Welcome to Boardwise

Boardwise is a secure board management platform designed to help corporate secretaries and board administrators manage meetings, documents, and communications efficiently.

First Steps

After creating your organization and verifying your email, you'll be prompted to set up a passkey for secure, passwordless sign-in. You can also skip this step and add a passkey later from your profile.

Once signed in, your organization starts in Setup Mode with a Getting Started checklist on your dashboard to guide you through configuration. No emails or notifications are sent until you launch — so you can take your time getting everything set up.

Setup Mode

When you first create an organization, it starts in Setup Mode. While in setup mode, no invitation emails or meeting notifications are sent — this gives you time to configure everything before going live.

Your dashboard displays a Getting Started checklist that guides you through the essential setup steps:

1. Complete your organization profile — Add your industry, entity type, jurisdiction, address, and fiscal year. You can also upload your logo and write a welcome note that will appear on the dashboard for all members.
2. Set up your board — Add committees (e.g., Finance, Governance) and directors in a single, combined flow. For each director, you can specify their board position (such as Chair, Secretary, Member, or Observer; see the full list of roles), email, appointment date, and committee assignments.
3. Schedule your first meeting — Create a board or committee meeting. You can add attendees individually or by group (e.g., selecting "Board of Directors" adds all directors at once), set the location, and attach a video link.
4. Upload documents — Add key governance documents to the document library. Boardwise automatically creates a folder structure for each board and committee, including folders for Financial Reports, Legal Documents, and Project Proposals.
5. Review your retention policy (optional) — Set how long documents and content are retained before permanent deletion. The default is 3 years, but you can choose from 6 months to indefinite. For most organizations, 7–10 years is recommended.
6. Launch your organization — Review pending invitations and go live.

The checklist tracks your progress automatically and displays a progress bar. Once all required steps are complete, you'll see a green "Ready to launch" badge.

What happens when you launch?

Before launching, you'll see a Review & Launch page that summarizes all pending invitations — including each person's name, email, and role — so you can verify everything before going live.

You have two launch options:

• Launch & Send Invitations — goes live and immediately sends all pending role invitations
• Launch Without Sending — goes live but holds all invitations so you can send them individually from the directory at your own pace

When you launch your organization:

• Setup mode ends and the setup banner is removed from your dashboard
• New invitations added after launch will be sent immediately
• Meeting notifications resume for any upcoming meetings

Navigating the Interface

The top navigation bar includes:

• Home — Your organization dashboard with the Getting Started checklist (during setup), upcoming meetings, and board & committee overview
• Notifications — View system notifications and updates
• My Profile — Manage your personal settings, timezone, and passkey
• Find — Search across meetings, documents, and people

From your organization dashboard, you'll also find:

• Directory — View and manage all board members, staff, and their roles
• Manage — Access organization settings, including the General, Configuration, Billing, and Event Log tabs

Tips for Corporate Secretaries

• Set up committees during board setup, not after. The Board Setup page lets you create committees and assign directors to them in one step. If you skip this, you'll need to add committees and manage assignments separately.
• Use groups when adding meeting attendees. When scheduling a meeting, type the name of a board or committee in the attendees field — Boardwise will suggest the group with a member count, so you can add everyone at once instead of one by one.
• Review the document download setting. By default, document downloads are disabled and users can only view files in the browser. If your board members need to download materials for offline review (e.g., for travel), enable this under Manage > Configuration > Document Settings.
• Choose your retention policy early. The default retention period is 3 years. For most boards, especially nonprofits with regulatory requirements, a longer period (7–10 years) is advisable. You can set this under Manage > Configuration.
• Meetings start as drafts. When you create a meeting, it's saved as a Draft. You can build out the agenda and attach documents before announcing it to attendees using the "Announce Meeting" button.
• Take advantage of "Launch Without Sending." If you want to go live but aren't ready to invite all board members yet, use this option to exit setup mode without triggering invitation emails. You can then send invitations individually from the directory.

Getting Help

If you need assistance:

• Browse this help center for answers to common questions
• Contact your organization's administrator
• Reach out to our support team at support@boardwise.co