# Organizations and members (/docs/guides/users/organizations-and-members)



Everything in RyTask lives inside one organization — your team. Your account, your projects,
your time entries, and your settings all belong to it, and nothing is ever visible to another
organization on the same server.

## First-run setup [#first-run-setup]

The very first time someone opens a fresh RyTask install, the app walks them through a short
setup at `/setup`. That one step creates the organization, makes that person the owner,
creates the first workspace, and seeds a starter project so the team has somewhere to put
work right away. Setup only runs once; after that, everyone else joins by invitation (or by
signing up, if the organization allows it).

## Inviting people [#inviting-people]

Owners and admins invite teammates from **Settings → Members**. There are two ways:

* **Email an invitation** — you enter the person's email address and pick the role they will
  have. RyTask records the invitation against that address.
* **Create a shareable link** — RyTask gives you a link you can copy and send however you
  like (Slack, chat, a text message). Anyone who opens the link can accept the invite.

One honest caveat: RyTask does not send email yet. Recording an email invitation works, but
no message goes out automatically — so in practice, **the shareable link is the path that
works end to end today**. Copy it and hand it to your teammate directly.

Every invite carries a pre-assigned role, so the person lands with the right level of access
from their first sign-in. A brand-new invitee sets their name and password when they accept;
someone who already has an account just joins.

## Roles at a glance [#roles-at-a-glance]

| Role   | In one sentence                                                                                            |
| ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Owner  | Full control of the organization, including settings, billing-level decisions, and transferring ownership. |
| Admin  | Manages members, projects, and settings — nearly everything except owner-only actions.                     |
| Member | The everyday role: creates and edits work, logs time, comments.                                            |
| Guest  | Limited access for outside collaborators.                                                                  |
| Viewer | Read-only: can see work they have access to, but cannot change it.                                         |

See [Permissions and roles](/docs/guides/users/permissions-and-roles) for the plain-words
breakdown of what each role can do, and the projects page for the separate per-project roles.

## Organization settings [#organization-settings]

Owners and admins can adjust the organization under **Settings → Organization**:

* timezone and locale
* week start (Sunday or Monday)
* working days and working hours
* a logo
* the signup policy (whether people can join without an invite)

These settings shape things across the app — for example, the week start and timezone affect
how dates and weekly figures are presented.

## Removing or deactivating a member [#removing-or-deactivating-a-member]

When an owner or admin removes or deactivates a member, RyTask immediately signs them out
everywhere: their sessions end and their personal access tokens stop working. Their past
work — items they created, comments, time entries — stays in place so the team's history is
intact.

## Ownership protections [#ownership-protections]

Two safety rules keep an organization from being orphaned:

* **Last-owner protection.** You cannot remove or demote the only owner. There must always be
  at least one.
* **Ownership transfer.** Only the current owner can hand ownership to another member. After
  the transfer, the previous owner keeps working in the organization with their new role.