Set Up Your Board

This is the first of seven short walkthroughs that follow a corporate secretary through one complete board cycle in Boardwise. Do this one once. Everything after it repeats each meeting.

By the end you will have an organization with a board, its committees, and its directors, and you will have launched it so invitations go out.

Before you start

Have to hand: your organization's legal name, the names and email addresses of your directors, and the list of committees. Nothing is emailed to anyone until you launch, so you can work through this at your own pace and fix mistakes before anyone sees them.

1. Create the organization

1. Sign in and choose Create an organization.
2. Enter the legal name. It appears on governance documents, exports, and official records.
3. Enter a common name (for example "HealthFirst") if the legal name is long. This is what the interface and emails use day to day.
4. Choose the entity type, and enter the jurisdiction where you are incorporated. The jurisdiction also becomes the default governing law on written consents, so get it right here.
5. Set the organization's time zone. Deadlines are anchored to end of day in this zone.
6. Save.

Your organization opens in Setup Mode. While in setup mode, no invitation or meeting emails are sent. The dashboard shows a Getting Started checklist that tracks the rest of this walkthrough.

2. Add the board, its committees, and your directors

1. On the dashboard checklist, open Set up your board.
2. Under Committees, click Add Committee and enter each committee name (Audit, Compensation, Governance, and so on). Press Enter to add the next one.
3. Under directors, enter each person's full name, email, and board position (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Member, or Observer). Most directors are Members.
4. Optionally record the date appointed.
5. For directors who also sit on a committee, click Assign to Committee, pick the committee, and pick their role on it. Repeat for each committee they serve on.
6. Click Add Director for the next person, and Save when everyone is in.

Saving creates all the committees and directors at once. Each director gets a Director role at the Member access level. No invitations are sent yet.

Anyone who serves on a committee but is not a director (an external advisor, a management representative) is added later from the Directory, then added to the committee from the committee's page.

3. Add yourself and any other administrators

You are already an administrator. If another person will run meetings with you (a deputy, an assistant, general counsel):

1. Open the Directory from the dashboard and click Add Person.
2. Enter their name and email.
3. Under Organization Access, answer What can they open? Administrators can see and do everything in the organization; the other levels are described on the form.
4. Leave Send invitation email checked so they receive an invitation when you launch.

4. Choose the settings that affect every meeting

1. From the dashboard, open Organization Settings, then Configuration.
2. Under Meeting Settings, decide whether meeting emails include calendar invites (recommended: on), whether to send meeting prep reminders and how many days before the meeting, and whether to send RSVP reminders to non-responders.
3. Under Video Conferencing, connect Zoom or Microsoft Teams if your board meets virtually. Once connected, you can add a video meeting to any meeting with one click.
4. Under Email Settings, optionally set the name shown in invitations and notices (for example "Board Office") if you would rather emails not name the individual who sent them.
5. Under Document Settings, decide whether directors may download documents or only view them in the browser.
6. Review the Retention Policy. The default keeps content for 3 years. For most boards 7 to 10 years is appropriate. Content past the retention period is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered, so this is worth a deliberate decision.
7. Save.

5. Launch

1. When the Getting Started checklist shows Ready to launch, open the Review & Launch page.
2. Check the list of pending invitations: each person's name, email, and role.
3. Choose Launch & Send Invitations to go live and send every pending invitation now, or Launch Without Sending to go live and send invitations one at a time from the Directory.

After launch, setup mode ends. New people you add are invited immediately, and meeting emails are sent when you announce or publish a meeting.

What your directors receive

Each director gets an email invitation. Accepting it creates their account (they can sign in with a magic link or set up a passkey; no password is required). Until they accept, the Directory shows them as pending, and you can resend the invitation from their entry.

Next

2. Plan a Meeting: create the meeting, build the agenda, attach documents, and send the date hold.

Related reference: Understanding Organization Roles, Setting Up Your Board, Organization Setup Guide.