Welcome to Box! Want to get your Box enterprise up and running fast?
Follow the 7 steps below to get Box deployed at your organization.
Already have Box deployed, and want to learn how to manage Box as an new admin or co-admin? View more courses here.
Step 1: Log in to Box and access the Admin Console
First thing's first. Here’s how to log in:
1. Go to app.box.com/login
2. Enter your email/username
3. Enter your password
4. Click Log In
If your company has enabled or required SSO for your organization, you can use your company credentials to log in to Box.
Accessing the Admin Console
The Admin Console is available in all Box tariffs Business Starter and above.
Admins and Co-admins in organizations will have an Admin Console link at the bottom left of the Box navigation bar. Click Admin Console in the bottom-left to get access to your organization's administrative functions.
The functions you see depend on several factors:
- Some functions, such as Shield, Governance, and GxP require either a specific plan/tariff or additional paid add-ons.
- Co-admin permissions can determine which functions that Co-admins have access to.
- Access your settings and other functions via links in the lefthand navigation of the Admin Console. In most cases, clicking one of these links displays a page with many settings and options arranged logically under a series of tabs that display across the top of the Admin Console screen.
Step 2: Design your folder structure
The needs of your organization will likely affect the way you manage your Box account and how you set up the folder taxonomy that is deployed to your team. Box folders are the foundation from which your users work. Defining a folder taxonomy that is intuitive and easy to navigate will greatly increase user adoption and maximize productivity. As you transition into Box, it is important to ensure that poor practices and inefficient workflows from previous content management systems are not repeated.
Questions to consider before designing your Box folder structure:
- Who moves, owns, and maintains the content?
- What root level folders make sense for your org? This is typically based on the departments, regions, or groups using Box.
- Does your organization prefer to give users the ability to create and manage their own top-level folders? Or does your organization prefer to own (and control) all root level folders?
- Do your Admins and co-admins need full access to users' content?
- Are different levels of access needed for users, or are groups appropriate?
- Are there any particular security needs around any of your content?
Open vs Closed Folder Taxonomy
There are two basic Box folder structures to choose from: open folder taxonomy and closed folder taxonomy. The taxonomy you choose is largely based on your internal security protocols and workflows.
| Open Folder Taxonomy | Closed Folder Taxonomy | |
| What is it? |
Users can create their own root level folders on the "All Files" page.
The open folder structure is enabled by default unless you've restricted the option in your Admin Console. |
Admins will create and own all root level folders on the "All Files" page. Admins will also restrict users from being able to create root level folders or private folders, and users will need to be invited into folders by Admins.
To create a Closed Folder Taxonomy, you need to navigate to Admin Console > Enterprise Settings > Content & Sharing tab, and then scroll down to the Content Creation section and check Restrict Content Creation. |
| Does this option make sense for my organization? |
This option requires less involvement from your administrators.
Ideal for users who need to create and manage individual work spaces on demand. Users have the option to create a private folder for their own use.
Often deployed by organizations that don’t require strict IT oversight or handle highly-sensitive information. |
This option requires more planning and involvement from the administrative team, but also greatly reduces folder sprawl and adds structure to your content.
Choosing a closed folder structure indicates that the administrative team needs more control of the users and their content.
This specific use case will make the administrative team responsible for building out the folder structure, new user creation, and assignment of groups and/or users to folders.
This is a common folder structure for larger, enterprise accounts, or where Box is replacing another content management system. |
Folder Structure Best Practices
Understanding Box’s folder permissions and collaboration features will help you configure your folder structure so your team can get the most out of Box. See the Folder and Subfolder Permissions article to learn more about Box's waterfall permissions.
1. More restricted content should live at a higher folder level.
You will invite other collaborators and external users further down the folder structure. Because of waterfall permissions, a user's access only flows down to subfolders. Thus, your sensitive, confidential content should be in a folder towards the top of your structure that will remain more private.
2. Ensure naming conventions of folder and files are extremely clear.
Users will be invited in at different folder levels, and that level will appear as their "root folder." Clear, consistent naming conventions will help the user stay oriented in the folder structure and will help with searching for content. For example, being invited to a folder titled "Sales - Corporate Team" is more explanative than the title "Corporate"
3. Keep the structure as flat as possible.
A quick rule of thumb is to not design more than six levels of folders within your structure. A flat folder structure will be more efficient for organizing your content, and less frustrating for your users to navigate through.
4. Every user's "All Files" page will look different depending on the folders they've created and/or the folders they've been invited into.
Reduce the number of folders on the "All Files" page by inviting users into department or team folders. Or, make your users aware of Collections so your users can organize the folders they most often work within in collections to easily navigate to those folders.
5. Create separate folders for external collaboration.
These can be subfolders under a client folder, or they can be separate root level folders depending on the needs of your organization. Be sure to label all public/external folders appropriately so your users understand that content in those folders will be viewed by third parties.
Step 3: Configure 2-factor authentication and/or single sign-on
2-Factor Authentication
Box 2-step login verification, also known as two-factor authentication (2FA), enables you to increase your content security and better protect your enterprise's content from unauthorized external access.
You can enable or disable 2-step login verification for:
- All of your organization's managed users.
- All of your organization's external collaborators, or just for specific external collaborators based on their domains or their email addresses.
To configure 2-factor login verification for your managed users:
1. Go to Admin Console > Enterprise Settings > Security.
2. In the 2-Step Login Verification section, check Require all managed uses to have additional verification for unrecognized logins.
3. At the top of the page, click Save.
To configure 2-step login verification for external users or learn more, click here.
Single Sign-On
Single sign-on (SSO) is a method for authenticating users where a single set of credentials can be used to log into several different applications.
With SSO, you use one password to access all of your applications, which reduces password fatigue and tickets to your help desk. This is especially useful in a corporate setting, when you want your employees to be able to access a variety of applications using their company credentials.
Administrators and co-admins also have the option of setting up single sign-on on their own. Box can also assist in setting up SSO. For more information, click here.
Step 4: Define your enterprise settings
Content & Sharing settings allow you to enable or disable various permission types that are available to managed user when collaborating and sharing files. To enable or disable these settings, visit the Enterprise Settings tab in the Admin Console.
Below is a list of key Enterprise Settings that can have a significant impact on end user functionality. To view all available settings, click the link here.
| Enterprise Category | Enterprise Setting | Description |
| Shared Links | Allow shared links for | Adjust your shared link permissions to define the content type you allow to be shared |
| Collaborating on Content | Restrict invites | Restricts collaborator invitations to admins, folder owners, and co-owners |
| Collaborating on Content | External collaboration | Option to disable/customize who can be invited as external collaborators |
| Content Creation | Restrict Content Creation | Allows only admins to create and delete first-level folder, files, and bookmarks |
| Auto-Expiration | Shared links expiration settings | Option to automatically disable shared links after set expiration timeframe |
| New User Default Settings | Enable Box Sync | Enables users to automatically update files on Box whenever a user makes a change on their Desktop |
| Official Box Applications | Applications Enabled/Disabled* | Enables/Disables Box Applications |
| Device Trust Settings | Device Trust | Enables you to meet your enterprise's compliance or security standards by setting a minimum set of requirements for devices used to access Box |
Step 5: Integrate Box with the rest of your toolkit
Box integrates with all of your key applications. Click here to learn more about how to connect Box to Microsoft products, Salesforce, Zoom and more.
For a full list of Box integrations, visit the Box App Center.
Step 6: Provision Box to your end users
Adding managed users
A "managed user" is a Box account that you directly control through your Admin Console.
As an admin, you can add managed users; edit, delete, and enforce their security settings; and run activity reports on these users. Any files these users upload into folders they own will count against your total storage allocation.
When you add a managed user, you also configure their access to Box. You can add a single managed user or multiple managed users, up to 1,000 at once.
To add one or more managed users manually:
1. Go to Admin Console > Users and Groups.
2. Click the Managed Users tab.
3. Click Add Users and then click Add Users Manually.
4. Enter the managed user's name and email address.
Optionally select Groups for the user to be a member of and Folders for the user to have access to.
Optionally hover over a user row and click the Gear icon to configure other user settings for that new user or click and then click Select User Settings for All Rows to configure other user settings for all new users. See the Managed Users Tab section of Users & Groups Settings for details.
Optionally click Add User to add a row to the table. Then repeat steps 4 through 6 for each user.
5. Click Save.
To bulk-add users via a .csv file, click here to learn more. Once you create the user, you can additionally configure the user account.
Adding external users
Adding business partners, customers, or consultants to your Box account does not require taking action in the Admin Console. You can simply add them as collaborators to a folder.
Box recognizes that these individuals are not among your managed users, and adds them to the external user list for you to track in the Admin Console. Additionally, Box displays a small globe icon next to the name of each external user.
Organizing users into groups
On Business Plus and Enterprise plans, Groups enable you to add multiple users to your folders and decide what permissions they’ll have in those folders.
See Creating and Managing Groups for details.
Step 7: Enable your end users
After you create your users, configure your folders, and customize your account's Admin Console settings, it's time to go live!
Here are communication options you can use to form your message to your new users. To help you answer questions from any of your people, and also to help them make the most of their Box accounts, we encourage you and anyone who uses Box to use these education links:
- CLICK HERE to sign up for online Box University classes or share quick videos with your users.
- CLICK HERE to explore these Getting Started articles for people new to Box
- CLICK HERE to search our support forum for customer insights
Ready to keep learning?
View more Box user courses here.
View more courses for Box admins and co-admins here.