Help Center

Bitwarden Onboarding Playbook

This playbook provides IT administrators with a flexible roadmap for onboarding users to Bitwarden Password Manager across five key phases. While the phases are presented in sequence, they're not strictly linear. Many steps can happen in parallel based on your team's needs and timeline.

Throughout this guide, you'll find action items in code boxes that can be copied and pasted directly into your project management tools, internal documentation, or team communication platforms. This makes it easy to track progress, assign tasks, and maintain accountability during your Bitwarden rollout. Use this guide as a foundation and adapt it to fit your environment.

tip

Phase 1 focuses on educating stakeholders, preparing systems, and establishing the knowledge base for successful setup. Bitwarden recommends scheduling training sessions for each group or team before or during rollout. 

Key objectives

  • Establish training programs for all user levels

  • Prepare technical infrastructure and requirements

  • Create organizational and collection management policies and procedures

  • Build internal expertise and support capabilities

Activities

Step 1: Administrator training

Key personnel: IT directors, system admins, owners

Training topics:

  • Bitwarden architecture and enterprise features

  • Scalable sharing capabilities

    • Collection setup; organize and group related credentials, secrets, or other vault items

    • Adding a user to the Bitwarden organization 

    • Assigning appropriate permissions to members or groups for each collection

    • Assigning certain items to multiple collections so the right people can access it without duplication 

  • SSO setup and integration workflows

  • Custom fields and roles management

  • Two-factor authentication setup and policies

  • User and group management best practices

  • Security policies and enterprise controls

  • Event logging and reporting capabilities

Actions:

Plain Text
[ ] Schedule administrator training sessions
[ ] Review enterprise feature requirements
[ ] Document SSO integration requirements
[ ] Plan custom roles and permission structures
[ ] Establish security policy framework
[ ] Document cyber insurance compliance requirement
     [ ] Prepare business case including insurance premium impact
     [ ] Align rollout timeline with insurance renewal dates

Step 2: Service desk training 

Key personnel: Help desk staff, customer success leads

Training topics:

  • Common user issues and troubleshooting

  • Password reset procedures and limitations

  • Account recovery processes

  • Escalation procedures for complex issues

Actions:

Plain Text
[ ] Train support staff on Bitwarden functionality
[ ] Create troubleshooting documentation
[ ] Establish support ticket workflows
[ ] Define escalation procedures

Step 3: End user training 

Note: For many customers, end user training comes right before or during rollout, as each department is onboarded. Bitwarden recommends prioritizing admin training first. 

Key personnel: All end users across the company

Training topics:

  • Password import processes and best practices if applicable 

  • Cross-platform Bitwarden usage (desktop, mobile, web, browser)

  • Account creation and master password guidelines

  • Vault navigation and organization features

  • How to save a new login

  • Autofill options

  • Password generator 

  • Bitwarden Send for secure sharing

  • Collaboration through collections

Actions:

Plain Text
[ ] Schedule organization-wide training sessions by functions; recommend starting with more technical teams (ie. tech team, data team)
[ ] Create user documentation and quick reference guides. Leverage resources available in the Bitwarden help center
[ ] Prepare import templates and migration tools
[ ] Establish help desk support procedures

Step 4: Leadership training

Key personnel: Department leads, executive leadership

Training topics:

  • Why Bitwarden is important for securing the organization 

  • Password import processes and best practices if applicable 

  • Identify at-risk passwords with Vault Health reports 

  • Cross-platform Bitwarden usage (desktop, mobile, web, browser)

  • Account creation and master password guidelines

  • Vault navigation and organization features

  • How to save a new login

  • Autofill options

  • Password generator 

  • Bitwarden Send for secure sharing

  • Collaboration through collections

Actions:

Plain Text
[ ] Get leadership buy-in and identify advocates. Bitwarden research shows that company-wide password management mandates more than doubles regular usage. 
[ ] Train leadership on importance of using a password manager
[ ] Show leadership how easy it is to use