This chapter presents an overview of the basic institutions and practices of Inka administration. It indicates the central principles and features of the Inka administrative system, as a basis for looking at the cord-records themselves. In early Colonial sources, the Inka Empire is referred to as Tawantinsuyu, which gloss as the four parts intimately bound together. The chapter then discusses state/imperial organization in Cuzco, provincial organization and local administrative organization. As the capital, Cuzco was the center of supreme power and authority in the Inka Empire. The administration within Cuzco was staffed by direct and collateral descendants of the ten to twelve Inka kings who had ruled the empire during its short history. Finally, the chapter investigates the knotted-cord records using the Khipu Database, with the support of the National Science Foundation and the capable assistance of computing consultants Carrie J. Brezine and Pavlo Kononenko, at Harvard University.