Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to the most common questions about using Deskpadi. If your question is not covered here, raise a support ticket from Help → New Ticket.

How do I upgrade my plan?

Navigate to Billing → Subscription and click "Change Plan." Select the plan you want to upgrade to and confirm. The price difference is prorated for the remainder of your current billing cycle, so you only pay for the days remaining. Upgrades take effect immediately — all features of the new plan are available right away.

Can I add modules without upgrading my plan?

Yes. Add-on modules (HR, Real Estate, Recruitment) are independent of your plan tier. You can purchase add-on seats from Billing → Add-Ons on any plan. However, some core modules (like Procurement, Document Control, and Leave Management) are only available on Pro and above — those require a plan upgrade.

What is the difference between a Department Head and a Manager?

A Department Head is assigned ownership of an entire department. They can approve requests, view all employees in the department, manage budgets, and access department-level analytics. A Manager has a similar set of permissions but is scoped to their direct reports and their managedDepartments list. A Manager may oversee people across multiple departments if assigned, while a Department Head is typically associated with a single department.

What is the difference between a Finance Officer and a Finance Head?

A Finance Officer can view financial records, process transactions, and prepare reports. A Finance Head has all Finance Officer permissions plus the ability to approve financial transactions, finalise payroll runs, and manage budget allocations. The Finance Head serves as the final approver in financial workflows.

What is the difference between an IT Admin and a Super Admin?

An IT Admin manages technical aspects of the platform — user account provisioning, SSO configuration, webhook setup, and access troubleshooting. Importantly, IT Admin access is explicit: they must be listed on each endpoint's allowed roles. IT Admins do not have automatic bypass permissions.

A Super Admin has the highest level of access. Only Super Admins can manage billing, subscriptions, and payment methods. Super Admins can also perform all actions available to other roles. In contrast, IT Admins cannot access billing or make financial changes.

What happens if I exceed my storage quota?

When your organisation reaches its storage quota, users will be unable to upload new files. Existing files remain accessible and are not deleted. To resolve this, you can either delete unnecessary files (check the Storage Management page for orphaned files) or purchase an additional storage pack from Billing → Storage. Storage packs range from 5 GB to 50 GB and are billed monthly.

Can a user approve their own request?

No. Self-approval is explicitly blocked across all approval workflows. If a manager submits a purchase request, leave request, or expense claim, the approval is automatically routed to the next person in the chain (e.g., their own manager or a Finance approver). This separation of duties is enforced at the system level and cannot be overridden.

What is the high-value request threshold?

The high-value request threshold is the amount above which a request requires additional approval — typically from a Finance Head or Super Admin. The default threshold is₦500,000, but it can be configured by a Super Admin from Settings → Approvals. Requests below the threshold follow the standard approval chain; requests at or above it trigger the escalated approval path.

What does a Staff member see?

A user with the Staff role sees only what directly concerns them:

• •Their own profile, tasks, and messages.
• •Purchase requests, leave requests, and expense claims they have submitted.
• •Assets assigned to them.
• •Company-wide announcements and shared documents they have access to.
• •Their own attendance records, pay slips, and OKR objectives (if HR is enabled).
• •They cannot view other employees' requests, salaries, or private data.

How does attendance tracking work?

Attendance tracking is disabled by default for new organisations. To enable it, a Super Admin or IT Admin must go to Settings → Attendance and change the attendance mode from DISABLED to either SELF_SERVICE (employees clock in/out from their dashboard) or DEVICE (events are captured from a biometric reader or kiosk via API).

Once enabled, the system records daily clock-in and clock-out times, calculates hours worked, flags late arrivals based on the configured start time and grace period, and runs an automatic absent sweep at 11 PM WAT to mark employees who did not clock in and are not on approved leave.

What is the OKR system?

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a goal-setting framework that helps align individual work with company strategy. In Deskpadi, OKRs are organised into quarterly cycles. Each cycle contains objectives at three levels — Company, Department, and Individual. Each objective has measurable key results with target values. Employees submit regular check-ins to update progress, and the system automatically calculates status (Behind, At Risk, On Track, or Completed). At the end of each cycle, scores are finalised bottom-up from individual to company level. See the HR documentation for full details.

How do I raise a support ticket?

Navigate to Help → New Ticket. Select a category (bug report, feature request, billing inquiry, or general question), describe your issue, and attach any relevant screenshots. After submission, you will receive a ticket number and can track the status from Help → My Tickets. The support team will respond within the comment thread on your ticket.

Can managers see all departments?

No. Managers are scoped to their managedDepartments — the list of departments explicitly assigned to them. They can only view employee data, approve requests, manage attendance, and conduct reviews for users within those departments. To give a manager access to additional departments, a Super Admin must add the department to their managedDepartments list from the user's profile.

How do I cancel my account?

To cancel your Deskpadi account, contact support by raising a ticket from Help → New Ticket with the category "General Question" and subject "Account Cancellation." A member of the support team will verify your identity and process the cancellation. Before cancellation, you can export your data using the data-portability feature. Once cancelled, your data is retained for 90 days (in accordance with the soft-delete policy) and then permanently purged.