Sites & Locations
For: Admin, Manager
Your chemical inventory, SDS library, training assignments, and HazCom plans are all organized by site. Setting up your site structure correctly is one of the most important things you'll do in Tellus, because it determines how chemicals are tracked, how training is assigned, and how compliance is measured.
How It Works
Tellus uses a two-level hierarchy to represent your physical world:
Company
└── Site (physical facility)
└── Location (area within a site)
Sites are your physical facilities — the buildings and properties where work happens. Locations are the specific areas within a site where chemicals are stored or used. This structure mirrors how OSHA thinks about your workplace: each site needs its own chemical inventory, its own SDS access point, and its own HazCom plan.
Sites
A site is any physical facility your company operates. Examples include:
- Warehouse or distribution center
- Manufacturing plant or factory floor
- Office building
- Retail store or shop
- Construction job site
- Laboratory
- Agricultural field operation
Site Information
When you add a site, you'll provide:
- Site name — A recognizable name (e.g., "Main Warehouse," "Downtown Office")
- Address — Street, city, state, ZIP
- Site type — The category that best describes this facility
- Contact person — The person responsible for this site
- Phone number — Site-specific contact number
Why Sites Matter
Everything in Tellus is scoped to a site:
| Feature | How Sites Apply |
|---|---|
| Chemical inventory | Each site has its own inventory. A chemical at your warehouse is tracked separately from the same chemical at your lab. |
| SDS library | SDSs are shared across your company, but inventory entries linking chemicals to SDSs are site-specific. |
| Training | Training assignments target employees at specific sites. A new hire at Site A gets Site A's training. |
| HazCom plans | Each site gets its own Written HazCom Program tailored to its specific chemical inventory. |
| Quantity tracking | Quantity aggregation and threshold alerts are calculated per site. |
| Compliance scoring | Insights tracks compliance metrics independently for each site. |
Managing Sites
From AdminHQ > Sites, you can manage your company's physical facilities. What you see and can do depends on your role:
| Capability | Admin | Manager |
|---|---|---|
| View all company sites | Yes | -- |
| View assigned site(s) only | -- | Yes |
| Add a new site | Yes | -- |
| Edit site details | Yes | Yes (assigned sites only) |
| Deactivate a site | Yes | -- |
| Reactivate a site | Yes | -- |
For Administrators:
- Add a site — Click
Add Site, fill in the details, and save - Edit a site — Click on any site to update its name, address, or contact information
- Deactivate a site — Click the power icon next to any active site, or uncheck the
Site is activecheckbox on the edit page. Deactivated sites are hidden from dropdowns and selectors but their historical data is fully preserved. - Reactivate a site — Open the edit page for a deactivated site and check the
Site is activecheckbox. The site and all its data will immediately become available again across the platform.
For Managers:
- You only see the site(s) you've been assigned to — not all company sites
- You can click on your site to update its details (name, address, contact information)
- You cannot add new sites or deactivate existing sites — contact an administrator for those changes
Inactive sites are clearly marked with an Inactive badge in the sites list so you can quickly see which facilities are currently in use and which are dormant.
When to Deactivate vs. Delete
Tellus uses deactivation rather than deletion for sites. This is by design — when a facility closes or goes offline temporarily, you want to preserve the compliance history (chemical records, training logs, SDS data) associated with that site. Deactivating a site:
- Hides it from the site selector, dashboards, and new assignments
- Preserves all historical inventory, training, and compliance data
- Lets you reactivate the site later with all data intact
- Does not count against your plan's site limit while inactive
Locations
A location is a specific area within a site where chemicals are physically stored or used. Locations give you granular tracking so you know not just which site a chemical is at, but exactly where it sits.
Location Types
| Type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Building | Building A, North Wing, Annex |
| Floor | 1st Floor, Basement, Mezzanine |
| Room | Lab 201, Storage Room 3, Break Room |
| Storage Area | Flammable cabinet, Refrigerator, Shelf B-3, Chemical closet |
Location Hierarchy
Locations are flat within a site — they don't nest inside each other. You can use naming conventions to imply hierarchy:
- "Building A — Floor 2 — Lab 201"
- "Warehouse > Aisle 3 > Shelf B"
- "Main Office / Storage Closet"
Managing Locations
From any site's detail page, click Manage Locations to:
- Add a location — Click
Add Location, enter a name and type, and save - Edit a location — Update the name or type of an existing location
- Remove a location — Locations can be removed if no chemicals are currently assigned to them
Access Posters (Coming Soon)
Access Posters will let you generate printable QR code posters for each site. When employees scan the QR code with their phone, they'll be taken directly to that site's SDS library, emergency procedures, or chemical inventory. This feature is currently in development.
Setting Up Your Site Structure
Getting your site structure right before adding chemicals saves time and prevents reorganization later. Here's the recommended approach:
- List all your facilities — Every physical location where your company handles chemicals needs to be a site
- Add each site with its address and contact person
- Define locations within each site — Focus on areas where chemicals are stored: cabinets, shelves, rooms, storage closets
- Start adding chemicals — With your structure in place, you can assign chemicals to specific sites and locations during import
For step-by-step instructions, see Add Sites and Locations.
Plan Limits
Your Tellus EHS account ($99/month) includes up to 3 sites. If you need more capacity, contact the Tellus team.
Multi-Site Management
When managing multiple sites, Tellus provides cross-site features:
- Cross-site inventory view — See chemicals across all your sites in one list
- Copy chemicals between sites — Duplicate inventory entries from one site to another
- Multi-site compliance dashboard — Compare compliance scores across all your facilities
- Site-scoped roles — Assign different roles to the same user at different sites
Related Pages
- Organization Profile — Your company details and identifiers
- Users & Roles — Assign users to sites and manage access
- Billing & Subscription — Manage your subscription