Skip to content

System settings

For admins

The system settings page is the per-workspace dial for operational behaviour — not user-visible content (that’s branding, not API keys (that’s API keys), but the engine-room knobs.

  • Localeen-GB (default), en-US, etc. Drives date formatting, number formatting, plural rules in UI strings.
  • TimezoneEurope/London (default). Used for date displays, scheduled jobs, audit timestamps. Set this once; don’t change after the trust has data, since historical timestamps’ display will shift.
  • Maintenance mode — toggle. When on, non-admin users see a maintenance banner / are blocked depending on the configured behaviour.
  • Retention windows — per-data-class days-to-keep settings. Audit log retention, attachment retention, etc. Beyond the window, automated jobs prune.

Maintenance mode is for genuine outages — database migrations, backup restores, planned downtime. Two behaviours:

  • Banner only — page still loads, banner says we’re in maintenance. Suitable for a brief read-only window.
  • Full block — non-admin users see a maintenance page and can’t access any surface. For larger work.

Don’t leave maintenance mode on indefinitely. The intent is short windows; long windows degrade trust.

Each retention setting is days-to-keep. Common defaults:

  • Audit log — 730 days (2 years). Beyond this, audit rows are pruned by a scheduled command.
  • Attachments — 1095 days (3 years). Pruning runs nightly.
  • Soft-deleted records — 90 days. Beyond this, soft-deleted rows are hard-deleted.

Increase if your trust’s policy requires longer retention. Decrease only after consulting your DPO — shorter retention can breach record-keeping obligations.

  • Locale and timezone changes after data exists shift the display of historical timestamps. Don’t change casually.
  • Maintenance mode blocks everyone, including non-admin agents. Don’t toggle on then walk away.
  • Retention windows drive automated deletes. Setting audit log = 30 days will prune two years of audit on the next nightly job. Read carefully before changing.