The workspace and locations model
Every Deskie account is built around two layers. At the top is a workspace, which represents your business. Inside the workspace are one or more locations, which represent the physical sites you operate. A location always belongs to exactly one workspace.
When a workspace is first created it comes with a single starter location. From there you can add more locations as your operation grows. The two layers serve different purposes: the workspace holds business-wide settings such as its plan, currency, and platform billing configuration, while each location holds its own address, time zone, WiFi details, and door access setup.
For a higher-level picture of how Deskie fits together, see What is Deskie. For who can do what at each layer, see Roles and permissions.
What lives at each layer
A workspace carries the settings that apply to your whole business. These include its name and URL slug, the workspace currency, your Deskie plan, and platform-level billing details. Workspace status can be active or inactive. See Workspace settings for more on what is configured here.
A location carries the details specific to one site. Each location has its own name and slug, plus optional address fields (street, city, state, country, postal code) and a time zone that defaults to UTC. Locations can also store WiFi network settings (network name, password, security type, and whether the network is hidden) and a Kisi place identifier used for door access.
How people belong to a workspace and its locations
Membership is also two-layered. A person joins a workspace with a workspace-level role of Owner, Admin, Member, or Guest. Separately, a person can hold a role at a specific location, where the available roles are Admin or Member.
This separation is what allows a location-level Admin, sometimes called a Manager, to administer a single site without being an admin of the entire workspace. Workspace Owners and Admins, by contrast, are treated as having Admin access across every location in the workspace. Superadmins (Deskie platform staff) can access any workspace.
When a new location is created, the person who creates it is automatically given the Admin role for that location. For more on inviting people and assigning these roles, see Inviting and onboarding.
Current workspace and current location
While you are signed in, Deskie keeps track of which workspace and which location you are currently working in. This is your current context. It is stored on your session in the database rather than in a browser cookie, so it stays consistent as you move around the app.
Your session records a current workspace and, separately, a current location. The current location can be a specific site, or it can be left empty to represent an All Locations view. The All Locations view is reserved for workspace Owners, Admins, and superadmins. People who only manage a single location always have a specific location selected.
If you have not made an explicit choice yet, Deskie picks a sensible default for you. On a fresh session, Deskie selects a specific location for everyone, including workspace admins, who can then switch to the All Locations view when they want it. The location Deskie chooses is the one that matches your primary location, and if that is not available it falls back to the workspace's first location. You also have a personal default workspace: a fresh session with no stored choice lands on that workspace, or on your first available workspace if no default is set.
Switching workspace and location
You can switch your current workspace and location at any time. When you switch, Deskie verifies that you actually have access to the workspace and location you are moving to before changing your context. If you do not belong to the target workspace or location, the switch is refused.
Choosing the All Locations view is limited to workspace Owners, Admins, and superadmins. If someone who only manages a single location tries to clear their location scope, the switch is rejected.
Once you make a deliberate choice, Deskie marks it as explicit and remembers it, so later page loads keep showing what you selected instead of quietly resetting to a default. This applies to the All Locations view as well: if you explicitly choose it, it sticks.
How data is scoped per location
Nearly everything in Deskie is tied to a workspace, and most operational data is further tied to a specific location. The current context determines what you see and act on. The guiding principle is that whatever location is showing in your switcher is exactly what you are viewing, with no leakage across locations.
The rules work as follows:
- A specific location is selected. Your scope is just that one location, whether you are a workspace admin, a location Manager, or a member. Switching to a different location shows that location's data only.
- No location is selected and you are a workspace Owner, Admin, or superadmin. This is the All Locations view, and your scope expands to every location in the workspace.
- No location is selected and you are not an admin. Nothing is shown. In normal use this does not happen, because the switcher does not offer All Locations to non-admins and a default location is chosen for them automatically.
In the All Locations view, admins also see records that predate having a location assigned, such as older members with no primary location set, so nothing is hidden from a workspace-wide overview. When you act on a specific location's data, Deskie checks that you have access to that location before making any change. A workspace Owner or Admin and a superadmin always pass these checks; a location-only Manager passes only for the locations they manage.
Because of this scoping, your members, assets, resources, bookings, and other operational records belong to particular locations and surface according to the context you are in. For how members are tied to a primary location, see Managing members.
Adding, editing, and removing locations
Workspace admins can create additional locations. A new location needs a name, and you can also provide its address fields and time zone. Existing locations can be updated with their address, time zone, and WiFi details. Creating or managing a location requires the appropriate permission, so people without it cannot make these changes.
A workspace must always keep at least one location, so Deskie will not let you delete the final location in a workspace. When a location is removed, the location-level roles attached to it are removed as well.