The Users page lists the people who can sign in to CoolFocus for your organization.

A user is different from a client, donor, volunteer, or contact. A user is a staff member or team member who needs a login.

Open Settings, then go to Security and choose Users.

You may see views such as All Users or segment views that help you review certain groups of users.

Use the Users page to:

Each user can belong to only one user group at a time. You cannot stack two groups on the same login (for example, both “Staff” and “Volunteer”).

Why CoolFocus works this way

If one person had several groups, those groups could disagree. One group might allow Care and clients; another might deny clients or hide a module. CoolFocus would then have to guess which rule wins — and different combinations would be hard to explain, hard to audit, and easy to get wrong.

So access is intentionally simple:

How to set this up in practice

Think of each user group as a role profile or access policy for your organization — not as a pile of overlapping labels you attach to one person.

For how groups control areas, pages, and module settings, see User Groups: What Staff Can Open and Change.

Turning on Administrator for someone does not clear their user group field. CoolFocus keeps that assignment because organizations still signed in to CoolFocus 3 use it to control what that person can do there, and administrators are no exception on the CoolFocus 3 side. The User group field stays open for editing on an administrator's profile, so you can still change it if needed.

If someone already has a user group assigned and you turn Administrator off for them, choose a user group before saving. CoolFocus blocks the save and asks you to pick one, so a demoted administrator is never left without any group. If the person never had a user group assigned in the first place, you can turn Administrator off without picking one.

A login belongs to one user group, so picking a new group replaces the old one instead of adding a second one. The person's access switches to whatever the new group allows as soon as you save.

Open a user's profile and edit the Login Username field, then select Save. Usernames can be up to 64 characters and must be unique across your organization.

Renaming the username updates the sign-in name on that person's existing account. It does not create a new user, and it does not change the display name, user group, linked person, access history, or other account settings. CoolFocus saves the change first and then syncs the new username to the sign-in system, so allow a short time before the person can sign in with it.

Every user needs a username. If you save a profile with the Login Username field blank or with only spaces, CoolFocus keeps that person's current username instead of clearing it, so a blank field on save can never accidentally lock someone out. The one exception is a user who has no username on file yet: saving the profile without entering one there returns an error asking you to set a username first.

If the username you want is already taken, or the change does not take effect after a short wait, contact CoolFocus Support.

If a staff member already has a user account, rename that account instead of creating a second one. A duplicate account can split their linked record, permissions, and activity history across two logins. Create a new user only when the person has no existing account in your organization.

The Users page has no password field, so an administrator cannot set or change another user's password from a profile. If someone forgot their password, have them select Forgot password on the sign-in page, or see Logging In & Finding Your Way Around for how to change a password while signed in.

An administrator can update the email address on a user's account.

This only changes the email address on that login. It does not touch anything else on the account:

Changing the email does not change the Login Username used to sign in. If the person also needs a new sign-in name, update the Login Username field separately, as described above.

Saving changes on a user's profile, like a new name, email, or user group, only changes the fields you actually touched. It does not read or reset that person's Active status.

That means:

To turn someone's access on or off, use the Active toggle on their profile directly.

Open a user's profile, open the Actions menu, and choose Delete User. This is available whether the user is active or already deactivated, you no longer need to deactivate someone first.

If the user is still active when you delete them, CoolFocus turns off their sign-in (deactivates them) in the same step, then removes their login from the Users page. The confirmation dialog tells you this is about to happen before you confirm.

Deleting a login does not erase the person's record:

Open a user's profile and find the Linked Person field. Search by name and select the correct person, volunteer, or staff record to connect the login to it.

Linked Person search only returns people who already carry the Staff or Volunteer involvement flag. A donor-only record will not appear in the results, even if that is the person you want to link.

If the new user was previously only a donor, keep their existing record instead of creating a new one:

Someone who has never been a client, donor, volunteer, or staff member has no record for Linked Person to find, so the search comes back empty no matter what you type. This is common for a new consultant who only just got a login.

Instead of creating that record in Serve first, open the user's profile and select Create Staff. This creates a new Staff record for that person and links it to their login in the same step. A consultant set up this way still needs a Scheduler position and work hours (or a spot in Serve → Positions → Qualified Team Members) before they show up in a visit's consultant dropdown or on the Scheduler Staff tab; see Positions and Staff Positions and Work Schedules.

Two permission settings can keep a record out of the Linked Person search even after the Staff or Volunteer flag is on:

Some organizations see Linked Person reject a selection with a "staff not found" or "not valid person" error, even though the record carries the correct Volunteer flag, the right user group has View permission, and no Data Access Rule excludes it. So far this only affects volunteer records; linking a staff record works normally.

This is a confirmed bug, not a setup mistake on your end. Our development team has it and is working on a fix; there is no workaround yet.

If you hit this error:

For more on why this link matters and how it connects to positions and schedule views, see Scheduler Views.

Open a user's profile as an administrator and you'll see a Sign-in status card. It tells you whether that person can currently sign in, instead of leaving you to guess from an "active" checkbox alone.

The card shows one of these statuses, with a short explanation and, where there's something to do, what to do next:

This replaces guesswork for the most common support question on this page: whether someone has no account at all, or has an account they simply haven't used yet.

From a user's profile, open the Quick Actions menu and choose View activity log to jump to User Logs, pre-filtered to that person. It shows their sign-in activity, clinical record access, and field-level record changes.

Open a user's profile and select the Notifications tab next to Details. Only administrators see this tab.

The tab shows the same system-notification matrix that person sees under their own Your notifications page: events grouped by area, with a switch per channel (In-App, SMS, Email) and a digest option (Immediate, Daily, Weekly) for email. Turning a switch on or off here changes that setting for the user immediately, the same as if they had changed it themselves.

This tab only manages system notifications. Custom notifications (a user's own watch rules) stay under that person's control and are not shown here.

A non-administrator's permissions come from their one user group. If several people need the same access, update the group instead of changing each user separately.

How do I move a user to a different user group? — Open Settings → Security → Users, open the person's profile, change the User Group field, and save. See Changing a user's group above.

How do I add a second user group to someone? — You cannot. Each person has only one user group. Create or adjust a group that matches the full access they need, then assign that single group on their profile. See One user group per person above.

Cannot sign in — Open their profile and check the Sign-in status card. It tells you exactly what's wrong and what to do next. See Checking a user's sign-in status above.

Signed in but a module icon is missing — Confirm Administrator status or user group module access, then see Troubleshooting: A module icon is missing from the sidebar in the administration docs.

Schedule or Home looks empty — Confirm the user's Linked Person field points to their People record.

A consultant is missing from a visit dropdown, or Scheduler Staff is empty — The consultant needs a Staff or Volunteer record. If they already have one, turn on the matching involvement flag and link it under Linked Person (see above). If they have never had a person record at all, open their user profile and select Create Staff, then give them a position and work hours so they show up as available.

I can't find someone in the Linked Person search, and they were a donor or already had Staff/Volunteer status — The search only lists people with the Staff or Volunteer flag. Open their existing record, turn on Staff or Volunteer, and search again. If they still don't appear, check your View permission for Donors and Staff/Volunteers under User Groups, and any Data Access Rules that might limit which records you can see.

Linked Person says "staff not found" or "not valid person" when I try to link a volunteer — This is a known bug affecting volunteer records specifically. Staff records are not affected. There is no workaround yet; contact CoolFocus Support so your case is tracked against the fix.

Username already in use, or a rename did not take effect — Contact CoolFocus Support.

Can I change another user's password? — No. Administrators cannot set or reset another user's password from the Users page. Direct them to select Forgot password on the sign-in page, or see Logging In & Finding Your Way Around.

Don't see a Notifications tab on a user's profile — Only administrators can view or change another user's notification settings. Confirm your own account has Administrator turned on.

Why can't I save after turning Administrator off for someone? — If that person already has a user group assigned, pick a user group before saving. This keeps them from losing all access the moment they stop being an administrator.

Does changing a user's email change their username? — No. Email and Login Username are separate fields. Update each one on its own.

"Delete User" won't go through — You are trying to delete the only active administrator on the account. Make another active user an administrator first, then delete the login.