Overview
Layer supports a parent/child workspace structure that lets studios manage Creative Unit (CU) budgets across multiple teams or sub-studios from a single place. A parent workspace can allocate CUs to child workspaces, track consumption across all of them, and control per-user spending limits.
1. Setting Up a Workspace Hierarchy
Who can do this: Layer admins only.
Layer admins configure which workspaces are children of which parent via the admin tooling. Once established, the hierarchy is visible to parent workspace admins immediately.
If the child workspace exists then Layer Admin will link it from our admin tool. Contact your Layer admin.
If the child workspace doesn't exist then create it as a child by checking the checkbox Create as child workspace of {your_current_workspace}, as shown in the screenshot below.
Key constraints:
Maximum hierarchy depth: 5 levels
A workspace cannot be its own ancestor (no cycles)
A parent workspace must be active and have billing configured
2. Allocating CUs to Child Workspaces
Who can do this: Parent workspace admins.
Percentage-Based Allocation (Recurring)
This is the primary allocation method. It splits each billing period's CUs proportionally among child workspaces.
How to configure:
Go to Settings → Billing & Usage → Manage Subscription
Turn on the toggle Customize Unit Allocation
Under Studio Allocation (marked ADMIN ONLY), you'll see a row for each child workspace
Enter a percentage (0–100) for each child — the remainder is kept by the parent
Use Allocate evenly to distribute equally across all children
You can toggle between entering % or CU amounts per row — the display converts between both in real time
Click Save Allocation — allocations take effect on the next billing sync
Rules:
Total allocation across all children cannot exceed 100%
The parent's retained share is displayed and adjusts in real time
A "Fully allocated" indicator (green checkmark) appears when the total reaches 100%
A visual bar shows the full distribution at a glance
Manual One-Time Transfer
For ad hoc top-ups outside the recurring split:
Go to Settings → Billing & Usage
In the Transfer Creative Units panel, select the child workspace from the dropdown and enter the amount
Click Transfer — a confirmation dialog shows: "You are about to transfer [amount] creative units to [workspace]. This action cannot be undone."
Click Confirm — CUs are deducted from the parent's available balance immediately
Transfers are sourced from the parent's invoices in expiration order (earliest-expiring CUs burn first). Each transfer is recorded with a timestamp, source, and description for audit purposes.
Rules:
Transfers can only flow parent → child (never child → parent)
The parent must have sufficient available balance
The Transfer panel is only visible when the workspace has hierarchy enabled and has child workspaces
Concurrent transfers are protected against double-spend
3. Viewing CU Usage*
Who can do this: All workspace admins (each workspace sees its own data).
From Settings → Billing & Usage, admins can see:
Available Creative Units — current balance with a progress bar showing expiring, available, and already-used CUs, broken down by expiration date
Current Subscription — CU plan details, renewal date, and a warning if the workspace is predicted to run out before renewal
Last Purchase — most recent one-time purchase details
At the moment child workspaces see their own usage here, including CUs received via transfer from the parent (shown as a "Transfer" grant source). In the future parent workspace is going to be able to visualize children usage*
To view past invoices, use the View Past Invoices link on the Billing & Usage page.
*This feature is going to be available later. Please contact your Layer Admin for more information.
4. Groups & Child Workspace Access
Who can do this: Parent workspace admins (Settings → Groups).
The Groups tab appears on the parent workspace's settings when workspace hierarchy is enabled. It allows admins to:
Create named groups (manually or via SCIM from an identity provider)
Assign a role (Admin, Member, Viewer) to each group
Assign a group to a specific child workspace — members of that group are automatically propagated to the child workspace
This is the primary mechanism for managing which users belong to which child workspaces, especially in larger studios using SCIM provisioning. If you want to use SCIM to create these groups please contact your Layer Admin to give you the URL to integrate it.
5. User Balance Limits & Hard Block*
When a workspace's CU balance reaches zero:
A hard block is enforced, all generations are prevented
A status indicator appears in the canvas: "Your workspace is out of creative units"
Admins see a link to Billing & Usage to add more CUs
Non-admins see a message to contact their administrator
User usage can be limited by existing groups. This limit is used to block their usage once they have arrived at the defined cap.
Enterprise plans use a soft limit, usage can exceed the balance (billed as overage). All other plans enforce a hard limit.
*This is currently being worked on the be delivered by 20th of March.
6. Creative Units Balance Notifications
Workspace admins receive notifications when CU thresholds are crossed:
Low balance alerts, triggered when remaining CUs fall below configured thresholds. These alerts are sent to workspace admins. Parent admins will be notified too together with child workspace admins.
Real-time balance updates, in the UI without a page refresh)