Understand organization-head approval authority¶
Organization-head designation is managed in workspace administration. WorkOS receives that designation through background updates and uses it to maintain a protected approval body. This gives administrators a shared place to inspect the resulting governance membership while retaining the original ownership of the designation.
Use the organization-head guide to designate or remove a head. This page explains what should happen afterward, how to interpret the resulting authority and what to do when the two views disagree. Connected end-to-end delivery remains under verification.
The results are separate¶
| Stage | What it establishes | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| Workspace designation saved | The person is recorded as an organization head | Whether an eligible WorkOS profile has received the update |
| WorkOS profile updated | WorkOS has received the head designation | Whether the protected approval-body membership has synchronized |
| Approval-body membership saved | The person's effective governance membership exists | Voting/signing settings, dates, chairperson and body readiness |
| Authority change published | Other work can be informed that authority changed | Whether the relevant pending work refreshed and can proceed |
Do not use a changed head list as the sole evidence that a pending request is ready. Likewise, an approval body's current membership does not itself complete a decision or sign a document.
What a new synchronized membership grants¶
When synchronization first needs the protected body, it creates an active body with an initial minimum quorum of one. Each newly synchronized head is added as a Member with voting enabled and signing disabled. The process does not automatically choose a chairperson.
That means a newly populated body can have enough voters while still warning that it has no chairperson or signing authority. Review and configure the supported authority settings through the approval-body guide. Being designated a head does not automatically grant management access, signing access or a product license.
A repeated background update normally reuses the matching membership. It does not reset that membership's existing voting or signing settings to their initial defaults, and it does not reset a previously configured body quorum to one.
Who owns the designation¶
The workspace's organization-head assignment supplies the head flag. The published organization chart supplies other staff-placement information, such as job title and department. A job title, a position in the chart or the visual label on a person is therefore insufficient evidence of synchronized head authority.
The protected body's membership is maintained by synchronization. Manual member addition and deactivation remain unavailable there. Use workspace administration for designation changes and supported approval-body controls for voting/signing settings, chairperson and delegation.
Removal and later reappointment¶
Removal ends the synchronized membership at the background update's recorded observation time. Its historical record remains. A later reappointment after the old period can create a new membership; review its new authority settings rather than assuming a previous signing grant or chair role carried forward. Signing delegations stay tied to their original membership.
The retained dates help explain the sequence, but historical lookup uses current record flags and is not a complete immutable record of earlier permission. Use the relevant decision evidence and activity history when investigating past work.
Access and timing need separate checks¶
The bridge to WorkOS depends on membership and product-access history. A person can appear in the organization-head directory without a new WorkOS profile being created. Their head designation and permission to enter WorkOS are separate facts. Removing workspace or employment access must not be assumed, by itself, to have removed every governance membership; verify the head designation and effective authority as part of the owning access process.
Read approval work after authority changes for pending-task replacement, retained decisions, suspension/recovery and timing. Background delivery can be delayed or fail. The synchronization time is taken from the profile message, so it need not be the exact instant an administrator selected the designation control. Future-effective changes also need verification when their time arrives; this path does not establish a timed notification or a promise that every pending item refreshes automatically at that instant.
Resolve a mismatch¶
- Confirm the intended workspace and person in the organization-head directory.
- Check the person's actual WorkOS access and whether the staff profile is present.
- Open the protected approval body and inspect membership dates, current voting/signing settings and chairperson.
- Reopen the affected work item and check its current authority or readiness message.
- If the results disagree, ask support to trace the saved designation, profile update and governance membership. Provide the person/body references, approximate time and last confirmed result through the approved support channel.
Avoid toggling designation repeatedly to force a refresh or trying to add a duplicate manual member. Repeated actions can create a different sequence of authority periods and make the original problem harder to reconcile. A saved membership, a refreshed work item and the eventual business outcome are distinct checkpoints.