Setting up Canva Enterprise: how the rollout works
Moving an organisation onto Canva Enterprise is not just a billing change. Your people almost certainly already use Canva, often on accounts they set up themselves, and the rollout is mostly about bringing those existing accounts under your control without disrupting anyone's work.
Canva's help centre documents the individual settings well, but it never puts the whole sequence in one place, and several of the questions that come up on every rollout are not answered anywhere. This guide is our attempt to fix that. Start here, then follow the links to whichever part you need.
When this applies: From the moment your Canva Enterprise subscription starts, until every intended user is in a managed team.
The three things that actually happen
Almost everything in this guide follows from three mechanics. Understanding them makes the rest obvious.
You verify a domain. You add a DNS TXT record for an email domain your staff use, and Canva confirms you control it. This is what gives you authority over accounts on that domain. Each domain is verified separately.
Canva emails everyone on that domain. Automatically, immediately, and outside your control. Those people get 30 days to say the account is not for work. See The email Canva sends when you verify a domain.
You decide who joins a managed team. Verification alone does not put anyone in your team, and does not consume a licence. That is a separate step you control. See Who actually uses a Canva Enterprise licence.
The sequence
- Your Canva account team produces a user report showing who on your domains already uses Canva. This does not require verification, so it happens before anyone is emailed.
- You review that report and decide who you are managing.
- You send your own communication to staff.
- You verify your domains, one at a time, on dates you choose.
- We configure and test single sign-on with your identity provider.
- You choose your login setting, which decides whether anyone outside your team is affected at all.
- The 30 day window runs while people copy their content across.
Steps 1 to 3 are the ones that get skipped, and skipping them is the cause of most of the pain on these projects. Nothing before step 4 is visible to your staff, so there is no cost to doing that groundwork properly.
Where to go next
If you are worried about disruption, read Will our people be locked out of Canva? first. It is the question everyone asks, and the answer is more reassuring than most people expect.
If you are planning the schedule, read How long a Canva Enterprise rollout takes and Choosing your domain verification date.
If you are working through your user list, read Understanding your Canva user report.
If you are sizing the budget, read Who actually uses a Canva Enterprise licence and Refunds on existing Canva subscriptions.
If you are about to start, read What we need from you before we start.
Related articles
- Will our people be locked out of Canva?
- The email Canva sends when you verify a domain
- What happens to your team's existing designs
- How long a Canva Enterprise rollout takes
- Choosing your domain verification date
- Understanding your Canva user report
- Who actually uses a Canva Enterprise licence
- Refunds on existing Canva subscriptions
- What we need from you before we start
- Questions Canva has not documented
- Getting help with Canva
Canva documentation
Canva updates its documentation without notice. If something here no longer matches what you see in your account, tell us and we will check it.