Google Workspace integration
The Google Workspace integration keeps your Deckchair member list in step with a Google group, and turns “Sign in with Google” into your team’s primary way into Deckchair.
Once connected, Deckchair runs a directory sync every 30 minutes (and on demand via Sync now). New people in the group are added to Deckchair, departing people are deactivated, and members signed in via Google have their name, email, job title and employee ID kept up to date automatically. To keep provisioning admin-controlled, anyone on your verified Google Workspace domain who tries to sign in with Google but isn’t in the synced group is blocked at sign-in — it’s intentional, not a bug.
What you’ll need
Section titled “What you’ll need”- A Google Workspace super-admin account. Only a super-admin can complete the install.
- A Google group containing the people who should have access to Deckchair. We recommend a dedicated group such as
deckchair-users@yourcompany.comrather than reusing an existing all-staff list.
Install the integration
Section titled “Install the integration”The install is a short wizard you run from Settings → Integrations.
- Open Settings → Integrations and click Connect Google Workspace.
- On the next screen, click Connect Google. You’ll be redirected to Google to sign in with your super-admin account and approve the requested permissions. Deckchair asks for read-only access to your directory’s users and groups — nothing else.
- When Google returns you to Deckchair, the wizard verifies it can read your directory. You’ll see “Contacting Google…” briefly, then a list of the groups available in your Workspace.
- Pick the Google group whose members should be in Deckchair, then pick a default department that new members from the group will be placed into.
- Click Connect. Deckchair starts the first sync immediately and takes you to the management page.
If verification fails — usually because the signed-in account isn’t a super-admin or doesn’t have directory read permission — you can click Re-check to try again, or Back to start over with a different account.
What happens at sign-in
Section titled “What happens at sign-in”Once the integration is connected, Deckchair treats your verified Google Workspace domain as claimed. That changes how Google sign-in behaves for anyone with an email on that domain:
- If they’re already a Deckchair member (because they’re in the synced group), Google sign-in works as normal.
- If they’re not a Deckchair member, sign-in is blocked with a message asking them to contact their Deckchair admin to be added to the Google group used for sync.
- Once an admin adds them to the group, the next sync — within 30 minutes — adds them to Deckchair, after which their Google sign-in works straight away. To bring them in sooner, an admin can click Sync now.
Email and password sign-in is not affected by this. Members who already have a Deckchair password can still sign in with it.
Manage the connection
Section titled “Manage the connection”After install, Settings → Integrations → Google Workspace → Manage opens the management page. From there you can:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sync now | Runs a sync immediately rather than waiting for the next half-hourly cycle. |
| View Last sync | Shows when the last sync completed, whether it succeeded or failed, and a stats line — added / updated / adopted / deactivated / reactivated / skipped. Buckets with zero changes are hidden. |
| Disconnect | Soft-disconnects the integration. Optionally tick Also remove Google-managed members in the confirmation dialog to deactivate every member the sync added. Their leave history is preserved either way. |
| Reset Google access (under Advanced) | Re-runs the Google sign-in flow without removing the current connection. Use this if the admin who installed the integration leaves the company, or if directory access otherwise needs to be refreshed by a current super-admin. |
When a sync fails
Section titled “When a sync fails”If something has gone wrong with directory access, the management page shows a Failed badge and an error banner explaining why.
- If the banner says Deckchair has lost authorised access to your Google Workspace, the install needs to be re-authorised by a current super-admin. Click Reconnect on the banner, or open Advanced → Reset Google access, and sign in again with Google.
- For other errors — Google temporarily unreachable, a transient timeout — click Sync now to retry. If it keeps failing, reset Google access as above.
What the sync manages, and what it leaves alone
Section titled “What the sync manages, and what it leaves alone”Members synced from Google get a label on their record indicating they’re managed by the integration. For those members:
- Managed by Google Workspace (read-only in Deckchair, overwritten on the next sync): name, email, job title, employee ID. These fields show “Managed by Google Workspace” in the edit member form and can’t be changed from Deckchair.
- Left alone by the sync: leave allowance, work schedule, department (admins can move synced members between departments freely after the first sync), role, manager and approver assignments.
This split means the directory stays the source of truth for who people are, while Deckchair stays the source of truth for how they work — schedules, allowances, approvers, departments.
Limitations
Section titled “Limitations”- One Google group per Deckchair organisation. Multi-group sync isn’t supported yet.
- One primary domain per connection. Multi-domain Workspaces aren’t supported yet.
- Manager and approver relationships are not auto-mapped from Google’s directory — set them in Deckchair after the sync brings members in.