Intro to workspaces

Introduction to Workspaces

A Workspace is a shared area in FieldDoc where a group of people manages conservation and restoration records.

You can think of a Workspace as similar to a shared Google Drive. It brings records, folders, and users together in one place. The main difference is that FieldDoc is designed to manage structured conservation and restoration data rather than standard documents and files.

A basic organization subscription will use one Workspace for all of its work. Standard Subscriptions can create up to three separate Workspaces to separate folders, such as to differentiate disparate teams, regions, programs, or groups of records.

What is managed in a Workspace?

A Workspace contains the records your team manages together, including:

• Activities

• Folders and subfolders

• Pacts

• Metrics

• Models

• Documents, images, and supporting files

• Integrations

Users can create, review, organize, and update these records based on their permissions.

How Users Get Access

There are two ways a user can become a member of a Workspace.

Members of the Organization

People who belong to the organization are added to its Workspace by default.

Their assigned role determines what they can view, create, edit, or manage within the Workspace.

People Outside the Organization

A person who is not part of the organization can be added manually to a Workspace.

For example, an organization might add a:

• Consultant

• Contractor

• Project partner

• Technical advisor

• Other outside collaborator

Adding someone to a Workspace gives that person access to the records in that Workspace. It does not make the person a member of the organization or automatically give them access to other Workspaces in your organization.

Workspaces Help Manage Access

Like a shared drive, a Workspace allows a specific group of people to work with the same set of records.

A user’s role determines what they can do. Depending on their permissions, a user may be able to:

• View records

• Create Activities

• Edit records

• Organize records into folders

• Manage Workspace members

Organizations should add only the people who need access and remove members when that access is no longer needed.

Each Workspace Has Its Own Folders

Folders belong to the Workspace where they were created.

A folder created in one Workspace will not appear in another Workspace, even when both Workspaces belong to the same organization.

For example:

Chesapeake Bay Workspace

• Maryland

• Virginia

• West Virginida

• DC

• Pennsylvania

• New York

Lake Erie Workspace

• Ohio

• Michigan

• Pennsylvania

• New York

The Chesapeake Bay folders are available only in the Chesapeake Bay Workspace. The Great Lakes Workspace has its own separate folder structure.

This is similar to having two shared drives. Each drive can contain its own folders and be shared with a different group of people.

Switching Between Workspaces

Users who belong to more than one Workspace can switch between them in FieldDoc.

Before creating or organizing records, check that you are in the correct Workspace. New folders and records will be created in the Workspace that is currently open.

Workspaces and Folders Serve Different Purposes

Use a Workspace to manage a separate group of records and the people who can access them.

Use folders to organize related records inside that Workspace.

For example, a regional team might have its own Workspace because it manages a separate group of records and users. Within that Workspace, folders could organize Activities by watershed, project, funding source, or year.

A clear Workspace structure helps people find the right records, understand where new records belong, and work together without giving everyone access to every part of the organization’s portfolio.