User Management

Overview

PurposeTech uses a role-based access system. Each user is assigned a role that determines what they can see and do. Roles follow a hierarchy — higher roles inherit all the permissions of lower roles.

All role changes and permission updates are recorded in the audit log with timestamps and the admin who made the change. See Audit & compliance below.

Role hierarchy

Owner > Volunteer Admin > Area Coordinator > Site Coordinator > Volunteer

Each level can do everything the levels below it can do, plus its own additional capabilities.

Role comparison

Admin roles

Owner

The Owner role has full platform access. This is typically the programme manager, IT lead, or CTO at your organisation.

When to assign this role:

• The person who manages the PurposeTech account and subscription
• IT staff who configure integrations (Salesforce, custom domains)
• Senior programme managers who need cross-tenant access

Unique capabilities:

• Create and manage tenants (branded volunteer sites)
• Configure integrations (Salesforce, custom domains, etc.)
• Manage billing and plan settings
• Add and remove admins at any role level
• Switch between tenants without logging out

Volunteer Admin

Volunteer Admins handle the day-to-day campaign management. They can do everything an Owner can except change tenant-level settings, integrations, and billing.

When to assign this role:

• Campaign managers who set up and run volunteer programmes
• Staff who manage volunteer communications and data
• Team members who need full visibility across all campaigns
• Regional managers who oversee all areas

What they get:

• Full access to campaigns, volunteers, jobs, shifts, and emails
• Reporting and analytics across the entire campaign
• Ability to create, edit, and delete jobs and shifts
• Access to the At-a-Glance overview
• Can search for existing volunteers when adding to the roster

What they don't get:

• Tenant-level settings (branding, domains, integrations)
• Billing and plan management
• User management (they can't add other admins)

Coordinator roles

Coordinators are the distributed management layer. They manage their assigned patch of the campaign without needing — or seeing — the full admin portal.

Area Coordinator

Area coordinators are assigned to one or more areas in the geographic hierarchy. This is the primary day-of management role and the one most organisations use the most.

What they can do:

• View the roster for all sites in their assigned area(s)
• Add volunteers to shifts — enter name and phone (email optional on event day)
• Move volunteers between shifts using the Move Tool
• Remove volunteers from shifts (with confirmation)
• Reserve shifts for corporate groups via Adopt-a-Site
• Export rosters as PDF or CSV for offline use
• View volunteer contact details on the roster

What they can't do:

• See or manage sites outside their assigned areas
• Search for existing volunteers when adding (they always create new records — duplicates can be merged later)
• Add notes to volunteer records
• Change campaign settings, email templates, or branding
• Access the At-a-Glance overview
• Manage other coordinators or admin users

The typical area coordinator:

• A regional manager or team lead who oversees 10–20 collection sites
• They know their patch, their volunteers, and the local logistics
• On event day, they drive between their sites, checking in on each one
• They use PurposeTech on their phone to manage walk-ins, no-shows, and last-minute changes

Assigning area coordinators

1. Go to Areas in the admin portal
2. Select the area you want to assign
3. Choose a user from the coordinator dropdown
4. Their role is automatically set to Area Coordinator if it isn't already

Key details:

• A coordinator can be assigned to multiple areas — useful when one person covers a whole region
• Area assignments can be date-specific — you can have different coordinators for different campaign days
• When an area coordinator is removed from all their areas, their role reverts to Volunteer automatically
• The coordinator receives an email notification when assigned

Site Coordinator (Job Coordinator)

Site coordinators are assigned to a specific job/site. A more focused role for locations that need a dedicated on-the-ground lead.

What they can do:

• View the roster for their site only
• Add and manage volunteers at their location
• Export rosters for their site

When to use site coordinators:

Site Contact (Job Contact)

A lightweight role — simply a contact person recorded against a site. They don't have any platform access.

What it's for:

• Recording who to call if there's a problem at a location (e.g., a property manager)
• Storing venue owner details for consent and permission purposes
• Having a local contact number for the site that's visible on the roster and PDF exports

What they don't get:

• No login to the admin portal
• No roster access
• No volunteer management capabilities

Delegation patterns

Pattern 1: Small campaign (1–5 sites)

• 1 Admin manages everything directly
• No coordinators needed
• The admin uses the full admin portal for all sites

Pattern 2: Regional campaign (10–50 sites)

• 1–2 Admins for campaign setup and oversight
• 3–5 Area Coordinators — one per region, each managing 5–15 sites
• Admin handles overall reporting and gap-filling
• Area coordinators manage their patch on event day

Pattern 3: National campaign (100–500+ sites)

• 2–3 Admins for campaign setup, email config, and national reporting
• 15–25 Area Coordinators — each managing 15–40 sites in their region
• 5–10 Site Coordinators — for the busiest or most complex individual sites
• Admin uses At-a-Glance view for national oversight
• Area coordinators are the primary day-of managers
• Site coordinators handle their specific locations

Pattern 4: Multi-programme organisation

• 1 Owner manages tenants, billing, and integrations
• 2–4 Volunteer Admins — one per programme/campaign
• Each Volunteer Admin runs their own campaign independently
• Coordinators are assigned per campaign

Onboarding coordinators

When you assign someone as a coordinator for the first time, they'll need to know:

What to tell them

1. "You'll get an email" — they receive an invitation with a login link
2. "Use the login link to access the roster" — they don't need to create a password
3. "You'll only see your sites" — they won't be confused by the whole campaign
4. "Here's what you can do" — add walk-ins, move volunteers, export a PDF
5. "Export a PDF before you leave" — phone reception at sites can be unreliable

Common coordinator questions

Managing admin users

Adding an admin

1. Go to Settings > Users in the admin portal
2. Click Add User
3. Enter their email address
4. Select their role
5. They'll receive an invitation email with a login link

Changing a user's role

1. Go to Settings > Users
2. Find the user
3. Update their role from the dropdown
4. Changes take effect immediately — they'll see their updated permissions on next page load

Removing admin access

1. Go to Settings > Users
2. Find the user and either:
   • Change their role to Volunteer (they keep their volunteer account)
   • Remove them entirely (their account is deactivated)

Multi-tenant admin access

Owners can switch between tenants without logging out:

1. Click the tenant switcher in the admin portal header
2. Select the target tenant
3. A new session is created — you're now managing that tenant

Admin permissions carry across tenants within your organisation. Coordinator roles are tenant-specific.

Authentication

All users — volunteers and admins — use passwordless login:

1. Enter email address
2. Receive a login link via email
3. Click the link to sign in

If the login link doesn't arrive, users can request a one-time passcode (OTP) instead — a 6-digit code sent to their email. See Login & Authentication for troubleshooting.

Session duration:

• Admin sessions: 24 hours
• Volunteer sessions: 24 hours
• After expiry, users need to sign in again (data and bookings are unaffected)

Passkeys: PurposeTech also supports passkeys for faster login. Users can register a passkey (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello) and sign in with biometric authentication instead of email.

Bulk importing volunteers

For large campaigns, you can import volunteers from a CSV file instead of waiting for self-service signup:

1. Go to Volunteers > Import
2. Download the CSV template
3. Fill in the data:

4. Upload and preview — the system validates every row:
   • Red rows = validation errors (invalid email, missing required fields)
   • Orange rows = existing users (matched by email — won't be overwritten)
   • Blue rows = field differences between CSV and existing record
5. Select rows to import using checkboxes
6. Import — selected volunteers are created

After import, you can optionally:

• Assign them to specific shifts
• Send them a registration email to complete verification
• Bulk-schedule any emails they've missed

Audit & compliance

PurposeTech maintains an audit trail for access control changes:

• Role changes — every role assignment and removal is logged with the admin who made the change and a timestamp
• Login events — successful and failed login attempts are recorded
• Data access — exports and bulk operations are logged
• Session management — sessions expire after 24 hours of inactivity. There is no "remember me" — volunteers authenticate via a fresh login link each time

Audit logs are retained for the life of your account and are available to Owners in the admin portal.

Common questions

What roles are available?

See Glossary for definitions.

How do I assign someone as an area coordinator?

In the admin portal:

1. Go to the Area you want to assign
2. Select the user from the coordinator dropdown
3. Their role is automatically set to Area Coordinator

They'll immediately have access to the roster for all sites within their assigned areas.

Can an area coordinator manage more than one area?

Yes. You can assign a coordinator to multiple areas. They'll see all sites across all their assigned areas in the roster.

What's the difference between a site coordinator and a site contact?

• Site Coordinator — has roster access for their specific site. Can add, move, and remove volunteers.
• Site Contact — no admin or roster access. It's just a name and phone number recorded against a site, so people know who to contact about that location (e.g., a property manager or building supervisor).

Can I change someone's role?

Yes. Go to Settings > Users, find the user, and change their role from the dropdown. Changes take effect immediately.

What happens when I remove a coordinator?

If you remove an area coordinator from all their areas, their role automatically reverts to Volunteer. They lose roster access but their volunteer account and any shift bookings remain intact.

How many coordinators do I need?

It depends on your campaign size:

A good rule: each area coordinator should manage 10–40 sites. More than that becomes unwieldy; fewer makes the role redundant.

Next steps

• Login & Authentication — troubleshoot login issues
• Organisation Setup — tenant configuration
• Roster Management — how coordinators use the roster on event day