Getting started
This is the first 5 minutes inside CompStack. By the end of this page you will have an account, be logged in, be inside the right organization, and know what your role lets you do.
1. Create an account or accept an invite
There are two ways in:
You were sent an invite link.
- Open the link (it looks like
https://app.compstack.io/accept-invite?...). - Sign up (or sign in if you already have an account).
- You are added to the organization automatically and land on the dashboard. If the invite fails with a seat limit message, the org is full: an admin needs to free a seat or upgrade the plan.
You are starting from scratch.
- Open https://app.compstack.io and click Sign up.
- Complete the form and sign in.
- A brand-new user with no organization lands on a near-empty screen. Either create your own organization from the onboarding flow, or ask an admin of an existing org to send you an invite link (Settings, or Organizations > Manage members). Without a membership you will not see any documents, processes, or other data.
2. Log in
- Open https://app.compstack.io.
- Enter your email and password and click Sign in.
- If your account has two-factor authentication enabled, you are taken to a verification page. Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app. Lost the phone? Use one of your recovery codes instead. See Account security.
- Forgot your password? Click the reset link on the login page, submit your
email, and follow the link in the message to
/reset-password.
3. Pick your organization
The top bar shows the active organization. Click the chip to open the workspace switcher. CompStack remembers the selected org across reloads, so once you pick the right one you stay there.
If you have access to multiple organizations:
- The active org filters every list page (Documents, Processes, CAPAs, and so on).
- Item URLs are organization-scoped. Pasting a process URL while you are on the wrong org is rejected with a "Wrong organization" message. Switch to the correct org first.
4. Understand your role
CompStack ships with a small set of system roles:
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Org admin | Everything: invite members, change theme, enable or disable modules, run onboarding seeds, approve AI proposals, export org data |
| Manager | Create and edit documents, processes, CAPAs, audits, findings, risks. Cannot change org-level settings. |
| Contributor | Create drafts, submit for review, respond to assigned approvals. |
| Viewer | Read-only access. |
Department-level roles add another layer:
| Dept role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Head | First-line approver for any process or document targeted at the department. Can add or remove department members. |
| Member | Sees the department's processes and documents in their workspace. |
Your effective permissions are the union of org and department roles plus any specific assignments (for example "approver on this chain").
5. Know that the app is modular
The side nav only shows the features your organization has switched on. Admins manage this in Settings > Modules, either one module at a time or with a one-click industry preset (Manufacturing, SaaS, Food and Beverage, Construction, Healthcare, Professional Services, Minimal). If a feature mentioned in this handbook is missing from your nav, it is almost always just disabled, not broken. See Feature modules and industry presets.
6. Find your way around (30-second tour)
- Side nav (left). Every enabled area: Dashboard, My Tasks, Library, Documents, Processes, Audits, Findings, CAPA, Risk Register, and the rest.
- Top bar. Org switcher on the left. On the right: global search, notifications bell, help, theme menu, and your avatar (profile and sign out).
- Global search. Click the search icon in the top bar and type at least two characters. It searches every enabled register (audits, findings, CAPAs, risks, incidents, documents, and more) and each result deep-links to the record. See Global search.
- Notifications bell. Unread count plus a dropdown of recent notifications with links. See Notifications.
- My Tasks. Your unified to-do list. CompStack raises tasks automatically from due CAPAs, expiring evidence, upcoming certification visits, due training, and more. See Task Center.
- My Workspace. Shows the things assigned to you right now: pending approvals, departments you lead, processes you own, documents you own.
- AI Copilot drawer. Available from contextual buttons (for example "Draft CAPA" on a finding). It chats about the entity you are on and proposes new artifacts that you approve in the Approval Center.
7. Choose a starting point
Depending on what you want to do:
- Learning the IMS basics: Documents walks you through the most common end-to-end flow.
- Onboarding a new org: Admin and Onboarding covers seeding, then Modules and presets to shape the app to your industry.
- A quick health check of everything: Executive dashboard.
- Running a release QA: Tester checklist is the smoke test any tester can drive.
Test it
You are ready for the rest of the handbook when you can answer:
- Which org am I currently working in? (top bar)
- What role do I have in that org? (avatar or ask an admin)
- Which departments do I belong to? (Workspace, or the Departments page)
- How do I switch to another org? (top bar chip, workspace switcher)
- Where do I see my open tasks? (My Tasks in the side nav)
- How do I search across everything? (search icon in the top bar)
- How do I sign out? (avatar, Sign out)