Creating your workspace (Owner sign-up walkthrough)

The first person to sign up for a workspace becomes its Owner. This article walks through everything that happens from the sign-up form to a working Inbox: what the first-run experience asks, what each step actually does, what you can skip, and what skipping means later.

Set aside about fifteen minutes. Nothing here is irreversible, and every step can be redone from Settings afterwards.

Before you start

• Use the email address you actually read at work. It becomes your sign-in and the address your morning brief goes to.
• Know which mailbox you want Scout to read first — your own, or a shared address such as your sales mailbox. You do not need it during first run, but it is the first thing to do afterwards.
• If your company uses Microsoft 365 and a system administrator has to approve new applications, have their name handy. Some Microsoft tenants require an administrator's consent before anyone can connect a mailbox.

Step 1: Create your account

1. Go to the Scout HQ sign-up page and enter your work email address and a password.
2. Confirm the verification message Scout sends to that address. Scout only ever treats a verified address as a valid recipient, which is why this step is not optional.
3. Sign in. Scout creates your workspace and puts you in it as the Owner.

The Owner is the one accountable person for the workspace: everything an Admin can do, plus transferring ownership and managing the plan. You can hand the role to someone else later without losing anything. See Roles: Owner, Admin, Member, Viewer.

Step 2: The welcome screen

Screenshot: the welcome screen. It frames the five steps that follow.

The first run is five numbered steps between a welcome screen and a finish screen. A progress rail across the top shows where you are, and Back is always available. The experience includes optional narration; if you would rather read, leave it off — nothing is only spoken.

Choose the button on the welcome screen to begin.

Step 3: Teams (step one of five)

A team is a flat operating group inside your workspace — Sales, Production, Warehouse, whatever matches how your shop divides work. Teams are how Scout decides who is accountable for a point, and who can see it.

1. Choose the add prompt to create a team row.
2. Type the team's name over the Name placeholder.
3. Optionally choose the team's icon and color from the identity control beside the name. This is only so teams are easy to tell apart at a glance.
4. Repeat for each team you want. Two or three is plenty to start.
5. Choose the primary action to save. Scout confirms with a card and a short message naming the teams it created.
6. Or choose Skip for now if you would rather decide later.

One team already exists and is listed for you: Everyone. Scout manages it, every active member belongs to it, and it cannot be renamed or removed — not even by the Owner. Everyone is the destination Scout uses when no better one exists, and work that lands there is visibly marked as unassigned so it does not disappear.

If you skip: your workspace runs with Everyone alone. Scout will still raise points and still route them; it just has one place to route them to. You can create teams at any time from Settings → Workspace → Teams, and Scout may also propose teams later based on the addresses it sees in your connected sources. See Teams.

Step 4: People (step two of five)

This step sends real invitations, so only add people you want emailed today.

Above the form, four cards under What each role can do describe the roles and stay visible while you work — Owner, Admin, Member, and Viewer. They do not change as you pick; they are there to read.

1. Choose Add another teammate. A row appears with fields for the person's email address, their first name, the teams they should join, and their role.
2. Fill in the email address. That is the only required field — the person fills in the rest of their own details when they accept.
3. Pick their team or teams, and their role. Member is the ordinary employee seat and the right answer for most people.
4. Choose Add another teammate again for each additional person. Each row has its own remove control if you change your mind.
5. Choose the primary action to send the invitations, or Skip for now to move on.

If you skip: nothing is lost and no one is emailed. Invite people whenever you are ready from Settings → Workspace → People & roles, where you can also see pending invitations, resend them, revoke them, and read the history of what was sent. See Inviting people.

One thing worth knowing before you decide: a workspace with exactly one active working seat behaves differently on purpose. There is no one to share work with, so Scout claims each new point for you automatically and hides the scope controls entirely. The moment a second person joins — even a Viewer — that changes, and you start seeing who has claimed what. See Working solo vs with a team.

Step 5: Connections (step three of five)

This step is a short guided introduction that plays on its own — roughly twenty seconds, no clicking. It shows what connecting looks like: choosing a source, granting read-only access at the provider's own consent screen, and the card turning live once Scout has read it.

It uses example data, not your workspace. You connect your real accounts afterwards from the Connections page, one source at a time, and each one has its own article: Connecting Gmail, Connecting Microsoft 365 / Outlook, Connecting QuickBooks Online, Connecting Slack, and Connecting your suppliers.

Step 6: Inbox (step four of five)

Another automatic walkthrough, about twenty seconds. It shows the Inbox filling with items grouped by when they are due, switching between your own work and the whole workspace, and one overdue item being claimed so it becomes visibly yours.

The Inbox is your living action item list, and it is the page Scout opens on. How the Inbox is organized covers it properly.

Step 7: Map & Found (step five of five)

The last walkthrough, about twenty-five seconds. First the Map draws your accounts, contacts, work, quotes, and invoices as a set of links, with labels showing where each link came from. Then it crosses into Found, the ledger of what Scout has helped collect, protect, or avoid spending, with the receipts that prove each line.

Step 8: Finish

Choose the button on the finish screen and Scout drops you into your Inbox. It will be empty, and it will say so plainly: Your desk is clear. That is correct — Scout has nothing to read yet. See My Inbox says "Your desk is clear." if that worries you.

Finish the setup Scout did not ask for

First run deliberately leaves a few workspace settings alone so it can stay short. Do these next.

1. Open Settings → Workspace → General.
2. Set the Workspace name — it appears in the workspace switcher and on the invitations you send.
3. Add your Website, and upload a workspace avatar if you want one.
4. Set the Default timezone. This is the clock Scout uses for deadlines, for "today" in the Inbox, and for everyone's brief unless they override it.
5. Choose the Inbox window: 30 days, 45 days, or 60 days. The default is 45. This is how far ahead the Inbox looks, and it applies to everyone in the workspace.
6. Choose Save changes.
7. Open Settings → Your account → Profile and set your own name, title, and time zone. Your time zone is what decides when your brief lands.

Then connect your first mailbox. That is the step that makes everything else start working.

Good to know

• Skipping a step is recorded as skipped, not as failed. Scout does not nag you about it, and nothing in the product is gated behind finishing first run.
• Everything the Teams and People steps create is real: real teams, real invitations. The three walkthrough steps create nothing.
• Your Inbox stays honest while it is empty. Scout shows zeros rather than sample data, so you can always trust what you are looking at.
• One person can own or belong to several workspaces. The workspace switcher lives in your profile menu. See Multiple workspaces.
• Trials start without a card. After the trial a card is required, or the workspace pauses into read-only until one is added. See Plan and billing.