Quick start: your first afternoon

How this plan works#

Hubtoll is a set of business tools that share one company workspace. You do not need to learn all of them today. You only need a good foundation: who your company is, where it works, how it is organised, and who is on the team.

This page is a map. Every step is short and tells you how long it takes. When you want the full story behind a step, click the link at the end of it.

Hubtoll even keeps score for you. Once you are inside, a bar on your dashboard called Workspace Setup counts nine essential steps. This plan follows the same nine, so you can watch the number climb.

Part 1: Get in (about 10 minutes)#

Step 1. Create your account (2 minutes)#

Open the sign-up page, fill in your first name, last name, work email, phone number and a password, and click Create account.

• Use your company email. Free email such as Gmail is not accepted for company accounts.
• Your password needs at least 8 characters, with an upper-case letter, a lower-case letter, a number and a special character.

Full details are in Create your account and set up your company.

Step 2. Activate your email (1 minute)#

Hubtoll sends you an email called Activate your Hubtoll account. Click Activate account inside it. The link works for about one hour. If it runs out, go back to the sign-in page and ask for a new one with Resend activation email.

Step 3. Sign in and build your workspace (4 minutes)#

Sign in. A brand-new account has no workspace yet, so Hubtoll opens a short two-step form:

1. Tell Us Where You’re Based: your country and state.
2. Set Up Your Business Profile: company name, your web address (sub-domain), industry, weekend days, your operating timezone, an optional logo and your public holidays.

Click Create workspace. You land on your dashboard as the owner.

Step 4. Set up two-factor sign-in (3 minutes)#

Because you are the owner, Hubtoll asks you for a second proof that it is really you. You will see Set Up Two Factor Authentication to Continue. Choose emailed codes, an authenticator app on your phone, or a passkey. There is no skip button, on purpose. See Two-factor sign-in and passkeys.

Part 2: Describe your company (about 15 minutes)#

Open the setup list any time with View checklist on the Workspace Setup bar, or with the Setup chip at the top of the page. The chip and the bar are shown to the workspace owner (the Super admin).

Steps 5 to 9 in plain words#

• Company profile. Check your timezone and weekend days. This is usually already ticked by the form you filled in earlier. Add your logo if you have one.
• Offices. Add each place your people work, for example "Lagos HQ". The country matters, because public holidays follow the office country.
• Departments. Add your main departments and give each a Department head. A department can sit inside another one, but it has only one parent.
• Public holidays. Add the days your company is closed. Every holiday belongs to a country.
• Leave categories. Hubtoll creates six for you: Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Compassionate Leave and Study Leave. Read the allowances and change what does not fit.

All of this is explained step by step in Offices, departments, holidays and the org chart.

Part 3: Check the approvals (about 3 minutes)#

Two more essentials are already done for you, but look at them once so nothing surprises you later.

Step 10. Employee records approval#

Open Human Resources›Employee Record Management›Forge Workflow. You will see a workflow called No approval required (default). It means a new employee record becomes live the moment you save it. You can add approval steps whenever you like.

Step 11. Leave approval#

Open Human Resources›Leave›Forge Workflow. You will see Line manager approval (default). A leave request goes to the person's line manager first. If the person has no line manager, it goes to a workspace admin. The person is emailed either way.

Read more in Approvals and workflows.

Part 4: Bring in your people (about 15 minutes)#

Step 12. Invite your team (5 minutes)#

1. Open Subscription management in the left menu, under Settings.
2. Find the product row (for example Human Resources Management) and open its ⋮ menu.
3. Click Add new user, fill in Invite a New User, pick their Roles, and click Send invite.

Each person gets an email with a temporary password. The free plan includes 6 seats per product, and you use one of them. Every new person also receives the All staff role automatically. See Seats, plans and subscriptions and Roles: give people the right access.

Step 13. Create their employee records (5 to 10 minutes)#

An invited person has a login. An employee record is their HR file: office, department, line manager and more. Leave and other HR tools need it. Add one for each person in Human Resources›Employee Record Management›Employee Records. See Employee records.

When this is done, all nine essentials are ticked and the bar says Your workspace is set up.

Part 5: Try one thing in each product#

Open the grid icon at the top right (Switch products) and take a small first step in the products you plan to use.

What to read next#

• Find your way around Hubtoll shows you the menus, lists and messages.
• Your profile, photo and password is for you and for your colleagues.
• Fix common problems is a friendly list of "what do I do when...".

Common questions#