Administration is where your team manages who can use CoolFocus, what they can do, how access is protected, and your organization's plan and profile.
Most everyday admin work starts with Users, Invitations, and User Groups under Settings → Security. Use Organization Settings and Plan & Billing for org profile and subscription. Use the other Security pages when you need tighter controls or need to review activity.
Where Administration lives in Settings
Open Settings from the left navigation. Administration topics show up in a few groups:
Settings (sometimes called General Settings) — Organization Settings, Sidebar Layout, Embed Widgets, and Plan & Billing
Security — Users, User Groups, Invitations, IP Addresses, Multi-factor authentication, Security Log, User Logs, Legal & Compliance, and (when licensed) Data Access Rules
You only see pages your role allows. Plan & Billing, Invitations, and most Security tools are for organization administrators.
Organization Settings
Organization Settings is your center's public-facing profile inside CoolFocus — the name, contact details, logo, and mailing address used across the product.
Where to find it
Open Settings, then choose Organization Settings (under the Settings / General Settings group).
What you can set
Organization name (required)
Email
Website
Logo — used in places that pull your branding (for example template headers that show your organization logo)
Address — Address 1, Address 2, City, State, and Zip
Tax ID (EIN) — your organization's federal tax ID, used to fill the tax ID merge field and the letterhead block on gift receipts, giving statements, and other document templates
Click Save when you finish editing.
When to use it
Your legal or common name changed
You need an updated logo on branded materials
Contact or address details used on documents or portals need to stay current
Your EIN is missing or wrong on gift receipts or giving statements
Organization Settings is about who your organization is (name, logo, address, tax ID). It is not where you pick your subscription plan — that is Plan & Billing. Supported languages for client-facing content are managed in Client Portal / Schedule reminder settings, not here.
Organization Settings is only one of several places branding lives. The Client Portal, the Website Chat Widget, and donation pages each have their own logo, color, or text settings, and some depend on your plan. See Where Branding Settings Live for the full map.
CPC Client Fields
Pregnancy center (CPC) organizations also see a CPC Client Fields section on Organization Settings, with a Show External Client ID switch.
When it's on (the default), the External Client ID field appears on the client's Client Info form and on the client creation form.
Turning it off removes the field from those forms for every staff member in your organization. It does not delete any External Client ID already saved on a client, and clients can still be found by that ID in client search.
Only administrators see and can change this setting.
See Client Records and History for what the External Client ID field is used for.
Plan & Billing
Plan & Billing is where administrators view the organization's CoolFocus plan, switch plans when package-based licensing is available, see what is included, and open the billing portal for payment methods and invoices.
Where to find it
Open Settings, then under General Settings choose Plan & Billing.
Only organization administrators see this page.
Your current plan
At the top you will see your current plan name, monthly price when shown, and any badge (for example Most Popular).
If your organization has not moved to package-based licensing yet, you will see a note that you are on legacy module licensing. You can choose a plan below to move to package-based access.
If CoolFocus recommends a plan based on how your organization uses the product, that recommendation appears in a highlighted card with reasons. You can still select a different plan; your selection is saved.
Changing your plan
Under Available plans, plans are grouped so you only see sections that apply to your organization — for example pregnancy center plans, nonprofit plans, or Love INC plans.
Each plan card shows the name, monthly price, tagline, short highlights, and badges such as:
Current — the plan you are on today
Recommended — the plan CoolFocus suggests from your usage
Other badges configured for that plan (for example Most Popular)
Select a plan card, then click Save in the header. Save stays disabled until you choose a plan different from the one you already have. Plan changes take effect in the app right away.
If the update succeeds but the confirmation step fails to record, you may see a message asking you to refresh and try again. Refresh the page and check the current plan before retrying.
What's included
When a package is selected, the What's included card lists the modules and features on your current plan — a quick reference for what the organization can access.
Billing portal
If billing portal access is available for your organization, a Billing card shows Open billing portal. Use it to:
Update your payment method
View past invoices
Manage subscription payment details with the billing provider
Changing plans on the Plan & Billing page updates what CoolFocus unlocks for your organization. The billing portal is for payment and invoices — not the place you pick Core / Plus / Premium inside CoolFocus. Some organizations on manual or annual invoicing may not see the portal until billing is connected; contact Support if you need help with invoices.
Full detail: Plan & Billing Settings.
Security Settings
Security is where you manage staff logins, what each role can open, where people may sign in from, and activity history.
Users
The Users page lists everyone who can sign in to CoolFocus for your organization.
A user is a staff or team login — not a client, donor, volunteer, or contact record.
Where: Settings → Security → Users
Use Users to:
Review who has access
Open a person's profile
Assign a user group
Turn Administrator on or off
Link the login to a People record (Linked Person) so schedule and Home views resolve the right person
Remove access when someone leaves
Open View activity log (jumps to User Logs for that person)
Administrator vs regular user:
Administrator — can open every module your organization is licensed for
Not an administrator — sidebar modules come from their user group
Full detail: Users.
Invitations
Use Invitations when someone needs to create a CoolFocus login for the first time.
Where: Settings → Security → Invitations
Before you send an invite, decide which user group they should join so they get the right access when they accept.
Also see Inviting Your Team and Invitations.
User Groups
User groups answer two questions for staff who are not full administrators:
What areas can this person open?
What can they do there (view, add, edit, delete)?
A user group is a named set of people who share the same access. Build groups that match real jobs (finance, client services, events, volunteer coordination) instead of setting every person one by one.
Where: Settings → Security → User Groups
Open a group to set:
Permissions — which modules appear in the sidebar and what they can do on each area/page
Activity Type Access — which restricted activity types (on notes, calls, tasks, attachments) the group can see or use
Other tabs your organization uses (for example AI data access, when enabled)
Manage user groups only from Settings → Security → User Groups. Do not use a generic “Manage List” popup next to a User Group dropdown — that simple options editor is not where permission groups are maintained.
User groups control areas and pages. Limiting which individual records someone can see (for example only their own clients) is a separate Premium feature: Data Access Rules.
Full detail: User Groups: What Staff Can Open and Change.
If a module icon is missing from someone's sidebar, walk through Troubleshooting: A module icon is missing from the sidebar before changing several groups at once.
IP Addresses
Limit sign-ins to approved network locations (for example office-only access).
Where: Settings → Security → IP Addresses
Use carefully: if an allowed address changes, people can be blocked until the list is updated. Details: IP Address Access.
Multi-factor authentication
Whether staff must confirm a second factor, such as an authenticator app, a text message code, or a backup code, before they can enter your organization.
Any staff member can turn MFA on for their own login from their profile picture → Manage account → Security, whether or not the organization requires it. An administrator can also require MFA for everyone, from the page below.
Where: Settings → Security → Multi-factor authentication
Full detail: Multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Security Log
Read-only history of sign-in success, sign-in failure, logout, and IP denied events. Filter by event type and date. From a recent IP denied row you can Approve IP for a short window, or add the address under IP Addresses.
Where: Settings → Security → Security Log
Full detail: Security Log.
User Logs
A broader staff activity timeline: sign-ins, clinical record access, and field-level record changes. Filter by person, category, and date. You can also open it from a user profile via View activity log.
Where: Settings → Security → User Logs
Full detail: User Logs.
Data Access Rules
When your plan includes them, Data Access Rules limit which individual records a user group can see or change (for example only one campus's donors). They sit on top of User Groups — groups decide what areas open; rules decide which rows appear.
Where: Settings → Security → Data Access Rules
Full detail: Data Access Rules: Limit Which Records Staff Can See.
Legal & Compliance
Review and sign the standard BAA / vendor confidentiality agreement, download the executed PDF, and find compliance documents (privacy, terms, subprocessors, security overview). Available to organization administrators without opening a support ticket for the standard agreement.
Where: Settings → Security → Legal & Compliance
Full detail: Legal & Compliance Settings.
For a short map of the Security area only, see Security Settings at a Glance.
Suggested order for common tasks
1. New staff member — send an Invitation, assign a User Group, confirm Users shows them active, and link Linked Person if they use schedule/Home.
2. Role change — update the user group (or Administrator flag) on the Users page; prefer changing the group once over editing many people.
3. Someone cannot see a module — check licensing on Plan & Billing, then Administrator / user group module access, then the module icon troubleshooting checklist.
4. Sign-in blocked — check Security Log for IP denied, then IP Address Access.
5. Plan or payment — use Plan & Billing for the product plan; use Open billing portal for cards and invoices when available.
6. Org name or logo — use Organization Settings.
Best practice
Give each person the access their job needs. Avoid broad Administrator access unless it is truly required. When several people share a job, maintain a user group instead of one-off settings per person. Write down major security changes so you can undo them if something goes wrong.