---
title: Overview
description: Organisations are the top-level entity in Documenso, containing teams, members, and shared settings.
---

import { Accordion, Accordions } from 'fumadocs-ui/components/accordion';
import { Callout } from 'fumadocs-ui/components/callout';
import { Step, Steps } from 'fumadocs-ui/components/steps';

## What are Organisations?

Organisations are the top-level entity in Documenso's hierarchy. Each organisation can contain multiple teams, and each team can have multiple members.

![Organisations diagram](/organisations/organisations-basic-diagram.webp)

This structure provides:

| Benefit                    | Description                                                       |
| -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Centralized Management** | Control multiple teams from a single organisational dashboard.    |
| **Unified Billing**        | Manage billing and subscriptions at the organisation level.       |
| **Access Control**         | Define roles and groups across the entire organisation.           |
| **Group Management**       | Create custom groups to organise members and control team access. |
| **Global Settings**        | Apply consistent settings across all teams in your organisation.  |

## Create a New Organisation

<Callout type="info">
  You can create multiple organisations, but each organisation is billed separately.
</Callout>

{/* prettier-ignore */}
<Steps>

<Step>
### Open organisation creation

Navigate to the organisation section and click **Create Organisation**.

![Create organisation in Documenso dashboard](/organisations/organisations-create.webp)

</Step>

<Step>
### Select your plan

Choose a plan for your new organisation. If you want to upgrade an existing organisation, go to your organisation's billing settings.

</Step>

<Step>
### Name your organisation

Enter an **Organisation Name** as the display name for your organisation.

</Step>

</Steps>

Once created, you can create teams to organise your work. Each team operates independently but inherits organisation-level settings and branding.

## Organisation vs Team Settings

Teams inherit settings from their parent organisation by default. You can override these at the team level:

| Setting                  | Organisation Level         | Team Level              |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------- | ----------------------- |
| **Branding**             | Sets default for all teams | Can override or inherit |
| **Document Preferences** | Sets default for all teams | Can override or inherit |
| **Email Preferences**    | Sets default for all teams | Can override or inherit |
| **Document Visibility**  | Sets default for all teams | Can override or inherit |
| **Billing**              | Managed centrally          | Not applicable          |
| **SSO**                  | Configured centrally       | Not applicable          |
| **Members**              | Managed at org level       | Assigned per team       |

## Best Practices

<Accordions type="multiple">
  <Accordion title="Use groups effectively">
    Leverage groups to simplify permission management across teams.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Set organisation-wide defaults">
    Configure document preferences, branding, and email settings at the organisation level for
    consistency.
  </Accordion>
  <Accordion title="Assign roles carefully">
    Organisation Admins and Managers automatically receive Team Admin access to all teams.
  </Accordion>
</Accordions>

---

## See Also

- [Create a Team](/docs/users/organisations/create-team) - Set up a team within your organisation
- [Team Members](/docs/users/organisations/members) - Manage member roles at the organisation and team level
- [Groups](/docs/users/organisations/groups) - Organise members into groups for bulk team access
- [Billing](/docs/users/organisations/billing) - Manage organisation billing and subscriptions
- [Document Preferences](/docs/users/organisations/preferences/document) - Configure default document settings
