Your first five minutes
Set up your workspace
Your workspace is the top-level container for everything in Plane—your team, payroll, documents, and settings. When you sign up, Plane creates your workspace automatically. From there, you can configure your company details, add a funding source for payments, and invite other admins.
Add your first team member
Go to Workers in the sidebar and click Add worker. Provide a name, email, worker type (employee, contractor, or vendor), and country. Plane starts the onboarding process immediately—creating tasks for you and sending an invitation to the worker.
Complete onboarding tasks
Plane organizes onboarding into a checklist. Your tasks typically include setting compensation, choosing a start date, and configuring payroll. The worker completes their own tasks in parallel—personal details, tax forms, and bank account setup. You can track progress from the worker’s profile.
Run payroll
Once your team members are onboarded, Plane handles payroll on schedule. Each pay period, Plane prepares payroll based on your workers’ compensation and schedules. You review, approve, and Plane executes the payments. For one-off payments outside the regular cycle, you can send a payment at any time.
Where to go from here
Concepts
Understand the mental model behind Plane—workers, payroll, payments, compliance, and workflows.
Workers
Learn about worker types and how to manage employees, contractors, and vendors.
Onboarding
Deep dive into the onboarding process—what happens, who does what, and how to track progress.
Payroll and payments
How payroll runs work, off-cycle payments, and payment requests.
Compliance and documents
Agreements, tax documents, and how Plane handles local requirements.
API reference
Explore the full Plane API for programmatic access to workers, payroll, and more.
Do I need to set up anything before adding workers?
Do I need to set up anything before adding workers?
Not much. Plane creates your workspace when you sign up. Before running payroll, you will need a connected funding source (bank account). But you can start adding workers and completing onboarding right away.
Can I add workers through the API instead of the dashboard?
Can I add workers through the API instead of the dashboard?
Yes. The Workers API lets you create workers programmatically. See the Onboard a contractor guide for a complete walkthrough.
What if I have both employees and contractors?
What if I have both employees and contractors?
That is exactly what Plane is built for. You manage all worker types in one system. Plane handles the differences in onboarding, payments, agreements, and compliance behind the scenes.