How ScreenJournal works end-to-end

This is the full journey a new organisation takes — from a manager creating the account to that same manager opening the dashboard and seeing their employees' activity timeline. It's eight steps; each one links to the page with the full details.

The eight-step flow

1. Manager registers ─────────────────► creates the organisation
                                        │
2. Manager invites employee ────────────┤  (email invite, link,
                                        │   or referral code)
                                        ▼
3. Employee receives invitation email
                                        │
                                        ▼
4. Employee signs up                     creates their personal account
                                        │   inside the manager's org
                                        ▼
5. Employee downloads the desktop tracker
                                        │
                                        ▼
6. Employee signs in to the tracker     same email + password as the
                                        │   web sign-up
                                        ▼
7. Employee clicks ▶ Play               tracker begins capturing the
                                        │   workday
                                        ▼
8. Activity flows into the dashboard    manager opens Activity and
                                            sees the timeline build up

Step 1 — Manager registers the organisation

The manager goes to the ScreenJournal web app and creates a business account. The registration form asks for the organisation name, the manager's full name, the manager's work email, and a password. Once submitted, the manager is taken into a short two-step onboarding wizard where they can immediately start inviting people and activate the free trial.

The account that registers the organisation becomes its owner — the single role allowed to configure desktop policy, manage billing, send direct alerts, and see every team member's data.

→ Full walkthrough: Register your organisation.

Step 2 — Manager invites employees

From the onboarding wizard or, later, from the Members page in the dashboard, the manager can invite people three ways:

• By email — type each employee's email and ScreenJournal sends them an invitation message with a one-click sign-up link.
• Org-wide invite link — a single link the manager can paste into Slack, Teams, or an email blast. Anyone who follows it joins the org.
• Team invite link / join code — same idea, but it pre-assigns the new member to a specific team so the team's desktop policy applies to them from day one.

→ Full walkthrough: Invite your team.

Step 3 — Employee receives the invitation email

For email invites the employee gets a message from ScreenJournal with a sign-up button. The link carries a referral code that ties the new account to the right organisation, so the employee never has to type an org name or paste a code by hand.

For link / join-code invites the employee just opens the link the manager shared with them — same destination.

Step 4 — Employee signs up

The sign-up page asks for the employee's full name, work email, and a password. Submitting the form creates the employee's personal account inside the manager's organisation. There is no separate "approval" step — once the employee has signed up they're a member of the org.

→ Full walkthrough: Accepting an invite.

Step 5 — Employee downloads the desktop tracker

After signing up, the employee opens the Downloads page and picks the build for their operating system (macOS or Windows). The installer is a standard OS installer — double-click, accept the prompts, and the tracker appears in the menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows).

On the first launch the operating system will ask for Screen Recording and (if meeting capture is enabled in the org policy) Microphone permissions. The tracker explains why it needs each one before opening the system prompt.

→ Full walkthrough: Installing the tracker.

Step 6 — Employee signs in on the tracker

The tracker's sign-in screen takes the same email and password the employee used on the web. Once signed in, the tracker downloads the organisation's current desktop policy and applies it — recording modes, retention limits, sensitive-app rules, and so on.

→ Full walkthrough: First sign-in.

Step 7 — Employee clicks ▶ Play

The tracker shows a big Play button. Clicking it starts the recording session: screen capture begins, application focus is logged, and (if meeting apps are open and configured) microphone audio is captured for transcription. The employee can hit Pause at any time — unless the manager has enabled Force tracking in the policy, in which case the Pause button is disabled while the tracker is open.

→ Full walkthrough: Daily use (Play / Pause).

Step 8 — Activity flows into the dashboard

As soon as the tracker has a chunk of activity to upload, it sends it to ScreenJournal. The AI scores each segment of the day for productivity (1 = distraction, 5 = highly productive), tags the apps and sites in use, and stitches the segments into a continuous timeline.

The manager opens the dashboard, lands on Activity, picks the employee, and sees:

• a colour-coded hour-by-hour timeline of the selected day,
• a weekly ranking comparing every team member by productivity,
• and links across to the employee's timesheet, reports, and the meeting audio transcripts.

→ Full walkthrough: Dashboard tour.

---

Summary diagram

┌─────────────────────┐         ┌──────────────────────┐
│   Manager (web)     │         │   Employee (web)     │
│  - Registers org    │ invite ►│  - Signs up          │
│  - Invites team     │         │  - Downloads tracker │
│  - Configures policy│         │                      │
└──────────┬──────────┘         └──────────┬───────────┘
           │                               │
           │                               ▼
           │                    ┌──────────────────────┐
           │                    │ Employee (desktop)   │
           │           policy   │  - Signs in          │
           │ ◄──────────────────│  - Clicks ▶ Play     │
           │       activity     │  - Works as normal   │
           │ ◄──────────────────└──────────────────────┘
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│  Manager dashboard  │
│  - Activity timeline│
│  - Weekly ranking   │
│  - Timesheets       │
│  - Reports + Alerts │
└─────────────────────┘

Next: read the Manager quick start if you're setting up an organisation, or Accepting an invite if you've just been invited by your manager.