Institutional Workspace Onboarding

This guide covers setting up a Line Budgeter Institutional workspace for a school or program: inviting students, organizing budgets into classroom folders, and the settings most useful in an academic setting. It also includes a student quick start you can share directly with a class.

Downloading and installing​

Line Budgeter is a desktop app — every administrator, instructor, and student installs it on their own machine. Download links and step-by-step installation instructions for macOS and Windows are in Getting Started.

Your workspace at a glance​

As the workspace owner, your control center is Account Manager → Workspaces (click your profile picture in the top-right, then Account Manager). There you'll find:

• Workspace Overview — workspace name, owner, and a Transfer Ownership link.
• Seats — Total Seats and Available Seats, with a Manage licenses link to add seats mid-term.
• Users and Groups tabs — the member roster and class groups.
• Workspace Settings — Rename Workspace, Change Logo, Change Billing Email.

Note: Institutional workspaces don't bundle union ratebooks — members who need one purchase it individually from the Ratebook Store.

Inviting students​

Where to start an invite​

Any of these opens the same invite wizard:

• The Invite button on the Dashboard's seat card ("X seats Available")
• The workspace card's ⋮ menu → Invite to workspace in the Library sidebar
• Account Manager → Workspaces → Invite User

The four-step wizard​

1. Details — enter each student's Email Address and Position. Click + Add Another Person to add more rows; a live counter shows seats remaining. There's no spreadsheet upload, so for a large class work in batches — one invite per class section keeps things tidy, and after sending you can click Invite Another Member to start the next batch.
2. Role — choose the access level (see the table below). For students, choose Editor.
3. Access — choose Full Workspace Access or Specific Project Folders Only. If you've already created classroom folders, you can scope each student to just their section's folders here.
4. Review & Send Invitation — confirm and send. Each student receives an invitation email, and the next time they log in they'll see the invite in-app with a Join Workspace button.

Choosing roles​

Guests never consume a seat, so industry mentors or visiting faculty can review student work at no cost.

If a role's defaults don't quite fit, fine-tune any individual after inviting them: Account Manager → Workspaces → Users → ⋮ → Edit User → Custom Permissions.

Set up one student, then duplicate​

The fastest way to onboard a whole class consistently is to build one "template" student, then clone their setup:

1. Invite the first student through the wizard: role (Editor), access scope (e.g. Specific Project Folders Only → their class folder), and send.
2. Fine-tune their permissions — Users → ⋮ → Edit User → Custom Permissions — and set anything the whole class should have: an access expiration date at end of term, export/report download restrictions, watermarking, and so on.
3. Duplicate for the rest of the class — back in the Users table, open that student's ⋮ menu → Duplicate User. The invite wizard reopens in Duplicate user mode ("Invite a user with the same permissions as {name}"): enter the next student's Email Address, and the Role, Access (the exact same folders, budgets, and departments), and Custom Permissions all come pre-filled from the source student. Everything is still editable before sending.
4. Repeat Duplicate User for each remaining student. For a different class section, set up one student in that section's folder first, then duplicate from them.

Tracking and managing invites​

The Users table shows every member with their Status — Invited until the student joins, then Active. From a user's ⋮ menu you can Edit User, Resend Invite, Disable User, or Remove User. If a student leaves the program, removing them (or releasing their seat) frees the seat for reassignment.

Student quick start​

Share this section with your students.

Step 1 — Join the workspace​

You'll receive an invitation email from Line Budgeter. Download and install the app, create your account (or log in), and you'll see "You've Been Invited to a Workspace." Click Join Workspace — that's it.

Step 2 — Switch into the school workspace​

Your account has two contexts: your library and the school's workspace.

To switch, click the Switch button on the Dashboard (or click your profile picture in the top-right and pick the workspace under Your Workspaces). A confirmation appears — any open budgets are closed and saved when you switch — then click Proceed.

Step 3 — Make the workspace your default​

So the app opens straight into the school workspace every time:

1. Click Switch on the Dashboard to open the workspace menu.
2. Click the reorder icon (the up/down arrows) to open Reorder Workspaces.
3. Drag the school workspace to the top slot — it gets a Default badge.

Whatever sits in the top slot is where Line Budgeter opens on login.

Step 4 — Create budgets in My Files​

Open the Library. In the sidebar you'll see two areas:

• Workspace Files → All Projects — the shared area everyone in the workspace can be given access to. Class folders and shared projects live here.
• Personal Files → My Files — your private space inside the workspace. Nobody else — not classmates, not instructors, not admins — can see what's in your My Files.

To start a budget, select My Files and click the blue New Budget button (or press Ctrl/⌘ + N anywhere). Work in My Files until you're ready to share.

Classroom folders and shared projects​

The Workspace Files area is where collaboration happens. Structure it however your program works:

Creating a folder​

In the Library, click New Folder. The Create New Folder dialog asks for a name and a General Access level:

• Private – Only people with access can view (default) — then use Add People or Groups to grant access person-by-person or group-by-group.
• Anyone in the workspace can edit — a true shared workspace folder.
• Anyone in workspace can view — visible to all, editable by those you designate.

Folders can contain subfolders, so a "FILM 401 – Spring 2027" folder can hold "Assignment 1", "Assignment 2", and "Final Project" inside it. Each person granted access can be Admin, Can Edit, or Can View on that folder — change these anytime via right-click → Manage Access.

Groups: manage a class as one unit​

Rather than adding students to a folder one at a time, create a Group per class section: Account Manager → Workspaces → Groups → New Group. Then grant the whole group access to a folder in one step. When enrollment changes, edit the group once and every folder it touches updates.

Suggested structures​

• Per-class folders — one folder per course, access granted to that course's group. Instructors get Can Edit or folder Admin; a TA invited as Project Manager scoped to Specific Project Folders Only can manage just their section.
• Assignment drop folders — a subfolder per assignment inside the class folder; students move their My Files budget in when it's due.
• Group projects — a private folder per project team, with just those students and the instructor added. Teams can collaborate on the same budget in real time.
• Reference library — a folder set to Anyone in workspace can view holding sample budgets and templates students can duplicate but not alter.

Optional controls for academic settings​

Under Edit User → Custom Permissions, admins can tighten things per member. A few settings programs often use:

• Require two-factor authentication (2FA) — enforce 2FA for all members.
• Set access expiration date — set student access to end automatically at the end of term.
• Can export budget data / Can download reports — disable to keep coursework inside the app.
• Can share budgets outside of workspace — disable to prevent external sharing.
• Watermark budget reports — stamp every generated report.
• Hide budget totals in the Workspace Library — keep totals private in shared list views.