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Organization-wide Workspace (documents + lists)

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Project document folders live inside a single project. The organization Workspace is the company-wide counterpart: document folders and lists that belong to the whole organization, not to any one project. It is the right home for things like company policies, templates, brand assets, onboarding checklists, and shared trackers.

Open it from Workspace in the left sidebar (the URL is /workspace). It has two sections you switch between with the toggle at the top: Documents and Lists.

Documents: organization-wide folders

Section titled “Documents: organization-wide folders”

The Documents tab works exactly like a project’s document folders, only the folders belong to the organization instead of a project.

  1. On the Workspace page, stay on the Documents tab.

  2. Create a folder. Name it for what it holds, for example “Company Policies” or “Brand Assets”.

  3. Select Upload files, or drag files from your computer onto the folder. Each file can be up to 100 MB. Common types (PDF, Office, spreadsheets, images, text) preview in the browser.

  4. Add metadata columns to a folder (for example Owner, Status, Review date) so every file carries structured information, not just a name.

Built-in columns and file history

Section titled “Built-in columns and file history”

Every folder and file shows five built-in system columns, the same as SharePoint: Title, Created, Created By, Modified, and Modified By. The Created and Modified values include the time of day, and you can show or hide the system columns from the Columns picker.

When you re-upload a file with the same name, Onplana keeps a version history instead of creating a duplicate. You choose Save as a new version (the previous file is kept in history), Keep both, or Cancel. Open a file’s history to see each version with its author and time, and Restore any earlier version, the restore itself is reversible.

Lists: organization-wide trackers

Section titled “Lists: organization-wide trackers”

Switch to the Lists tab for company-wide spreadsheet-style lists, the same grid used inside projects.

  1. On the Workspace page, select the Lists tab.

  2. Create a list and give it columns (text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox, rating, and more). Starter templates are available.

  3. Add rows and fill in cells inline. Each row also tracks who created and last modified it.

Find and sort rows

Section titled “Find and sort rows”

Large lists have two display-only controls, they change what you see, never the stored row order:

  • Search rows (in the list toolbar) filters across every cell value and the Created and Modified columns, and shows how many rows match (“12 of 340 rows”).
  • Sort a column with the sort button on any column header: ascending, descending, or off. Number, currency, rating, and date columns sort by value (not as text), and empty cells sort last.

The same search and per-column sort also work on project lists in a project’s Workspace, not just the organization Workspace.

Restrict and share a folder or list

Section titled “Restrict and share a folder or list”

By default, a Workspace folder or list follows your organization roles, anyone who can see the Workspace can open it. To limit a specific folder or list to certain people, an administrator (or the item’s creator) uses Manage access.

  1. Open the folder or list and select Manage access (the shield / lock icon in the header). This is available to organization Owners, Admins, Managers, and the item’s creator.

  2. Turn on Restrict access. The item now follows explicit grants only, everyone else loses access, except organization Owners and Admins and the creator, who always keep full access.

  3. Under Share with, choose a Person or a Team, pick an access level, and select Add:

    • Can view , read the folder/list and its contents.
    • Can contribute , view plus add and edit documents, rows, and metadata.
    • Can manage , contribute plus manage sharing for this item.

  4. Change a grantee’s level inline at any time, or remove them. Sharing a folder to a Team grants access to its current members and anyone added later.

Who can do what

Section titled “Who can do what”
  • View the Workspace and unrestricted items , every member by default (governed by the org.library.view permission).
  • Create and edit folders, lists, documents, rows , members with the contribute permission (org.library.contribute).
  • Create or delete a folder/list, and manage sharing , the manage permission (org.library.manage, Managers and above by default), the item’s creator, or anyone you grant Can manage.

An administrator can tune these defaults in Organization Settings → People → Permissions.

Recovering deleted items

Section titled “Recovering deleted items”

Deleting a Workspace folder or list moves it to the Recycle Bin, the same as project content. Restore it from there and it comes back with its documents, columns, rows, and organization scope intact.

FAQs

Section titled “FAQs”

What is the difference between the organization Workspace and a project Workspace? The organization Workspace is a single tenant-level area visible to every member by default. A project Workspace lives inside one project and is visible to the project’s members. Same content shape (folders, documents, lists); different visibility boundary.

Can guests see the organization Workspace? No. The organization Workspace is for members and above. Guests, who are project-only by design, only see content inside the projects they are explicitly added to. Use a project Workspace instead when guests need to see shared files.

How do team grants update when members join or leave the team? Team grants are resolved at access time, so if you share a folder with a Team, every current member of that team has access immediately, including people added later. Removing someone from the team revokes their access on the next page load.

Can I move a document from a project Workspace to the organization Workspace? Not in one click today. The closest path is to download the document from the project Workspace and upload it to the organization Workspace. Live collaboration history (editor sessions, versions) does not survive the move; attachments and content do.

Who counts as a workspace “manager”? The org.library.manage permission, which defaults to Owner, Admin, and Portfolio Manager. The Permissions matrix lets administrators retune this default. The item’s creator can always manage their own item; this is not something the matrix can take away.

Best practices

Section titled “Best practices”
  1. Use the org Workspace for company-wide shared content; use project workspaces for project work. Don’t put project deliverables in the org workspace; don’t put company policies in a project. The boundary makes discoverability work.
  2. Add metadata columns to high-value folders. “Owner”, “Status”, “Review date” make a policies folder useful at scale. Without them, a file dump is just a file dump.
  3. Restrict by default for sensitive folders. Brand assets = unrestricted. HR policies = restricted. Compensation data = restricted + shared with specific Team.
  4. Use Teams for grants, not individual users. Team membership changes; per-user grants become stale. Team grants auto-update.
  5. Keep the two scopes straight. The org workspace is org-scoped; project workspaces are project-scoped; both use the same restrict + grant mechanism. Don’t conflate them.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

Section titled “Troubleshooting / common pitfalls”
  • Workspace tab missing. Two causes: (a) below GUEST role (org workspace is members-only); (b) feature flag off. Verify role.
  • Restricted folder visible to someone. They may be Owner/Admin (always retain), the creator (always retains), or have org-admin bypass via org.project.view.all.
  • Team grant not propagating. Team membership resolves at access time; refresh.
  • Metadata column not saving. Permission insufficient, contribute (org.library.contribute) required.
  • Can’t move file between project + org workspace. Today: not a one-click action. Download + re-upload. See FAQs.

How this combines with other features

Section titled “How this combines with other features”

Coming from another tool

Section titled “Coming from another tool”
ToolMapping
SharePoint OnlineDirect concept; tenant-wide site collections
Google Drive shared drivesDirect
Box EnterpriseDirect
Confluence SpacesDirect
OneDrive for Business shared with orgDirect
Section titled “Related”