Users and stakeholders in SRM | Civio Engage Knowledge Base [Skip to content](#main) [ ![Civio Engage Knowledge Base](/civio-light.svg) ](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io) [Product documentation](/articles) [Release notes](/releases) [Roadmap](/roadmap) [ Support portal ](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/portal/login) Toggle navigation [Product documentation](/articles) [Release notes](/releases) [Roadmap](/roadmap) [Support portal](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/portal/login) 1. [Home](/) › 2. [Product documentation](/articles) › 3. [Stakeholder Management](/articles?category=16) › 4. Users and stakeholders in SRM Users and stakeholders in SRM ============================= Updated 4 weeks ago · 5 min read Search Search A **user** is an account on your engagement site: someone who has registered, can sign in, and may follow projects or submit surveys. A **stakeholder** is an SRM record: someone your team is tracking a relationship with. They are separate records, and the difference matters as soon as you start moving data in. **Any user can become a stakeholder, but most stakeholders are not users.** A stakeholder record does not need an account behind it, so you can track people who will never register on your engagement site. What each record is for ----------------------- - A user account exists so someone can sign in, follow a project, and submit feedback. Its details are entered and maintained by the account holder. - A stakeholder record holds your team's own view of a relationship: influence, interest, sentiment, who owns it, what has been said and promised. It is internal, and it exists whether or not the person ever registers. What links them: the contact email ---------------------------------- The link between a user and a stakeholder is an **email address**: the **Email** field on a contact card inside the stakeholder record. See [Stakeholders](/articles/stakeholders). You do not create the link. When a contact's email matches the email on a user account, SRM matches them automatically. Nothing to tick, no button to press. A stakeholder can have several contact cards, each with its own email, so one stakeholder can be matched to a work account and a personal one. ![A stakeholder record with the sidebar Primary contact card highlighted, showing the contact email and the green Website user badge beside it](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/QdNqJGzXfHjiCgWvLziYWvkCQ1WuKijxvrB2cfJ1.png) ### The Website user badge Where a match exists, a badge appears next to the email on the contact card: Badge What it means **Website user** (green) There is a user account on this email and the address has been verified. Click the badge to open that user's profile. **Unverified website user** (orange) There is an account on this email, but the address has not been verified. The badge still opens the profile, and timeline activity still flows, but a [stakeholder mapping](/articles/capturing-stakeholders-from-a-survey) handler will skip the record until the address is verified. No badge means no account exists on that address yet. What flows across the link -------------------------- Once a stakeholder and a user account are matched, activity from the account lands on the stakeholder's [timeline](/articles/timeline) without anyone logging it: - **Survey submissions** become a **Survey** interaction, with the survey's title as the subject. - **Document downloads**, **event RSVPs** (added and removed) and **project follows** (and unfollows). - **Logins**, **password resets** and **profile updates**. An accurate contact email is what makes this happen; nothing else needs setting up. ### How survey submissions become interactions When someone submits a survey **while signed in**, SRM looks for a stakeholder contact with that email. If it finds one, it creates a Survey interaction and fills in what it can: - The interaction is logged against that stakeholder. - The **organisation** comes from the matched contact card. - If the survey sits in a project and that project is linked to an initiative, the interaction is linked to the **initiative** too. **Anonymous submissions are not matched.** If someone fills in a survey without signing in, no interaction is created, even if they type a known email address into a question. An email typed into a form field is not proof of identity, so SRM will not write to a stakeholder record on the strength of it. If you want submissions tied to stakeholder records, set the survey to require a signed-in submitter. The submitter enters their email and a one-time code rather than going away to register. See [Magic Code Authentication](/articles/12348184230927-Magic-Code-Authentication-Quick-and-Easy-Access). Turning users into stakeholders ------------------------------- There is **no setting that turns every new registration into a stakeholder**, and no bulk "convert these users" action on the users list. The routes in are: Route Use it when Create the stakeholder by hand Handfuls of records, or anyone who needs judgement applied. See [Stakeholders](/articles/stakeholders). A survey handler You want people to add or update themselves: an event sign-up, an expression of interest, a profile-refresh form. See [Capturing stakeholders from a survey](/articles/capturing-stakeholders-from-a-survey). A one-off import You are migrating existing lists. See [Getting your stakeholder data into SRM](/articles/getting-your-stakeholder-data-into-srm). The API You are syncing from another system, or classifying records in bulk from a script. See [Working with the Civio Engage API](/articles/working-with-the-civio-engage-api). Whichever route you use, matching a contact email to an existing account is automatic. You do not need to do anything extra to connect the two. Duplicates and the same email twice ----------------------------------- SRM does **not** treat a contact email as unique. Nothing stops two stakeholder records carrying the same address, and you will not get a warning when it happens. That matters most when several teams bring their own lists into one platform. Two things help: - **Search before you create.** The **Search stakeholders** box on the stakeholders list matches on name, so a quick look catches the obvious cases. - **Deduplicate before you import.** There is no merge tool, so two records for the same person stay two records once interactions, issues and tasks hang off both. One stakeholder, several organisations, is *not* a duplicate. Add a second contact card with the other organisation and email rather than a second stakeholder record, so the person keeps one timeline. Who can see it: users, roles and teams -------------------------------------- Three separate things decide what a member of your team sees in SRM: - **Their user account**: whether they can sign in to the dashboard at all. - **Their role**: Stakeholder Manager can edit, Stakeholder Viewer can only read. See [SRM Roles](/articles/srm-roles). - **Their teams**: which records those rights apply to. See [Teams in SRM](/articles/teams-in-srm). None of that has anything to do with whether the *stakeholder* has an account. A stakeholder who is also a website user gets no extra access to your dashboard. Related articles ---------------- - [Stakeholders](/articles/stakeholders) - [Capturing stakeholders from a survey](/articles/capturing-stakeholders-from-a-survey) - [Getting your stakeholder data into SRM](/articles/getting-your-stakeholder-data-into-srm) - [Create and edit users](/articles/9176782341263-Create-and-edit-users) Was this article helpful? ------------------------- Your feedback helps us prioritise what to rewrite. Yes No [ Back to Stakeholder Management ](/articles?category=16) On this page ### Still need help? Raise a request in the support portal and track it to resolution. [ Submit a support request ](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/portal/login) Submit a support request through the [support portal](/portal) or email . © 2026 [Civio](https://civ.io) [Privacy Policy](/articles/privacy-policy) [Terms of Use](/articles/terms-of-use)