# Organization settings & branding

Your organization's settings control how it looks, who can see it, how the Planner calculates capacity, and the defaults for voting and documents. This guide covers each group of settings and what changing them affects downstream.

## Branding and identity

Your organization's identity is what members and visitors see across the product and on your public pages:

- **Name** — the display name used throughout Votare.
- **URL slug** — the short identifier in your web addresses. **Changing the slug changes your URLs**, so any existing links people have saved will need updating.
- **Logo** — shown in navigation, on public pages, and in emails.
- **Icon** — a compact mark used where the full logo doesn't fit.
- **Description** — a short summary of what the organization is for.

Keep the name and description current — they're often the first thing new members and public visitors read.

## Visibility

Visibility controls who can reach your public pages and whether search engines index them:

| Visibility | Who can access | Search indexing |
|------------|----------------|-----------------|
| Public | Anyone with the link | Indexed and listed in your sitemap |
| Unlisted | Anyone with the direct link | Not indexed |
| Private | Members only | Not indexed |

Use **public** when you want to be discoverable, **unlisted** to share a link privately without appearing in search, and **private** to keep everything internal. See [Getting started as an admin](/docs/admin/getting-started) for choosing this when you first set up.

## Business hours, timezone, and holidays

These three settings define your working calendar and feed directly into the **Planner's capacity math**:

- **Business hours** — the hours your team is expected to work.
- **Timezone** — the reference timezone for scheduling and capacity.
- **Holidays** — non-working days that reduce available capacity.

Because the Planner uses these to decide how much each person can take on, keeping them accurate keeps allocations realistic. Review holidays at least once a quarter so capacity doesn't drift.

## Portfolio groups (departments)

Portfolio groups represent your departments or divisions. They **scope projects and the portfolio view**, letting you organize work by department instead of one flat list. Create groups that match your org structure, then assign projects to them so the portfolio view reflects how your organization is actually divided.

## Voting defaults

Two settings shape how voting behaves across your organization.

### MVP voting results

Choose whether the results of weekly MVP voting are:

- **Live** — shown as votes come in.
- **Hidden until the week ends** — kept private until voting closes.

Hiding live results reduces bandwagon effects; showing them adds transparency. Pick whichever matches your team's culture.

### Event voting scheme

Set the default scheme for event voting:

- **Single MVP pick** — each voter picks one standout.
- **Weighted 3-2-1** — each voter ranks their top three, awarding 3, 2, and 1 points.

This is the default applied to new events; individual events can still use the scheme that suits them.

## Document settings

If you use Documents, configure what people see when they sign:

- **Terms-of-service snapshots** — the version of your terms captured at signing time, so you have a record of exactly what was agreed to.
- **Custom clauses** — additional clauses shown to signers alongside the standard terms.

Because a snapshot is captured at signing, updating your terms later doesn't rewrite what past signers agreed to.

## Notification settings

Control the transactional and summary emails your organization sends — invitations, alerts, daily summaries, and document reminders. Every one of these sends is recorded in the email log so you can confirm delivery; see [Audit logs, email logs & security](/docs/admin/audit-and-security) for how that logging works.

## Related

- [Getting started as an admin](/docs/admin/getting-started)
- [Members, roles & groups](/docs/admin/members-and-roles)
- [Audit logs, email logs & security](/docs/admin/audit-and-security)