You’re here because you need a simple way to manage your flexible office, and your time is valuable. The good news is that setting up Officely is as straightforward as using it. By working within Slack and Teams, it removes the friction of adopting a new platform. This guide is designed to get you from installation to a fully functional digital office as quickly as possible. Following this Officely setup guide for administrators will ensure a smooth rollout. We’ll show you how to create floor plans, set booking rules, and invite your team, turning a complex task into a simple, satisfying project.
Key Takeaways
- Get started in minutes by adding Officely directly to Slack or Teams: This approach eliminates the need for new software and ensures your team can start using it immediately within their existing workflow, which is key for quick adoption.
- Build a digital version of your office for intuitive booking: By creating interactive floor plans and setting custom rules for desks, rooms, and even parking, you make it easy for employees to find and reserve the resources they need.
- Use real data to make smarter decisions about your workspace: The analytics dashboard shows you how your office is actually being used, allowing you to manage capacity, refine policies, and improve the overall hybrid experience based on facts, not guesswork.
Get to Know Officely
Welcome to Officely! Before we get into the setup details, let’s talk about what you can achieve with the platform. As an admin, you’re in the driver’s seat, and our goal is to make your job as simple as possible. Officely is designed to help you create a seamless office experience for your hybrid team, all from the comfort of the tools you already use every day. It’s more than just a booking tool; it’s a complete system for managing your flexible workspace.
From setting up your office layout to analyzing how your space is used, you have all the controls you need. Let’s look at what you can do as an admin and how Officely fits into your existing workflow.
What Can You Do as an Admin?
As the Officely admin, you’re the one who will get everything set up and introduce the tool to your team. You have full control to shape the platform to your company’s needs. You can organize employees by creating and managing teams, which is perfect for assigning specific desks or areas to certain groups. You’ll also manage daily office operations, like using the check-in feature to see who’s in the office and changing an employee’s work status if their plans change. This is the core of our hybrid work software—giving you a clear, real-time view of your office. Think of yourself as the architect of your company’s digital office.
How Officely Works with Slack and Teams
The best part about Officely is that it lives where your team already works: Slack and Microsoft Teams. There’s no new software to download and no separate login to remember, which is why teams actually enjoy using it. Because of our deep integrations, you can get your entire team set up in under 10 minutes. The process is straightforward: install the Officely app, configure your office locations, and map out your resources. You can manage everything from hot desk booking and meeting room reservations to office parking spaces. This approach removes friction and makes coordinating office days feel effortless for everyone.
Before You Start: Your Setup Checklist
Jumping right into a new tool can be tempting, but a little prep work makes the entire process smoother for you and your team. Before you install Officely and start building your digital office, let’s walk through a quick checklist. Taking a few moments to gather what you need and think through your launch plan will ensure a seamless rollout. This section covers the essentials, from the basic requirements to a note on security, so you can feel confident from the very first click.
What You'll Need
The great thing about Officely is that it’s designed to fit right into your team’s existing workflow. You don’t need to introduce yet another app or login. The only real requirement is an active Slack or Microsoft Teams account for your company. Officely works entirely within these platforms to help you manage everything from a simple hot desk booking system to coordinating meeting rooms and even handling office parking. As an admin, you’ll need the appropriate permissions within your Slack or Teams workspace to add new applications. Once that’s confirmed, you have everything you need to get started.
Your Pre-Launch Checklist
To help you get everything right the first time, we’ve put together a handy checklist within our setup guide. You can find tips and a step-by-step walkthrough in our Get Started guide for admins. Before you launch, it’s a good idea to think about how you’ll introduce Officely to your team. Consider drafting a quick announcement post explaining what it is and why you’re using it. You might also want to decide on your initial booking policies ahead of time. For example, how far in advance can people book a desk? A little planning here goes a long way in making the transition feel effortless for everyone.
A Quick Note on Security
We know that security is a top priority when adding any tool to your workspace. Officely is built with this in mind. Your security is handled directly through Slack or Microsoft Teams authentication, which means we leverage the robust security measures you already have in place. There are no separate Officely passwords for your team to manage (or forget). As an admin, your main role in security is to continue encouraging your company’s best practices. This includes reminding employees to use strong, unique passwords for their accounts and ensuring their work devices are secure. For more details, the Officely Help Center is always available.
How to Install Officely: A Step-by-Step Guide
Getting Officely up and running is surprisingly fast—most teams are ready to go in under 10 minutes. Because Officely works directly within the communication tools you already use every day, there’s no new software for your team to learn. You’re simply adding powerful office management features to your existing workflow.
This guide will walk you through the installation and initial setup. We’ll cover adding Officely to your workspace and the first few configuration steps to tailor it to your company’s needs. Let’s get started.
Add Officely to Slack
If your team runs on Slack, integrating Officely is a breeze. You’ll start by adding the Officely app to your Slack workspace, which gives you access to all its features without ever leaving the platform. The process is designed to be quick and intuitive for admins. Once installed, you can immediately begin setting up your office layout and booking rules.
For a detailed walkthrough, our Help Center guide for Slack admins provides clear, step-by-step instructions to get you connected. Just follow the prompts, and you’ll have Officely ready for your team in minutes.
Add Officely to Microsoft Teams
For those on Microsoft Teams, the setup process is just as simple. Officely integrates smoothly into the Teams environment, allowing your employees to book desks and coordinate office days right from their daily chats and channels. You can find the Officely app in the Microsoft Teams AppSource and add it directly to your organization’s workspace.
We’ve made sure our integrations are seamless, so you can focus on creating a great office experience instead of managing complex software. You can also find helpful step-by-step videos in our help center to guide you through the process visually, making setup even faster.
Your First Configuration Steps
Once Officely is installed, it’s time to customize it for your office. This is where you bring your physical workspace into the digital realm. Your first steps will involve configuring the basics to match your company’s structure and policies. You’ll be able to add your office locations, create floor plans, and set up your hot desk booking system.
From there, you can:
- Define specific teams and manage user permissions.
- Set up your meeting room booking software to avoid scheduling conflicts.
- Customize check-in requirements and daily work statuses.
- Connect to your HR system for streamlined user management.
These initial settings lay the foundation for a well-organized hybrid office. We’ll explore each of these steps in more detail in the sections below.
Build Your Digital Office
With Officely installed, it’s time for the fun part: creating a digital version of your physical workspace. Think of this as building the foundation for your entire hybrid work strategy. A well-configured digital office makes everything easier for your team, from finding a desk next to a colleague to booking a last-minute meeting room. Because Officely works inside Slack and Teams, this digital map becomes a natural part of your team’s daily workflow, not another app they have to remember to open.
The goal here is to create a one-to-one match with your real-life office. The more accurate your setup, the more intuitive it will be for employees to use. This step is crucial for driving adoption and making your transition to a flexible office feel seamless. We’ll walk through adding your locations, designing floor plans, and setting up all your bookable resources like desks, rooms, and even parking spots. Taking the time to get this right will pay off immensely when your team starts using Officely to plan their office days.
Add Your Office Locations
First things first, you need to tell Officely where your offices are. This is the starting point for organizing all your resources. You can add multiple office locations, each with its own address and unique settings. This is especially helpful for companies with several branches or campuses, as it allows employees to easily switch between locations when booking their space. Adding your addresses correctly ensures that when someone books a desk in the "London Office," they know exactly where they're headed. It’s a simple but essential step for keeping your hybrid workspace organized from the get-go.
Create Custom Floor Plans
This is where your digital office really comes to life. Officely allows you to create custom floor plans that mirror your actual office layout. You can upload an existing floor plan image and then layer interactive elements on top of it. This visual approach makes the booking process incredibly intuitive for your team. Instead of picking a desk from a list, they can see exactly where it is in relation to team areas, quiet zones, or the kitchen. A clear and accurate floor plan is a core feature of an effective hot desk booking system because it removes guesswork and helps employees plan their day with confidence.
Set Up Desks and Meeting Rooms
Once your floor plan is in place, you can start adding your bookable assets. Drag and drop desks, define different neighborhoods for specific teams, and map out all your meeting rooms. You can give each desk and room a unique name or number (e.g., "Desk 14" or "The Boardroom") and set specific properties for them. For example, you can note which desks have dual monitors or which rooms have whiteboards. This level of detail helps employees find the exact resources they need. Properly configured spaces are the backbone of a good meeting room booking software, preventing double bookings and scheduling headaches.
Manage Office Parking
The commute is a big part of the office experience, and parking can be a major point of friction. Officely helps you solve this with Parkly, our integrated feature for office parking management. You can add your office parking lot to your digital office and allow employees to reserve a spot right alongside their desk. This eliminates the morning scramble for parking and gives employees peace of mind that they’ll have a place to park when they arrive. You can set rules, assign specific spots, and track usage, all from within Officely.
Configure Your Check-In Process
Finally, let’s set up how your team will interact with the office each day. The check-in process confirms who is actually in the office versus who is working from home. You can configure Officely to automatically ask employees to check in when they arrive, which is great for everything from fire safety musters to understanding office utilization. This data is invaluable for making informed decisions about your space. Setting up a clear check-in process is a key part of any successful hybrid work software, as it provides visibility into how your flexible policies are working in practice.
Manage Your Team and Permissions
Once your digital office is built, it’s time to invite your team in. As an admin, you have full control over who can do what within Officely. This isn't about being a gatekeeper; it's about creating a seamless and secure experience for everyone. You can mirror your company’s structure by creating teams, assign specific permissions to different people, and even connect your HR system to automate the whole process. This setup ensures that team members have the access they need to collaborate effectively, while you maintain a clear overview of office activity. Let’s walk through how to get your team set up for success.
What Are the Different User Roles?
In Officely, not everyone needs the same level of access. That’s why we have different user roles. As an Admin, you sit at the top, with the ability to add or remove users, change their roles, and manage office settings. This flexibility is key to running a smooth hybrid office. You can assign specific people to be Office Managers, giving them control over a particular location without making them a full admin. Most of your employees will have the Member role, allowing them to book desks and see who’s in the office. By assigning roles thoughtfully, you empower your team to use the office effectively while keeping administrative controls in the right hands.
How to Set Up Teams
One of the best ways to make Officely feel intuitive for your employees is to set up teams that reflect your company’s structure. You can create teams for Marketing, Engineering, Sales, or any other department. This makes it incredibly easy for people to see when their direct colleagues are planning to be in the office, which helps with planning collaborative work days. Setting up teams also allows you to assign specific desks or areas to certain groups, making your hybrid work software even more powerful. It’s a simple step that goes a long way in helping people coordinate and connect in person.
Configure Who Can See and Do What
As an admin, you have granular control over permissions. You can decide who is allowed to book certain resources, like a specific meeting room or a designated quiet zone. You can also manage working statuses, for example, by updating someone’s status from "Working from home" to "In office" if they forget to check in. This visibility is crucial for everything from health and safety compliance to simply knowing who is physically present. It gives you the oversight needed to manage your hot desk booking system efficiently and ensure everyone has the space they need to do their best work.
Connect to Your HR System
Manually adding and removing employees from your systems can be a real time-drain, especially as your company grows. To make your life easier, you can connect Officely to your existing HR platform. We offer several ways to do this, including a direct integration with Deel HR. Syncing with your HR system automates user provisioning, so when a new person joins the company, they’re automatically added to Officely. When someone leaves, their access is revoked. This not only saves you time but also improves security by ensuring your user list is always up to date. You can explore all of our integrations to see how you can streamline your workflow.
Customize Your Officely Settings
Once you have the basics of your digital office built, it's time to fine-tune the settings. This is where you make Officely work for your company’s specific needs and culture. Think of it as setting the house rules for your hybrid workplace. Taking the time to configure these details ensures a smooth experience for your team, reduces admin headaches, and helps you get the most out of the platform. From booking windows to custom work statuses, these settings put you in full control of how your team interacts with the office. Let’s walk through the key areas you can customize.
Set Your Booking Rules and Policies
Every office has its own rhythm, and your booking rules should reflect that. You can decide how far in advance employees can book a desk, whether they need to check in upon arrival to keep their spot, and what happens if they don't. For example, you might require check-ins to free up no-show desks for others. These settings help manage your space fairly and efficiently. Establishing a clear policy through a hot desk booking system prevents confusion and ensures everyone knows what to expect when they plan their office days. You can also define different rules for different teams or office areas, giving you granular control over your entire workspace.
Manage Your Office Capacity
To keep your office from feeling too crowded or too empty, you need to manage its capacity. Officely lets you set maximum occupancy limits for the entire office, specific floors, or even small neighborhoods. This is essential for safety and for maintaining a comfortable work environment. When a space hits its limit, the system will prevent further bookings for that day. This gives you and your team a real-time view of who is planning to be in, which is incredibly helpful for coordinating collaborative work. It’s a core feature of any effective flex office software and helps you make data-driven decisions about your space usage over time.
Customize Work Status Options
Your company’s vocabulary is unique, and your tools should reflect that. Officely allows you to go beyond the standard “In Office” or “Working from Home” statuses. You can create custom options that match how your team actually works, like “At a Client Site,” “Traveling,” or “Focus Day.” This gives everyone a much clearer picture of team availability at a glance, right within Slack or Teams. Customizing these options makes the platform feel more integrated into your company culture and is a simple way to improve communication. It’s a small detail that makes your hybrid work software feel truly your own.
Adjust Notification Settings
Finding the right notification cadence is key to a successful rollout. You want to keep your team informed without overwhelming them with alerts. As an admin, you can configure which notifications are sent and when. This includes reminders to book a desk for the week, prompts to check in upon arrival, and updates about visitor arrivals. You can tailor these settings to fit your team’s preferences and ensure they only receive the information that’s most important to them. Because Officely works within the tools your team already uses, these alerts feel less like an interruption and more like a helpful part of their workflow. You can explore all the notification possibilities within our integrations.
Track Your Office Usage with Analytics
Once your team starts booking desks and coming into the office, you’ll want to see how your space is actually being used. Making decisions based on data—not just guesswork—is key to creating a workplace that people love. Officely’s analytics tools give you a clear picture of your office activity, helping you understand what’s working and where you can make improvements. Forget complicated spreadsheets; these insights help you optimize your space, manage resources, and support your team’s work habits.
How to Use the Analytics Dashboard
Think of the analytics dashboard as your command center for office insights. It gives you an at-a-glance view of key activity, including overall office usage, booking trends, and daily attendance. You can quickly see which days are most popular, which desks are the hot spots, and even track no-show rates. This information is incredibly practical. For instance, if you see that Tuesdays are consistently at capacity, you can encourage teams to spread out their office days. Or, if a certain area is always empty, you can rethink the layout. It’s all about using real data to fine-tune your hybrid work environment.
Create Custom Reports
While the dashboard gives you a great overview, custom reports let you focus on the specific questions you need to answer. You can generate reports based on check-ins, working statuses, and team-specific activity. For example, a People & Culture leader might want to see how often different departments are in the office together to find opportunities for collaboration. An Office Manager could run a report on meeting room usage to see if more collaboration spaces are needed. This flexibility allows you to pull the exact data you need for informed decisions.
What Your Usage Metrics Mean
Data is only useful if you know what it’s telling you. Your usage metrics paint a story about how your team interacts with the office. Booking data reveals which resources are most valuable, while check-in data shows you the difference between planned attendance and actual foot traffic. This is crucial for everything from managing office capacity to ordering the right amount of coffee and snacks. By understanding these numbers, you can move from reacting to problems to proactively shaping your workplace. This is the foundation of a successful flex office strategy that adapts to your team’s needs.
Explore Advanced Setups
Once you have the basics down, you can take your Officely setup a step further. These advanced configurations are perfect for tailoring Officely to your company’s specific technical environment. They can help you streamline user access, automate tasks, and connect all the tools your team relies on every day.
Set Up Single Sign-On (SSO)
If your company uses a single sign-on provider like Office 365, Okta, or Google Workspace, you can allow your team to log into Officely with their existing work credentials. Setting up SSO means your team has one less password to remember, and it gives your IT department a centralized way to manage access, which is a big win for security. The process typically involves a two-part configuration: one part in your SSO provider’s dashboard and the other within Officely. This ensures a secure and seamless connection for everyone on your team.
Connect with the Officely API
For those who want to build custom solutions, the Officely API is your new best friend. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a way for different software programs to talk to each other. You can use it to pull workspace data into other applications, automate user management, or create custom reports that fit your exact needs. For example, you could build a workflow that automatically adds new hires from your HR system to Officely. This is a powerful way to make routine tasks more efficient and ensure all your systems work together harmoniously.
Integrate Other Third-Party Tools
Officely is designed to be the hub of your office, and that means playing nicely with the other tools your team already uses. Beyond the native Slack and Teams functionality, you can explore integrations with other third-party applications. Whether it's connecting to your HR software or other productivity apps, these integrations help centralize your team's workflow. By connecting your tools, you create a more cohesive digital environment where your team can find everything they need without constantly switching between different platforms, making their workday that much smoother.
Find Help and Resources
Even with the most straightforward tools, questions can pop up. Whether you're looking for a quick answer or need a more in-depth walkthrough, we have plenty of resources to support you as you get comfortable with Officely. Here’s where you can find the help you need, right when you need it.
Quick Troubleshooting Tips
Sometimes you just need a fast solution to get on with your day. We get it. If a setting isn't quite working for your team, you have the flexibility to make immediate adjustments. For common issues, you can learn how to turn off specific routines or even temporarily remove Officely from your workspace if you need to reset. This level of control ensures that you can fine-tune the setup to perfectly match your team's workflow without waiting for a support ticket. It’s all about giving you the power to manage your digital office effectively and with confidence.
How to Get Support from Our Team
While self-service resources are great, sometimes talking to a real person is just better. Our team is here to help you succeed. If you're a new administrator or just want a guided tour of Officely's features, you can sign up for one of our demo sessions. These live walkthroughs are a fantastic opportunity to ask specific questions about your setup and get a deeper understanding of how everything works. We want to make sure you feel fully equipped to use Officely, and our team is always happy to share their expertise and help you get the most out of the platform.
Where to Find Documentation and Updates
For those who prefer to find answers on their own time, the Officely Help Center is your comprehensive library for everything related to the platform. It’s packed with detailed guides, articles, and resources that cover every feature, from initial setup to advanced configurations. If you're a visual learner, you'll find our step-by-step videos especially useful for seeing exactly how to perform certain tasks. We keep it constantly updated with the latest information and feature releases, so you can trust it as your single source of truth for mastering Officely and making your office management more efficient.
Related Articles
- The Ultimate Guide to the Best Desk Booking System for Hybrid Offices
- How to Choose the Best Desk Booking System for Your Hybrid Workplace
- Discover the Benefits of Hot Desk Software
- What is Hot Desking and What Does It Mean?
- Desk Booking Software
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will it really take to get my team set up on Officely? The technical installation is incredibly fast—you can have the app added to your Slack or Teams workspace in under 10 minutes. The part that takes a little more thought is building your digital office, like creating your floor plans and setting up teams. Taking a bit of time to get this right from the start will make the experience much smoother for your employees when you launch.
Do my employees need to download another app or create a new account? No, and that’s one of the best parts. Officely works entirely within Slack or Microsoft Teams, so there are no new apps to install and no separate passwords for your team to remember. Because it lives where your team already works, they can book desks and see who’s in the office as a natural part of their day, which is why adoption is so high.
My office has a unique layout. Can I create a floor plan that actually matches it? Absolutely. You can upload an image of your actual office layout and then make it interactive by adding your bookable desks and meeting rooms right on top of it. This visual map makes it incredibly intuitive for your team to find and book the exact spot they need, whether they want a quiet corner or a desk next to a window.
Can I reserve specific desks or areas for certain teams? Yes, you can easily create "neighborhoods" for different departments. This allows you to assign a specific group of desks to your engineering team or marketing team, for example. It’s a great way to help teams coordinate their in-office days and ensure they have a dedicated space to collaborate when they come in.
How can I see if the office space is actually being used effectively? The analytics dashboard gives you a clear, straightforward view of your office usage. You can see which days are most popular, which desks get booked the most, and even track no-show rates. This data helps you make informed decisions about your space, like whether you need more collaborative zones or if you can adjust your real estate footprint, all without needing to sort through complex spreadsheets.
.webp)
.svg)