Before your team can start creating projects and content, you'll need to add them as users and assign the right roles. This article covers how to create internal users and understand the role hierarchy so each person has the access they need.
The Users section
All user management happens under Users in the left-hand menu. This section is split into two areas:
- Users — view and manage individual accounts (All users, Public members, Content managers, Team members).
- Teams — organise users into groups with scoped permissions (Active teams, Pending teams).
Your internal staff appear under Content managers. Community members who register on the public site appear under Public members.
Creating an internal user
To add a new team member:
- Click Users in the left-hand menu.
- Click the Content managers card (or select it from the sub-menu).
- Click the + button in the top-right corner.
- Enter a Name. The recommended format is Firstname.Lastname.
- Enter their Email address.
- Under System roles, tick the appropriate role (see the role breakdown below).
- Optionally assign a Team and Team role if your organisation uses teams.
- Click Save.
The new user will receive an email to set their password and can then log in via the public site.
For the full step-by-step guide including editing and deleting users, see Create and edit users.
Understanding roles
Every internal user needs at least one system role. Roles control what a user can see and do across the platform, and they follow a hierarchy — each role inherits the permissions of the roles below it.
Role breakdown
| Role | What they do | Best for |
| Engagement Officer | Creates and edits content in draft, sends for approval, responds to Q&A submissions. | Day-to-day content creators and engagement staff. |
| Reviewer | Approves or rejects content and participation tools sent for review. Also has all Engagement Officer permissions. | Senior staff who check content before publication. |
| Publisher | Publishes and unpublishes approved content and tools. Also has all Reviewer permissions. | Staff responsible for making content live on the public site. |
| Project Manager | Creates and deletes projects, publishes their own projects. Also has all Publisher permissions. | Project leads who own engagement projects end-to-end. |
| Administrator | Full platform access — manages users, site settings, teams, and all content. Also has all Project Manager permissions. | Platform administrators and IT leads. |
Only assign the level of access each person needs. An Engagement Officer doesn't need Administrator permissions — keeping roles minimal reduces the risk of accidental changes.
For a detailed breakdown of every permission per role, see User roles.
What new users need to know
Once you've created an account for a team member, share the following with them:
- They will receive a welcome email with a link to set their password.
- After setting their password, they log in via the Login button on the public site.
- Once logged in, they click their username in the top-right corner and select Dashboard to access the admin interface.
- They can update their profile and enable two-factor authentication from Manage profile.
For login instructions to share with new staff, see Login to your site. For profile and password management, see Manage your admin profile and Manage your password.
Teams (optional)
If your organisation has multiple departments or groups that need separate access to projects, you can organise users into Teams. Teams scope permissions so that users only see and act on their team's projects.
When creating a user, you can assign them to a team and give them a Team role (Team Lead, Project Manager, Publisher, Reviewer, or Engagement Officer). You can also assign users to multiple teams with different roles in each.
Teams are optional and most suited to larger organisations. For a full guide, see Understanding and Managing Teams and Advanced Team Management.
What's next?
Your team is set up and ready to go. Continue to the next article to create your first project.