---
title: "Administrator start guide for Talkspirit"
description: "Every configuration step for a new Talkspirit workspace, in order: branding, modules, sign-in, members, structure, onboarding and integrations, each with where to find it and the article that details it."
category: getting-started
section: first-steps
tags: [admin]
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-09-11
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/getting-started/start-guide-for-admins
---

# Administrator start guide for Talkspirit


As an administrator you set up Talkspirit from **Administration**, in eight passes: make the workspace yours, choose the modules your organisation uses, secure how people sign in, bring people in, map the organisation into circles and roles, set what new members see on their first visit, connect your other tools, then keep an eye on the result. This guide lists every step in that order. Each one tells you which screen to open and points to the article that details it, so you can work straight through or dip into a single step.

## Before you begin

You need administrator rights. It helps to have ready:

- Your organisation's name, logo and brand colour
- A rough list of your teams or areas of responsibility
- The email addresses of the first people you want to invite
- Your identity provider details, if you plan to use single sign-on
- Your terms of use, legal information and the name of your data protection officer, if you publish them

**How to read the paths in this guide.** Your workspace has its own address, in the form `https://yourorganisation.talkspirit.com`. Administration sits under `/app/admin` on that address, so where a step says `/app/admin/organization`, open `https://yourorganisation.talkspirit.com/app/admin/organization`. Substitute your own workspace address for `yourorganisation.talkspirit.com`.

## How Administration is laid out

Administration opens on **Overview**, with **AI assistant** and **Public pages** alongside it, then four groups of screens:

| Group | Screens |
|---|---|
| **Settings** | Organisation, Onboarding, Legal, Terminology, Integrations, Tools |
| **People** | Users, Groups, Invitations |
| **Security** | Authentication, Security policies, API |
| **Modules** | Cockpit, Homepage, Structure, Goals, Newsfeed, Chat, Projects, Meetings, Calendar, Drive, Library |

Two entries are conditional. **Groups** appears under People only when the Newsfeed module is enabled, since groups are where posts live. **Public pages** appears only when the Structure module is enabled.

For a tour of Administration itself, see [Talkspirit Administration overview](/en/administration-security/talkspirits-administration).

## 1. Make the workspace yours

1. **Name and brand the organisation.** Open **Settings → Organisation** (`/app/admin/organization`), which holds the general settings, branding and domain configuration. Here you set the organisation name, the brand colour, the login background picture and the notification emails. See [Changing the name of my organisation](/en/administration-security/how-to-change-the-name-of-my-organization), [Customising my organisation's workspace](/en/administration-security/how-to-customise-my-organisations-workspace) and [Change your organisation's brand colour](/en/administration-security/change-your-brand-colour).
2. **Choose your vocabulary.** Open **Settings → Terminology** (`/app/admin/terminology`) to rename the governance terms your organisation does not use. Circle, Role, Purpose, Domains and Accountabilities are the defaults, and each can be renamed for every language your workspace speaks. See [Customise your organisation's terminology](/en/administration-security/customise-terminology).
3. **Publish your legal information.** Open **Settings → Legal** (`/app/admin/legal`) to fill in your terms of service, your legal information and your data protection officer.

## 2. Choose the modules your organisation uses

Each module has its own settings screen under **Modules**, at `/app/admin/modules/<module>`: Cockpit, Homepage, Structure, Goals, Newsfeed, Chat, Projects, Meetings, Calendar, Drive and Library. Turning a module off removes it from everyone's navigation, so decide this before you invite people.

- Enabling and disabling modules: [Enabling or disabling apps for my organisation](/en/administration-security/enable-and-disable-apps-for-your-organisation)
- Homepage: [Activating the Homepage](/en/administration-security/activating-the-homepage), then [Managing and publishing the Homepage](/en/administration-security/managing-and-publishing-the-homepage)
- Newsfeed: [Activating or deactivating the Newsfeed module](/en/administration-security/activatingdeactivating-the-newsfeed-module)
- Add-ons that change how Structure behaves: [Holacracy add-on overview](/en/structure-governance/holacracy-add-on-overview), [Time Spent in Roles Add-on Overview](/en/structure-governance/time-spent-in-roles-add-on-overview) and [Enable the Translation add-on](/en/administration-security/how-to-enable-translation-add-on)

**Settings → Tools** (`/app/admin/tools`) carries the capabilities that extend Talkspirit rather than belonging to one module: see [Ensuring videoconferencing is available for members](/en/administration-security/how-to-ensure-the-availability-of-the-videoconference) and [Configuring the organisation apps directory](/en/administration-security/configure-an-organization-apps-directory).

## 3. Secure how people sign in

1. **Set up sign-in.** Open **Security → Authentication** (`/app/admin/authentication`) for single sign-on and attribute mappings. See [Configuring SAML Authentication](/en/administration-security/saml-authentication), [Configuring Google Authentication](/en/administration-security/how-to-configure-google-authentication) and [Setting up Okta SSO in Talkspirit](/en/administration-security/set-up-okta-sso).
2. **Automate accounts, if your identity provider can.** The same screen carries SCIM provisioning, which creates and deactivates accounts from your directory instead of by hand. See [Automated user provisioning and de-provisioning (SCIM 2.0)](/en/administration-security/automated-user-provisioning-and-de-provisioning-scim-20).
3. **Set your security policies.** Open **Security → Security policies** (`/app/admin/security`) to configure the password policy, two-factor authentication and file uploads. See [Password Security Policy](/en/administration-security/password-security-policy).

## 4. Bring people in

1. **Invite your first members.** Open **People → Invitations** (`/app/admin/invitations`), then **Invite**, and add people as members or guests. You can paste several email addresses at once. See [Inviting new users, members, or guests](/en/administration-security/inviting-new-users-members-or-guests), [Ways to add new members to your organisation](/en/administration-security/how-do-i-add-new-members-to-my-organization) and [Managing email invitations for new members](/en/administration-security/manage-email-invitations-for-new-members). For people who have no work email address, see [Adding users without an email address](/en/administration-security/users-without-email).
2. **Grant administrator rights.** Open **People → Users** (`/app/admin/users`), open a row's menu and select **Set as Administrator**. See [User Roles and Permissions](/en/administration-security/user-roles) and [User administrator permissions](/en/administration-security/the-user-administrator).
3. **Manage the accounts you now have.** The same screen edits, suspends, restores and anonymises members (there is no delete action; the strongest removal keeps the record and strips its personal data): [Managing users](/en/administration-security/managing-users), [Editing, suspending, restoring or removing a member](/en/administration-security/how-to-edit-suspend-restore-or-delete-a-member-from-my-organization) and, for changes at scale, [Managing members in bulk](/en/administration-security/how-to-manage-members-in-bulk).
4. **Decide what members and guests may do for themselves.** See [Sign-up settings for members and guests](/en/administration-security/members-and-guests-settings) and [Guest users](/en/administration-security/guest-users).
5. **Set up groups, if you use the Newsfeed.** Open **People → Groups** (`/app/admin/groups`). See [Manage all groups as an administrator](/en/administration-security/managing-groups) and [Configuring default, source, and locked groups](/en/administration-security/configuring-default-source-and-locked-groups).
6. **Add the profile fields you need.** See [Managing profile fields for members](/en/administration-security/manage-custom-fields-for-members) and, if you want reporting lines shown, [Set up the member hierarchy](/en/administration-security/how-to-manage-members-hierarchy-view).

## 5. Map your organisation into circles and roles

This step happens in **Structure**, in the main navigation, not in Administration. A **circle** is a team or area of responsibility. A **role** is a named set of accountabilities held by one or more members. Together they map who does what and who decides what.

![The Explore organisation view for Alpine Tech in the Circles & roles view, showing the organisation as nested circles: Operations, Finance & People, Product Development with its Platform and Mobile App sub-circles, Customer Success and Marketing, each holding its roles.](/images/getting-started/start-guide-for-admins/01-structure-chart.png)

1. **Start from the top.** [Editing the top-level circle](/en/structure-governance/edit-the-top-level-circle) gives your organisation its purpose and its name on the chart.
2. **Create roles and circles.** See [Adding a role or a circle](/en/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle), and give each role a clear purpose, its domains and its accountabilities: [Editing governance fields on a role or a circle](/en/structure-governance/how-to-edit-core-and-custom-governance-fields-for-roles-and-circles).
3. **Reuse definitions instead of retyping them.** See [Creating and managing role templates](/en/structure-governance/role-templates-overview) and [Role Template Starter Definitions](/en/structure-governance/role-templates-library).
4. **Put people in roles.** See [Assigning or removing a member from a role](/en/structure-governance/how-to-assign-or-remove-a-member-from-a-role). A member can hold several roles, and a role can have several assignees.
5. **Set the organisation-wide defaults.** See [Configuring circle settings for my organisation](/en/structure-governance/how-to-configure-circle-settings-for-my-organization), [Managing chart settings in Talkspirit](/en/structure-governance/managing-chart-settings) and [Managing chart highlights as an administrator](/en/structure-governance/manage-highlights-as-an-admin).

## 6. Set what new members see first

Open **Settings → Onboarding** (`/app/admin/onboarding`) to configure the landing page and the onboarding messages new users meet. See [Set the default landing page after sign-in](/en/administration-security/set-the-default-landing-page), then [Strategies to onboard your team](/en/administration-security/strategies-to-onboard-your-team) and [Introducing Talkspirit to my team](/en/getting-started/introduce-talkspirit-to-your-team-email-template) for the human half of the job.

## 7. Connect your other tools

1. **File pickers.** Open **Settings → Integrations** (`/app/admin/integrations`) to let members attach files straight from cloud storage. See [Enabling a cloud file picker](/en/integrations/enable-a-cloud-file-picker) and [Setting up OneDrive in Microsoft Entra ID](/en/integrations/set-up-onedrive-in-microsoft-entra).
2. **The Partner API.** Open **Security → API** (`/app/admin/api-keys`) to create and manage API keys for partner integrations. The Partner API is enabled per organisation, so the screen tells you if it is not enabled for yours. See [Manage API keys as an administrator](/en/integrations/manage-api-tokens-as-an-admin) and [The Talkspirit Partner API](/en/integrations/partner-api).
3. **AI assistants.** Open **AI assistant** (`/app/admin/assistant`). See [Enabling Spark for my organisation](/en/administration-security/how-to-enable-spark-for-your-organisation), [Enabling the Knowledge Base for Spark](/en/administration-security/enabling-the-knowledge-base-for-spark) and [How Spark processes your organisation's data](/en/administration-security/how-ai-processes-your-data). To connect an outside assistant such as Claude, see [Connecting Claude and other AI assistants to Talkspirit](/en/integrations/connect-claude-and-other-ai-assistants).
4. **Public pages.** Open **Public pages** (`/app/admin/public-pages`) to publish parts of your organisation to people without an account. See [Public pages](/en/administration-security/public-pages).

## 8. Keep an eye on it

**Overview** (`/app/admin/overview`) shows your key metrics and activity at a glance, and **Billing** opens your subscription portal in a new tab.

## Next steps

- [Member start guide for Talkspirit](/en/getting-started/start-guide-for-members)
- [Talkspirit Administration overview](/en/administration-security/talkspirits-administration)
- [Organisation chart](/en/getting-started/organization-chart)
- [What is Talkspirit?](/en/getting-started/what-is-talkspirit)