Organizations

Inside an organization

An organization is the container for everything else. It holds the members, the roles they hold, the Scrum Teams, the portfolios, the projects and the plan. Every project sits in one portfolio, and every portfolio sits in one organization.

The organization is always part of the address, so two browser tabs can show two organizations at the same time. The product does not remember a current organization for you.

Every account starts in one

When you create an account, the product also creates an organization for you. It names the organization after your display name, for example Alex's Organization. You hold the Owner role in it. It has one portfolio, named Unsorted, and it starts on the Free plan. Its timezone is UTC until a member with Manage the organization changes it on the Settings screen.

You join more organizations only when you accept an invitation. See Invitations.

After you sign in with your email and password, the product opens the first organization you belong to. First means first by organization name, not the one you used last. An invitation link is the one exception. If you open an invitation link while you are signed out, the product returns you to that link after you sign in.

After a sign-in with a sign-in provider, the product opens the home page. The home page carries no link into your organizations. To reach them from there, add /app to the site address. See Getting started.

The top bar

Needsmembership of the organization, nothing more

On the left, the wordmark SimpleScrumTools is a link back to your first organization. Beside it, the bar shows the organization's name. On the right, the bar shows your display name, with your email address as a tooltip, and three controls.

• Help opens this help in a new tab, so your work stays where it is.
• The theme button shows System, Light or Dark. Each click moves to the next one. The browser keeps the choice, and the product sends nothing to the server.
• Sign out ends your session and sends you to the sign-in page. It reads Signing out… while it runs.

Move between organizations

Needsmembership of the organization, nothing more

If you belong to two or more organizations, a dropdown appears in the top bar, to the right of the organization's name. The dropdown shows the name of the organization you are in, and the bar prints that same name beside it. The dropdown carries no visible label. Its label, Organization, is there for a screen reader only. With one organization, the dropdown is absent.

1. Open the dropdown beside the organization's name in the top bar.
2. Choose an organization by name.

The product opens that organization's overview. The list is in order of organization name. The dropdown only changes the address, so the browser's Back button returns you, and the product writes nothing.

The navigation rail

Needsmembership of the organization, nothing more

On the left of every organization screen, a rail lists the organization's screens. The rail shows only the screens your roles cover. A link you cannot use is absent. The rail is a hint only, because every screen checks the same bundle again on the server. A bundle is one named permission that a role grants, and there are eight. See Roles and permissions.

Overview, Members, Roles, Teams

Need View. Members, Roles and Teams open read-only for people without Manage the organization.

Overrides, Activity, Settings, Billing

Need Manage the organization. The built-in Owner role holds it. The built-in Admin role holds every bundle except this one, so an Admin does not see these four links.

The overview screen

NeedsView view

The overview is the first screen of an organization. Its heading is Projects. Beside the heading, people with Manage the organization see two buttons, New portfolio and New project. The screen lists every portfolio, and under each portfolio the projects filed in it, in alphabetical order. Each project card shows the key, the name and the Product Goal when one is set. Click anywhere on a card to open the project.

The portfolio order is the order people with Manage the organization set on this screen with Move up and Move down. When two portfolios hold the same place, the product puts them in alphabetical order.

Each portfolio header shows a count, 1 project or N projects, and the description when one is set. An empty portfolio says No projects here yet. Use New project to make the first one. For a member without Manage the organization it says instead No projects here yet. Creating one needs the Organization capability.

The overview is also the only screen where you create a portfolio or a project, and the only screen where you reorder, rename or delete a portfolio. Each portfolio header carries up to four buttons: Move up, Move down, Edit and Delete. Delete is there only for a portfolio that is not the default one and holds no project. Move up is absent on the first portfolio, and Move down on the last. The two buttons beside the heading, and the buttons on each portfolio header, are absent for people without Manage the organization. See Portfolios and Projects.

The line counts projects and nothing else. The Free plan also caps portfolios, Scrum Teams and members, and no screen warns you before one of those three stops you. The billing screen states all four caps. See Plans and billing.

The Pro plan caps each portfolio at 10 projects. For people with Manage the organization, each portfolio heading then shows its count against the cap, as in 3 of 10 projects. A full portfolio adds the pill no more projects in this portfolio. Everybody else sees the plain count.

On the Free plan, the overview can end with an ad slot, and a cookie banner asks for your choice the first time. See Ads and cookie choices.

The Settings screen

NeedsManage the organization org_manage

The screen is titled Organization settings. Below the title, it reads This organization’s name, its URL slug, and the timezone new Scrum Teams start in. It holds one form with three rows, Name, Slug and Timezone, and one button, Save changes. The screen holds nothing else. The plan is on the billing screen, and there is no delete control.

You need Manage the organization to read the screen as well as to change it. There is no read-only version, so the rail link is absent for everybody else.

1. Click Settings in the rail. The form shows the current values.
2. Change one or more of the three values.
3. Click Save changes. The button reads Saving… while the save runs.
4. Wait for Saved to appear beside the button.

The product keeps Save changes disabled until a value differs from the saved value. Saved stays only while the form matches the saved values. The moment you change a value again, Saved disappears and the product enables the button again. A save sends all three values together, not only the one you changed. The product checks the values in the browser first. If a check fails, the message appears above the rows and the product sends nothing.

The server can also refuse a save. Its message appears above the rows, and the form keeps what you typed.

• If you lost Manage the organization after the screen loaded, the product refuses the save with You do not have permission to perform this action. After a reload, the screen itself is a not-found page.
• After 60 saves from one person in one minute, the product refuses the next save with Too many requests. The count covers every save you make anywhere in the product, not only the saves on this screen. Wait a minute, then try again.
• If the connection drops, the product shows Could not reach the server. Check your connection and try again.

Name

The row reads Shown in the header, the organization switcher, and every invitation sent from here. The product trims spaces from both ends. A name is 1 to 100 characters. After a save, the top bar and the organization dropdown show the new name at once, and every later invitation email carries it.

• The product refuses an empty name with An organization needs a name.
• The product refuses more than 100 characters with Keep the name under 100 characters.

Slug

The row reads The organization’s URL segment. It must be unique across every organization, so it can be taken by one you cannot see. Links you have already shared keep working — routes are keyed on the id, not on this. The field's hint reads Lowercase letters, numbers and single hyphens — for example "acme-labs".

A slug is 1 to 63 characters: words of lowercase letters and digits, joined by single hyphens. The product trims spaces from both ends before it checks the slug. The product does not change the case for you, so it refuses Acme and does not convert it.

The product gives your first organization a slug made from your display name plus a random suffix. No address uses the slug, so a change breaks no link. After you change the slug, the old slug becomes free for another organization.

• The product refuses an empty slug with An organization needs a slug.
• The product refuses more than 63 characters with Keep the slug under 63 characters.
• The product refuses uppercase letters, a space inside the slug, underscores, a hyphen at either end, and two hyphens together with Use lowercase letters, numbers and single hyphens — for example "acme-labs".
• The product refuses a slug another organization already holds with That slug is already taken. Try another. The server decides this at save time, and the message never names the other organization.

Timezone

The row reads New teams start in this timezone. Existing teams keep their own — changing this never moves a sprint boundary. Every date you see is shown in your own timezone regardless. The field's hint reads An IANA zone, e.g. "Europe/London" or "America/Los_Angeles".

The field is a text box, not a list. Type a zone name exactly, without spaces at the ends. A new organization starts in UTC. The product copies this zone into a Scrum Team at the moment you create the team. After that, the team owns its zone, and you change it on the team's own screen. See Scrum Teams.

The product also uses this zone for a sprint created with no team. That happens when the project has no assigned team, or two or more. The product then picks the sprint's default start Monday in this zone rather than in a team's zone. The product never uses this zone to show a date. See Sprints and Time and timezones.

• The product refuses a name it does not know, and an empty field, with Expected an IANA time zone, e.g. "Europe/London".

Two saves at once

The settings form does not detect an editing conflict. If two people save at the same time, the last save wins, and the product shows no message about it. Before you change a value somebody else may also change, reload the screen. See Editing conflicts.

Delete an organization

A member with Manage the organization can delete it at the foot of the Settings screen. Type the organization's name, then click Delete organization. Every member loses access at once. After 30 days, the product deletes the organization and everything in it. Members keep their own accounts.

Cancel a paid plan first, under Billing → Manage billing. The product refuses to delete an organization while its paid plan is still set to renew. To restore a deleted organization, or to get a copy of its content, write to us through the Contact page within the 30 days.

Leave an organization

There is no Leave control. To leave every organization at once, delete your account on the Your account page — click your name at the top of any screen.

A person leaves an organization only when a member with Manage the organization removes them on the Members screen. That member can remove themselves in the same way. See Members.

You cannot leave the organization the product made for you at signup while you are alone in it. Alone, you are its only member with Manage the organization, so the product refuses to remove you. After another member holds Manage the organization too, the product treats that organization like any other. That member can then remove you from it.

Billing and the activity feed

The Billing link in the rail opens the billing screen. It shows the plan, the caps, the seat count and the upgrade path. See Plans and billing.

The record of what happened in the organization is on the Activity screen. Each save on the Settings screen appears there. See The activity feed.