This guide is designed for Robin Essentials and Business plans. If your organization uses Robin's One Workplace Platform, please head here for your getting started guide or work with your Customer Success Manager and implementation team for onboarding and setup guidance tailored to your organization.
New to Robin and ready to set up your workplace? This guide walks you through the six steps you'll need to get your environment up and running quickly. Most teams complete setup in an afternoon.
Before you start
You will move faster if you have these ready:
- A floor plan of your office as a PDF, JPG, PNG or a .dxf file (CAD)
- A spreadsheet of the email addresses you want to invite (.csv template at the end of this article)
- Admin access to your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 account, only if you plan to set up space booking
That is it. Robin has default booking policies enabled for your office, which you can change later on. Get the basics in place first, then dial in the rest.
Also, be sure to use Robin’s support agent to ask questions on any of the following steps or with other questions. You can access it by clicking on the blue bubble in the bottom right of your screen on the support site, or by clicking ‘Support’ at the bottom left of Robin’s web app.
Follow along in the dashboard
When you create your Robin account, the Getting started dashboard is the first thing you see. It tracks these same steps and stays pinned to your sidebar until you finish, then tucks itself away under Manage. Check off each card as you go so your progress is saved.
Add your office
During the initial onboarding flow, Robin walks you through creating your building and adding a floor. Give the building a name and add at least one floor, then set the working hours, timezone and address. This is the shell your map and resources live in.
Setting up more than one location? The Business plan supports up to three buildings. You can add more buildings anytime from the Manage > Offices tab.
Add your floor map
Your map is the live picture of the office your team books from. You have three ways to get yours setup, fastest first:
- Upload a CAD file and Robin traces it automatically in seconds (must be a .dxf file type)
- Draw it yourself in Robin’s easy to use map editor
- Send your floor plan to Robin as a PDF, JPG or PNG and our maps team builds it for you in 2 to 3 business days
If you need to add additional floors later, you can do it from the Manage > Offices tab.
Click here for more details on adding your floor map.
Place your desks and spaces
After your map is created, you’ll be directed to the Layout tool where you can drag and drop your desks and meeting spaces onto the map. Name them, group desks into pods and set each desk as hot, assigned or hoteled.
You can go live with desks or spaces alone. If you are using Robin for desks only, you can skip Step 4 entirely.
Click here for more details on setting up your desks and spaces.
Make rooms bookable
To let people reserve meeting rooms in advance, connect your calendar so each room's availability stays in sync. Robin works with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. You’ll connect the account once, then pair each room's resource calendar to its space on the map.
This is the one step where you might need IT for five minutes to create resource calendars. Everything after is point and click.
Click here for more details on connecting your calendar system.
Invite your people
Add users by importing a .csv of email addresses (downloadable template at the bottom of this page). Robin sends each person an invitation to set up their account. All that is required for import is an email address.
When you are ready to go live, we recommend launching Robin with a small cohort of users first to make sure your setup is running smoothly and to work out the booking policies that will best serve your office.
Click here for more details on inviting your people.
Show everyone how to book, then launch
Tell your team how to book and you are live. Most people will book from the Robin mobile app or the web dashboard, both of which show the office map with everything available in green.
Send a short heads-up email so everyone knows what is coming and how to log in. We have a launch email you can copy and adjust.
Click here for more details on launching Robin internally.
Optional setup
Some offices add these during rollout. Both work on Essentials and Business, and neither is required to go live, so come back whenever the time is right.
- Connect room displays. Mount a tablet outside each meeting room to show availability at a glance and let people book or check in right at the door.
- Set up visitor management. Register guests ahead of time, notify hosts automatically when they arrive and keep a record of who has been on site.
After you launch
Once you’ve completed the above steps, these are worth a look. None are required to start, so come back when you are ready:
- Dial in your policies. Set how far ahead people can book, auto-cancel no-show desks and meetings and free up unused space automatically.
- Make it yours. Add your branding, custom amenities, announcements and office activities.
- Bring Robin where your team already works. Connect Slack or Microsoft Teams so people can find and book space without leaving chat.
- Add more to the map. Parking, lockers, points of interest and furnishings.
Click here for more details and suggestions.
Support resources
Robin’s support agent is available 24/7. You can access it by clicking on the blue bubble in the bottom right of your screen on the support site, or by clicking ‘Support’ at the bottom left of Robin’s web app.