Onboarding Your Team to Notebook for Business
Overview
Getting your team started with Zoho Notebook for Business involves more than simply adding users. A well-organized setup helps your team understand where to store information, how to collaborate, and how to access the tools they need from the beginning.
This guide walks administrators through the essential steps for onboarding a team to Notebook for Business, from setting up the organization and inviting members to creating collaborative workspaces and helping users get started.
Before You Begin
Before onboarding your team, make sure:
- Your organization has an active Notebook for Business subscription or trial.
- You have administrator access to the organization.
- You have the email addresses of the users you want to invite.
- You have an idea of how you want to organize your teams, departments, projects, or shared resources.
Once these are ready, you can begin setting up your organization.
Step 1: Add Your Team Members
Start by inviting the people who need access to your Notebook organization.
- Sign in to the Zoho Notebook web app.
- Click your Profile icon.
- Open User & Permission to access the Admin Console.
- Click Add Users.
- Enter the email addresses of the users you want to invite.
- Assign the appropriate role to each user.
- Click Invite.
An invitation will be sent to each user's email address. Once they accept the invitation, they will become part of your Notebook organization.
Add Multiple Users
If you're onboarding a larger team, you can add multiple users instead of inviting them individually.
This can be useful when setting up Notebook for an entire department or organization.
Step 2: Assign the Right Roles
After adding users, decide what level of administrative access each person requires.
Notebook for Business supports the following primary roles:
Admin
Admins can manage users, organization settings, permissions, subscriptions, and other administrative controls.
Member
Members can use Notebook for their day-to-day work and collaborate on content shared with them without having organization-level administrative privileges.
You can modify a user's role later from the Admin Console whenever responsibilities within your organization change.
Tip: Keep administrative access limited to users who need to manage your Notebook organization.Step 3: Assign Premium Access
Once users have joined your organization, assign premium access based on their requirements.
From the Admin Console:
- Locate the user under Org Users.
- Click the More Options icon next to the user.
- Select Make Premium.
You can also manage Notebook AI access based on your organization's requirements.
Assign licenses according to how each member will use Notebook so that users have access to the appropriate Business and AI capabilities.
Step 4: Set Up Teams
Use Teams to create dedicated collaborative spaces for departments, projects, or groups within your organization.
For example, you can create separate Teams for:
- Marketing
- Product
- Human Resources
- Sales
- Customer Support
- Individual projects
Each Team can contain multiple notebooks, allowing related information to remain grouped within a common workspace.
Note: Teams is currently available only on the Zoho Notebook web application. Step 5: Create and Organize Notebooks for Your Team
Once you have created your Teams, create notebooks within each Team to organize the information your members will work with.
Create separate notebooks based on your team's departments, projects, workflows, or types of information. Giving each notebook a clear purpose helps members understand where to add and find content.
For example:
Marketing Team
- Campaign Planning
- Content Calendar
- Meeting Notes
- Brand Resources
HR Team
- Employee Onboarding
- Policies
- Training Resources
- Internal Announcements
Product Team
- Product Ideas
- Research
- Release Planning
- Meeting Notes
Members can then create and organize their notecards within the appropriate notebooks.
Start with the notebooks your team needs most and add more as your workflows grow. Using clear and consistent notebook names also makes it easier for members to navigate the shared workspace.
Step 6: Add Members and Assign Team Permissions
After setting up your Team and organizing the required notebooks, add the members who need access to the Team and assign the appropriate permission based on their responsibilities.
Content created within a Team, including notebooks and notecards, is shared with the Team members by default. You do not need to share each notebook or notecard separately.
When adding members to a Team, you can assign one of the following permissions:
Viewer
Can view the content available within the Team. Use this role for members who only need access to read or refer to information.
Editor
Can view and edit content within the Team. This role is suitable for members who actively contribute to and update Team content.
Organizer
Provides additional permissions to organize and manage the content within the Team. This is useful for members responsible for maintaining the Team's notebooks and content organization.
Admin
Provides administrative control over the Team, including managing members and Team settings. Assign this role to members responsible for managing the Team.
Assign permissions based on each member's responsibilities so they have the appropriate level of access to the Team and its content.
Note: Notebooks and notecards created within a Team are available to the members of that Team based on their assigned Team permissions.Step 7: Help Members Get Started
Once your workspace is ready, encourage team members to sign in to Notebook and familiarize themselves with the workspace.
As part of onboarding, users can:
- Create and organize notecards.
- Work with notebooks shared with them.
- Collaborate with other team members.
- Search for notes and shared information.
- Add reminders for important tasks.
- Attach documents, images, audio, and other resources.
- Use Notebook AI features available to their account.
- Access Notebook from supported devices.
For the initial rollout, consider creating a shared Getting Started notebook containing your organization's guidelines for using Notebook.
This notebook can include:
- Workspace structure
- Naming conventions
- Where different types of information should be stored
- Sharing guidelines
- Common workflows
- Internal points of contact for questions
Step 8: Introduce Notebook AI
Notebook for Business includes Notebook AI, which can help team members work with their notes more efficiently.
Depending on the feature and access provided, team members can use Notebook AI to:
- Summarize notes.
- Generate content.
- Improve or rewrite existing content.
- Ask questions about note content.
- Generate Mind Maps.
- Transcribe supported audio and video content.
- Generate summaries from transcripts.
Administrators can manage AI access based on the requirements of their organization.
Step 9: Connect Notebook to Your Team's Workflow
Once the team is comfortable with the basics, you can expand how Notebook fits into your existing workflow.
Notebook supports integrations with Zoho and third-party applications, helping teams capture and access information across the tools they already use.
Rather than enabling every available integration immediately, start with the applications your team uses most frequently and expand your setup as needed.
Recommended Onboarding Practices
Keep the initial workspace simple. Avoid creating too many Teams, notebooks, or organizational layers before users understand how the workspace is structured.
Establish naming conventions for shared notebooks so members can quickly understand their purpose.
Use View access for information that should remain unchanged and Edit access only when collaboration is required.
Create a dedicated onboarding notebook containing instructions, policies, useful links, and commonly referenced information.
Review users, roles, subscriptions, Teams, and sharing permissions periodically as your organization changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Administrators can add users from the Admin Console whenever new members join the organization.
Yes. An administrator can change a user's role between Admin and Member from the Admin Console.
Yes. Teams can be used to create dedicated collaborative spaces for departments, projects, or groups and organize multiple notebooks within each workspace.
Yes. Sharing permissions can be configured according to how users need to interact with the notebook, such as viewing, editing, or managing sharing.
Teams is currently supported on the Zoho Notebook web application. Team workspaces may therefore not appear in the mobile or desktop apps until support is extended to those platforms.
Yes. Notebook AI is available with Notebook for Business. Administrators can manage access based on the organization's requirements.
Administrators should review the user's access and remove the user from the organization when required. Before removing the user, review any relevant organizational content or access requirements to ensure continuity for the rest of the team.
Need Further Assistance?
If you need help setting up your organization, onboarding users, managing permissions, or configuring Notebook for Business for your team's workflow, contact the Zoho Notebook support team at support@zohonotebook.com.