Home 9 Teams & Organizations 9 Understanding Organizations

Understanding Organizations

In LiteWork, an organization is your account’s container—it holds your companies, team members, and subscription. Understanding how organizations work helps you set up LiteWork correctly for your business.

What Is an Organization?

An organization is:

  • Your billing entity — Your subscription is attached to your organization
  • Your team container — Team members belong to your organization
  • Your company holder — Companies (businesses) exist within your organization

When you create a LiteWork account, an organization is automatically created with you as the owner.

Organization Structure

Here’s how everything fits together:

Organization (e.g., "John's Business")
├── Subscription (Solo, Team, or Business plan)
├── Team Members
│   ├── John (Owner)
│   ├── Sarah (Admin)
│   └── Mike (Member)
└── Companies
    ├── ABC Consulting Ltd
    │   ├── Invoices
    │   ├── Quotes
    │   ├── Contacts
    │   └── Xero Connection
    └── XYZ Services Ltd
        ├── Invoices
        ├── Quotes
        ├── Contacts
        └── Xero Connection

Organizations vs Companies

People sometimes confuse organizations and companies. Here’s the difference:

Organization Company
Your LiteWork account A business you manage
Has a subscription Has invoices and contacts
Contains team members Has its own Xero connection
Usually one per account Can have multiple (depending on plan)

Example: You run a consulting business and also manage invoicing for a side project. Both are “companies” within your single “organization.”

Who Can Do What

Team members have different levels of access based on their role:

Action Owner Admin Member Viewer
View documents Yes Yes Yes Yes
Create/edit documents Yes Yes Yes No
Manage contacts Yes Yes Yes No
Invite team members Yes Yes No No
Manage Xero connection Yes Yes No No
View/manage billing Yes No No No
Delete organization Yes No No No

See Managing Team Roles for detailed role descriptions.

Multiple Organizations

Most users have one organization. However, you might belong to multiple organizations if:

  • You’ve been invited to someone else’s organization as a team member
  • You have separate LiteWork accounts for different purposes

You can switch between organizations using the organization selector in the header. Each organization has completely separate data—companies, documents, contacts, and team members don’t cross over.

Your Organization Name

When you sign up, LiteWork creates an organization with a default name (like “John’s Business”). You can change this in settings:

  1. Go to LiteWork Settings → Organization
  2. Edit the organization name
  3. Save changes

The organization name appears in team invitations and your billing invoices.

Leaving an Organization

If you’re a team member (not the owner), you can leave an organization:

  1. Go to LiteWork Settings → Team
  2. Find your name in the member list
  3. Click Leave Organization

You’ll lose access to all companies and data in that organization immediately.

Owners cannot leave. If you’re the owner, you must transfer ownership first. See Transferring Ownership.

Deleting an Organization

Only the owner can delete an organization. This permanently removes:

  • All companies
  • All invoices, quotes, and contacts
  • All team member access
  • Your subscription (no refund for unused time)

Export your data first if you need to keep records. Deletion cannot be undone.

Related Articles