Brand new to ClickUp? Make the most of our customizable platform by learning these core features!

For an overview of everything ClickUp offers, take a look at our features page. To see a comparison of our plans by feature, go to our pricing page.  

Intro to user roles

Your first step in ClickUp is creating a Workspace or being invited to join an existing Workspace.

Companies, organizations, small businesses, or individuals using ClickUp share a Workspace. When people are invited to join a Workspace, the owner or admin can assign them one of the following user roles:

• Owner: The person who created your Workspace, or had ownership transferred to them. Each Workspace can only have one owner. An owner is an admin with a few extra permissions.
• Admins: People who are responsible for managing the Workspace including billing, permissions, and integrations.

  Admins have a lot of freedom to edit and set up features. We recommend that admins are only 10–15% of your total number of users.

• Members: People in your organization who actively work in ClickUp. 

• Guests: People from outside your organization who you've shared specific Workspace items with.

• Custom roles: Business Plus and Enterprise Plans also offer custom roles. 

Intro to the Hierarchy

The Hierarchy helps organizations of all sizes sort their work into easily managed tasks. The Hierarchy has the following benefits:

• Provides a scalable structure for your work. You can expand your Hierarchy as your organization grows. 
• Items and locations can be either private or shared. You can manage access to sensitive information. 
• Items and locations can be set up to allow individuals specific actions. You can manage who can do what and where. 

There are six Hierarchy levels, starting with the Workspace. 

1. Workspace:

   Contains your entire organization and all of your work. We recommend having one Workspace per organization. Your organization can grow and all of your work remains visible and in one place.
   

2. Spaces: Arrange your different workflows or types of work. You can organize Spaces by departments, teams, high-level initiatives, clients, or anything that makes sense for you to group together.

   Each Space has its own settings and can be shared with everyone in your Workspace or made private, allowing you to choose who has access.

3. Folders: Folders are optional, but are helpful for more complex workflows. You can add Folders to a Space, and then add Lists inside Folders to keep projects organized. When you create a new Folder, it automatically gets a List.

   Agile software teams, you can use Sprint Folders to keep your sprints organized.

4. Lists: Contain tasks of a similar type or that have a similar outcome or goal.

   Lists can be added to Spaces or Folders. Agile software teams, you can include regular Lists in a Sprint folder alongside your sprints. Lists are perfect for managing a backlog of tasks before adding them to a sprint.

5. Tasks: Organize the actionable parts of your projects within your tasks. Tasks come with a set of default sections and customizable options to hold all of the info about your work, including:

   • Add details about the work to the task description. You can use text or media, including videos and screenshots.
   • Add accountability by setting assignees and start and due dates. 
   • Discuss task progress with assignees and stakeholders in the task comments. 
   • Estimate the amount of time a task will take to complete. Track or enter hours worked on the task. 
   • Attach related materials, like Docs and Whiteboards. 
   • Track key data points using Custom Fields. 
     

     Custom Fields are important if you're interested in later running reports in Dashboards.

   Tasks also have default and customizable options to:

   Add details about the work to the task description. You can use text or media, including videos and screenshots.
   • Share tasks with other Lists. This is helpful because each task has one parent List by default. 
   • Link tasks using our Relationships and Dependencies features.
   • Organize tasks by sorting.
   • Find tasks in long Lists by using Filters. 
6. Subtasks: Add subtasks to a task to keep track of more granular action items. For complex projects, you can create layers of nested subtasks. 
   

   Nested subtasks is a ClickApp that must be enabled by an owner or admin. Software teams, nested subtasks can be used for epics. Or you can organize the cross-functional teams working on the same feature by creating product, design, and engineering nested subtasks.

Navigate your Workspace

The Sidebar

The Sidebar is mission control! This is where you set up, organize, and navigate your Workspace.

Command Center

At the top of the Sidebar is our Search and Command Center Search bar. You can typeCmd + K(Mac) or Ctrl + K(PC) from anywhere within ClickUp to find anything in your Workspace.

Filters allow you to search by item, assign, and task status. Also, type create to quickly create Docs, Reminders, and tasks. 

Home: Your most important tasks are here, so you always know where to focus. Home has several ways to prioritize your work. You can use some or all of them!

Notifications: Communicate with all of the people in your organization. 

Pulse: Pulse is a ClickApp that must be enabled by an owner or admin.

See a high-level activity report for your entire team at a glance, so you know who's online and what they're working on.

Goals: Use Goals to track progress on high-level objectives. 

Favorites: Bookmark the Workspace locations you use the most!

Spaces section: Navigate around the Spaces, Folders, and Lists in your Workspace. 

Shared with me: Access private items that have been shared with you. 

Dashboards: Access your private, shared, and favorite Dashboards. Dashboards are used to report on the activity in your Workspace using customizable cards and templates. 

Widgets were renamed to cards on March 9th, 2023.

Docs: Access your private, shared, and favorite Docs. You can use Docs to create one-page project plans or SOPs. Use pages and subpages to create a wiki. Then link your Docs anywhere in your Workspace!

Settings menus

The ellipsis ... icons in the Sidebar are the settings menus for Spaces, Folders, and Lists. You'll use these for actions like creating new locations or copying the link to that location.

Create menus

The plus icons in the Sidebar contain actions like creating a new List, Doc, or Whiteboard and accessing Templates.

Avatar menus

Depending on your user role, you'll have access to one or two avatar menus. These are located in the bottom-left of the main screen:

Personal avatar menu: All users have access, though guests on certain plans have limited permissions. Customize your ClickUp experience by adding apps, setting up your language and timezone, choosing a color theme, and more!

Workspace avatar menu: Owners and admins have access. Manage user roles, permissions, billing, security, and other operational duties. 

Resource Center

All of our learning and support resources are easy to access within the platform!

The Resource Center is located in the bottom-left of the main screen, next to the avatar menus. Click the question mark icon for Webinars, Community, Support, and more!

Quick Action menu

In the bottom-right of the main screen, this menu gives you quick access to an array of useful features, including Notepad, Track Time, Reminder, and Task tray.  

You can pin one or more of these features here to access them more quickly. You can also create a task from here!

Bulk Action Toolbar 

Eliminate repetitive steps by managing tasks, subtasks, and Docs in bulk. For example, assign multiple tasks to a new person or set a start or due date for a group of tasks.

Additional resources

Be sure to explore these additional resources covering Core ClickUp features.

ClickUp University 

• Admins, unsure of the right plan for your organization? Choose the Right Plan for You will help you decide!
• View our Deep Dive Into the ClickUp Hierarchy, the first lesson in the Set Up Your Hierarchy course.
• Take the course ClickUp Layout Overview to learn how to use ClickUp's homepage and to navigate effectively across the platform.

Updated March 13, 2023 17:33