How the organizational structure works

Initially in your Google for Work account, all your users are placed in a single organizational unit. All settings you make in your Google Admin console apply to this top-level organization and therefore to all users and devices in your account.

Add an organizational unit now

Apply custom settings to sub-organizations

To give different settings to a group of users or devices, create another organizational unit beneath your top-level organization. Then move users and devices to that sub-organization. When you make a setting in your Admin console, you can then select the organization you want to configure. Users or devices in that organization get the new setting. They inherit all other settings from their parent organization. In this picture, Gmail, Hangouts, and Drive are turned On for users in the top-level organization. Users in the sub-organization inherit Gmail and Drive being turned On, but for them, Hangouts are turned Off.

Create as many organizational units as you want—either at the same level or in a hierarchy. Each child inherits settings from its parent, which you can then customize. Changing a setting at a higher level changes the setting for all sub-organizations that inherit that setting. Custom settings, however, remain unchanged.

Using multiple domains with your Google account? You can mix and match users from all your domains in an organizational unit. In fact, users in all your domains are initially in the same top-level organization. To customize settings for users in a particular domain, create an organization for just those users.