# Administration overview

> Configure, secure, and operate your Holistics workspace.

<Hero
  title="Administration"
  subtitle="Everything you need to set up, secure, and operate your Holistics workspace." />

This section covers the work administrators do in Holistics. Most teams pick up these tasks in roughly the order below, but each area stands on its own once you know which problem you're solving.

## What admins do in Holistics

Admin work spans six areas, from configuring the workspace to managing users, security, day-to-day operations, and billing.

<CardGrid cols={3}>
  <Card title="Configure your workspace" href="/docs/admin/row-limits" cta="Configure settings">
    Workspace-level settings: [row limits](/docs/admin/row-limits), [maintenance mode](/docs/admin/maintenance-mode), and your hosting region.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Manage users and permissions" href="/docs/admin/permission-system" badge="Start here" cta="Permission System">
    Invite users, assign roles, and control which data each user sees through row-level and column-level permissions.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Set up authentication" href="/docs/authentication" cta="Authentication Methods">
    Password rules, 2FA, SSO via SAML, and automated user provisioning via SCIM.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Maintain security and compliance" href="/docs/security-compliance/data-security" cta="Data Security">
    Restrict access by IP, review audit logs, and share your security posture with reviewers.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Operate the system" href="/docs/performance" cta="Performance optimization">
    Tune performance, manage the job queue, and monitor usage and health.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Manage billing" href="/docs/billing-and-subscriptions/billing" cta="Billing">
    Subscriptions, invoices, and plan changes.
  </Card>
</CardGrid>

## The Admin Settings panel

Most workspace-level configuration lives under **Settings** in the in-product menu (top-right gear icon, or **Menu → Settings**).

The panel groups settings into:

- **General Settings**: organization timezone, [week start day](/docs/datetimes/week-start-day), [color palettes](/docs/admin/dashboard-themes/color-palettes), [data delivery](/docs/delivery/email-schedules) sender/failure recipients, and miscellaneous UI toggles.
- **Cache**: [default cache duration](/docs/performance/data-caching#cache-duration) for reports and dashboards.
- **Persistence**: [pre-aggregate persistence TTL](/docs/aggregate-awareness/persistence#cleanup-for-persisted-tables).
- **Job Queuing**: [unused job timeout](/docs/jobs/controls#automatically-cancel-unused-jobs) and [report jobs per user limit](/docs/jobs/controls#limit-number-of-report-jobs-run-per-user).
- **Maintenance Mode**: see [Maintenance mode](/docs/admin/maintenance-mode).
- **Security**: [login mechanism](/docs/authentication#configure-login-methods), [support impersonation](/docs/customer-support/support-impersonation), [enforce 2FA](/docs/authentication/2fa#enforcement).
- **Single Sign-On**: see [SAML/SSO](/docs/authentication/sso/).
- **IP Whitelisting**: see [IP whitelisting](/docs/security-compliance/ip-whitelisting).

## Common starting points

The settings admins reach for most often.

<CardGrid cols={2}>
  <Card title="Setting up SSO?" href="/docs/authentication/sso/" cta="SAML/SSO Overview">
    Begin with the overview of SAML-based single sign-on and provisioning.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Investigating slow reports?" href="/docs/performance" cta="Performance optimization">
    Start with performance optimization, then dig into the [troubleshooting guide](/docs/performance/troubleshooting).
  </Card>
  <Card title="Compliance or security review?" href="/docs/security-compliance/data-security" cta="Data Security">
    Pull together [audit logs](/docs/monitoring/activity-logs), [GDPR](/legal/gdpr), and [SOC 2](/docs/security-compliance/soc2).
  </Card>
  <Card title="Need a hand?" href="/docs/customer-support/support-sla" cta="Customer Support">
    See how to reach support and what response times to expect.
  </Card>
</CardGrid>