Productivity - Setup Guide

How to set up Deputy

Otto's honest, no-fluff walkthrough. Every step here is what we'd actually do if we were sitting at your keyboard. Real gotchas first, real steps second, and a link to the personalized version at the bottom.

Read these before you start

• Mobile app reliability is a genuine, repeated concern, reports include clocking in failing or randomly logging users out, and employees being incorrectly marked absent despite working the shift, a real payroll-accuracy risk if hours feed directly into pay (Source: user reviews via WebSearch summary, 2026)
• Schedule display bugs are reported, including shift times rendering incorrectly on the employee-facing view (a 1 AM-1 PM shift showing as 4 AM-4 PM in one documented case), verify displayed schedules match intended shifts, especially during rollout (Source: user reviews via WebSearch summary, 2026)
• Leave management setup is reported as genuinely difficult to configure correctly, with leave balances sometimes mismatched, budget extra setup time here specifically
• Customer support quality is described by some reviewers as among the worst they've encountered, factor slow support response into any rollout timeline, especially for time-sensitive scheduling issues

The 7-step setup

1. 1

   Create your Deputy account

   Sign up at the link below. Card required for the paid tier - most plans include a trial period; check the pricing section on this page first so you know what you're committing to.

   Open Deputy signup
2. 2

   Complete the initial onboarding

   Skip the marketing questionnaires when you can. Fill only the fields that actually configure the product - name, timezone, your first workspace or project. If Deputy pushes you into a setup wizard, take it - it usually accelerates the first productive session.

3. 3

   Connect your existing tools

   Wire Deputy into the rest of your stack. The integrations that most people set up first: ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks, Square, Zapier.. Do these before importing data - clean integration first, data second.

4. 4

   Import your existing data (only what you'll actually use)

   Do NOT bulk-import everything. Import the last 30 days of the ONE workflow you're moving over first. Prove it works. Then import more. Big-bang migrations are how Deputy deployments die in month 3.

5. 5

   Set up your first real workflow

   Pick the single most-frequent task you'll do in Deputy - the daily-driver workflow. Configure it end-to-end. Use it live for a week. Do not touch any other feature yet. Adoption failure comes from teams trying to use everything on day one instead of the one thing that actually pays.

6. 6

   Add your team (if applicable) and set access

   Once your solo workflow works, invite one teammate at a time. Watch them use it. The friction points you missed are the ones they hit. Fix those before scaling to more users. Never invite 20 people at once - you'll get 20 confused people and 0 useful feedback.

7. 7

   Compound with the right pairings

   Recommend Deputy for shift-based, hourly-workforce businesses (restaurants, retail, healthcare, hospitality) needing scheduling plus break/overtime compliance. Flag the mobile app reliability and support responsiveness concerns explicitly, especially since clock-in bugs directly touch payroll accuracy, recommend the client spot-check timesheet data against actual worked hours during the first few pay cycles. For salaried, non-shift teams, this tool has no real application.