [contact support](/docs/get-started/get-support/). See [Owner-only actions](/docs/admin/roles-reference/#owner-only).

## See also
- [Quickstart: set up a new organization](/docs/admin/quickstart/)
- [Roles and permissions](/docs/admin/roles-reference/)
- [Define shifts and your time zone](/docs/admin/shifts-and-timezone/)
- [Classify downtime automatically](/docs/monitoring/auto-downtime-rules/)