Lesson 4 of 7 · 12 min

The Workspace hub: workload, help & coverage

The firm-wide view of who's carrying what, plus the help inbox and coverage.

Lesson 4 of 7

The Workspace hub is a live, firm-wide picture of who is carrying what and where deadlines or blocked work need attention. It's where managers claim help requests and set up coverage while people are away.

Before you start

  • Manager access or above — the Workspace hub needs the 'view workload dashboard' permission (manager and above).
  • Ideally some pods set up (see 'Organising your firm into pods') so the per-pod board has something to show.

What the hub shows

Reached from the sidebar 'Team workload' item (/app/workspace), the page is headed 'Firm workload & risk'. Along the top are firm KPI tiles and a live presence pill; below are the help inbox, the coverage form, and two workload boards — one per person and one per pod. It's read-mostly: a place to notice overload and act, not to edit matters.

How load is scored

Both the per-person and per-pod boards show a single load score using one published formula: open matters ×2 + overdue tasks ×3 + due today ×2 + due this week + blocked ×2 + unset required dates. A pod's score is the sum of its people's, so the two boards always agree. Each score has a small 'load' disclosure that spells the formula out in place.

  1. 1

    Open Team workload and read the KPI tiles

    Click 'Team workload' in the sidebar (/app/workspace). The five firm tiles are Active matters (open + on hold), Overdue tasks, Blocked, Unassigned, and At-risk dates. A green 'N teammates online' pill shows live presence — it updates as colleagues come and go.

    Firm KPI tiles and a live presence pill sit at the top of the Workspace hub.
  2. 2

    Claim a help request

    When someone asks for help from a matter, it appears here under 'Help requested (N)'. Managers see each open request with who asked and a link to the matter, and claim it with 'I'll take it'. Your own requests show a 'Your request' badge instead of a claim button. Requests are created on the matter page — this inbox is where they're picked up.

    The help inbox lists open requests; 'I'll take it' claims one.
  3. 3

    Set coverage while someone's away

    In the Coverage panel, pick 'Person away' and 'Covered by', set 'From' and 'To' dates, and click 'Set coverage'. Active coverage rows show an 'End' button to stop early; scheduled coverage that hasn't started yet shows under 'Upcoming coverage' with a 'Cancel' button. Coverage is org-wide, so it applies across the whole firm.

    Coverage reassigns a person's work for a date window; End stops it, Cancel drops an upcoming one.
  4. 4

    Read the per-person workload board

    The 'Per person · sorted by load' board lists everyone with their open matters, overdue/due tasks, blocked matters, and unset required dates, plus a load score. People who asked for help are highlighted, and heavy carriers get a 'High load' flag. Expand a score's 'load' disclosure to see exactly how it was calculated.

    Per-person load, sorted heaviest first, with the formula disclosed on each score.
  5. 5

    Read the per-pod combined workload

    Below that, 'Pods · combined workload' rolls each pod's people into one row: member and matter counts and a combined load score using the same formula. This is the payoff of setting pods up — a whole team's pressure at a glance, under its colour.

Tips & pitfalls

  • The Workspace hub needs Manager access or above; Staff and Read-only don't see the 'Team workload' item.
  • Help requests are created from a matter's 'Request help' button — not from this page. The hub is where managers claim them.
  • Coverage is org-wide (it applies firm-wide for the date window), and can be ended early or cancelled before it starts.
  • The load score is a rough guide to how busy someone is, not a billing figure: open matters ×2 + overdue ×3 + due today ×2 + due this week + blocked ×2 + unset required dates.

Key takeaways

  • The Workspace hub (/app/workspace, 'Team workload' in the sidebar) is the firm-wide workload-and-risk view for managers.
  • It combines firm KPI tiles, live presence, a help inbox you claim from, a coverage form, and per-person + per-pod load boards.
  • Per-person and per-pod scores use one shared formula, so a pod's load is always the sum of its people's.
Organising your firm into pods Organisation settings

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