How to bootstrap your first organization#

Audience: admin — you are creating the org you will administer.

When you launch a fresh Marula install, you create your organization and first administrator account right from the sign-in screen. Once inside, you set your company name, ticket numbering prefix, default timezone, and base currency before inviting the rest of your team.

Prerequisites#

• A reachable Marula server in your browser (or the desktop app — see Self-host local stack reference).
• Each user account belongs to one organization.

1. Switch to Create org on the sign-in page#

Open /login. Beneath the heading "Sign in to your service desk, or create your organization", switch the segmented toggle from Sign in to Create org.

2. Register your organization and owner account#

Fill in your organization name, desired URL slug, and owner login details. Organization slugs must be unique; if a slug is already taken, the server returns 409 Conflict (org_slug_taken) along with an available suggestion you can accept with one click. (You can also register via POST /api/v1/register as shown in the API tutorial.)

3. Set your company identity and base currency#

Sign in and open Settings → General. Set these four values first, before your team starts logging tickets or invoices:

• Organization name
• Ticket prefix (for example, INC or MSP)
• Workspace slug
• Base currency (ISO 4217 code such as USD, GBP, EUR, or ZAR)

Two safeguards to keep in mind:

• Every change takes effect immediately and writes an entry to the audit log.
• Once your organization has recorded foreign-exchange conversion snapshots on invoices or stock receipts, Marula blocks changing the base currency so historical financial totals stay accurate. Set your base currency first (see Manage FX rates).

Further down Settings → General, set your end-of-day hour (which controls when end-of-day missing-time reminders trigger), default timezone, and first day of the week.

4. Choose your theme and invite your team#

• Theme and density: Open Settings → Appearance to pick your organization's default theme preset (Marula neutral, Marula Warm, or High contrast). Individual team members can still pick their own theme or density under Preferences.
• Single sign-on (optional): Connect Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or Keycloak using Connect an IdP (SSO).
• Invite staff: Send setup links to your technicians and dispatchers (plus your bookkeepers) via Manage users and invites.

Related#

• If you are just exploring locally, the preloaded demo organization (owner@demo.local / demo-password-123) already has these steps completed.
• Before opening your boards to live customer traffic, configure your business hours in Configure SLA calendars & escalation ladders.