Adding Your Team and Setting Permissions
Nobody can get into your portal until you invite them, and what they see once they are in is entirely your decision. This page covers adding a colleague, building a role that matches their job, and the permission grid that decides who can see your funding figures and who cannot.
What you will learn
- How to add a colleague and what happens if they already use EcoSync
- What 'Panel Member' means and why it matters
- How to build a role with the permissions grid
- The difference between ticking all four boxes and Full Access
- How to remove someone who has left without losing their history
Why this comes first#
There is no public sign-up for your portal. If a colleague cannot get in, it is because they have not been added yet. Spending ten minutes here before your first intake means your team can actually help when applications start arriving, and it means the right people - and only the right people - can see sensitive things like funding and billing.
Important
It is much easier to set roles up properly at the start than to tighten them later, once everyone has got used to seeing everything. People notice access being taken away.
Finding the screen#
Users & Permissions sits at the bottom of the left-hand menu, under Settings. Only admins see it. Four summary cards run across the top - Total Incubation Users, Active Incubation Users, Roles Defined and Recent Activity - and below them a list of everyone at your centre with their role, assigned program count and status. Two buttons sit top right: Manage Roles and Add Incubation User.
- Search by name or email, and filter by role or by active status.
- 'Assigned Programs' shows a count, not names - open the person to see which ones.
- The eye icon opens their profile; the three dots give you edit and remove.
- Tick several people at once and a 'Delete Managers' action appears.
A padlock in the menu
If a menu item shows a small padlock, that area is not part of your current subscription - it is nothing to do with your role. Nobody at your centre can use it until the plan is upgraded.
Adding a colleague#
The form is short and splits into three parts: who they are, what they can do, and which programs they work on. A live preview on the right shows how their profile card will look as you type.
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Start with their email address
Type their email first, before anything else. The portal checks it against EcoSync while you type, and what happens next depends on the answer.
- If they are new to EcoSync, you fill in their name and set a password of at least eight characters.
- If they already have an EcoSync account - as a mentor, a founder, or staff at another centre - a green 'Existing user found' box appears. Their name and photo fill in automatically, the name box locks with 'Auto-filled from existing account' beneath it, and the password box disappears entirely. They sign in with the password they already have.
- The Live Preview panel on the right also gains a green 'Existing User' badge, so you can tell at a glance which kind of account you are creating.
- Occasionally an amber box appears saying the email is registered but details could not be fetched. Carry on; the account still links correctly.
An existing EcoSync account. Note there is no password box, and the name is filled in and locked. Tip: This is why the email box comes before the name box. Fill it in first and let the portal do the work - you may not need to type anything else.
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Choose their role and two switches
Role decides what they can see across the portal. Two switches sit alongside it and they do different jobs.
- Active Status - on means they can sign in. Turn it off to suspend someone without deleting them.
- Panel Member - marks them as an evaluator. This is separate from their role: it is what makes them available to be assigned to a program's evaluation panel.
Tip: External evaluators - an investor or professor who scores applications for you - usually get a very limited role plus Panel Member switched on. That way they can score what you assign them and nothing else.
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Choose their programmes and what they can do in each
Under Program Assignment, pick a programme from Add a programme. A grid opens under it, filled in from their role: what the role gives for Program Creation and Program Management, plus View. Tick or untick boxes to give them more or less in that programme only, or switch on Full access in this programme. Then press Add incubation user.
- Light ticks come from the role; solid blue ones were added for this programme. Create under Program Creation is greyed out: creating a programme stays with the role.
- Each programme says Same as role or Changed for this programme. Reset to role puts the role's ticks back.
- Scores applications in this programme gives them a panel seat there, so they can evaluate its applications.
- A programme can also give less than the role. Untick View and they will not see that programme at all; a warning under the grid says what it takes away.
- Leave the list empty if this person works across everything their role allows.
- Cancel discards the whole form - nothing is saved until you press Add incubation user.
Ticks added for this programme are blue; ones from the role are light. The line underneath says what they can do there. Tip: What you set for a programme stays as it is if you change their role later. Use Reset to role to bring one programme back in line with the role.
How permissions actually work#
Rather than a handful of fixed job titles, you build roles yourself. A role is a name plus a grid: nineteen areas of the portal down the side, and what this role can do in each one across the top.
| Permission | What it lets someone do |
|---|---|
| View | See the screen and read what is on it. Nothing else. |
| Create | Add new records - a new startup, a new booking, a new task. |
| Edit | Change records that already exist. |
| Delete | Remove records. |
| Full Access | Everything in that area, now and in future. Not the same as ticking the other four. |
Full Access is not just 'all four boxes'
Ticking Full Access replaces the individual permissions rather than adding to them, and it covers anything new that gets added to that area later. You can see this on screen: a Full Access row shows its four boxes in a pale shade, whereas a permission you ticked yourself is solid blue. For a trusted admin, use Full Access. For everyone else, tick the specific boxes - it is the safer habit.
Building a role#
Roles live on their own page, reached from Users & Permissions. You get a searchable list of the roles you have already built, showing how many people hold each one.
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Open Roles and create a new one
Give the role a name your team will recognise - 'Front Desk', 'Finance Officer', 'External Evaluator' - and a description saying what the role is responsible for. Both are required.
Your roles, with how many people hold each and when it was created. Create Role sits top right. - 2
Work down the permissions grid
Every area of the portal gets a row, with a short description of what it covers written underneath its name - so you do not have to guess what 'Tenant Settings' means. Tick only what the job actually needs. A row with nothing ticked means that menu simply will not appear for anyone holding this role.
- Five columns: View, Create, Edit, Delete, and Full Access (labelled 'All permissions').
- Ticking Full Access makes all four boxes on that row appear ticked - but in a paler shade, because they are being granted by Full Access rather than set individually.
- A permission you tick yourself shows as a solid blue box. That is how you tell the two apart at a glance.
The difference in practice: User Management has View set explicitly (solid). Role Management has Full Access, so its four boxes show pale. Tip: Build the role for the job, not the person. 'Finance Officer' survives someone leaving; 'Priya's role' does not.
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Know what the nineteen areas cover
The grid is long - scroll it to the bottom before you save. The rows people most often forget are near the end: Funding and Office billing & payouts, which is where your money lives. Plans, invoices, add-ons and the organization's own settings are not in the grid at all - they are for admins.
The bottom of the grid. Funding and Office billing & payouts are the rows to be most careful with.
Some roles worth copying#
Most centres end up with four or five roles. These are the ones that come up again and again.
Centre Head
Full Access everywhere, including Users and Roles. Keep this to one or two people - whoever is genuinely accountable.
Program Manager
Full rights over Programs, Startups and Tasks; view-only on Funding. They run cohorts but do not move money.
Operations Coordinator
Full rights over Office Space, Facilities and Events. No access to Funding, Billing or Users.
Finance Officer
Full rights over Funding and Office billing & payouts; view-only on Programs and Startups so they have context. Invoices and the subscription are for admins.
External Evaluator
Almost nothing ticked, plus the Panel Member switch on their profile. They see only the applications you assign them.
Communications
Announcements and Website only. Enough to keep your cohort and your public page up to date, nothing more.
When someone leaves#
Do not delete them. Turn Active Status off instead. Their account stops working immediately, but everything they did - the applications they reviewed, the tasks they closed, the notes they wrote - stays attached to their name. Deleting a person who has been reviewing applications for a year takes that trail with them, and you will want it at audit time.
Careful
If someone leaves at short notice, switching them to Inactive takes about ten seconds and locks them out straight away. Do that first and tidy up the paperwork afterwards.
Common questions#
Their role does not include that area. Open Users & Permissions, find their role, and tick at least View on the row for that part of the portal.
No - that is the portal being helpful. That person already has an EcoSync account. You do not need to set a password for them, and their name and photo fill in automatically. They sign in with the password they already have.
The role decides which menus and screens someone can reach. Panel Member decides whether they can be put on an evaluation panel and asked to score applications. Someone can be a panel member with almost no other access at all.
No, one role each. If someone genuinely does two jobs, build a role that covers both.
Full Access for people you would trust with everything in that area anyway, because it also covers features added later. Tick individually for everyone else - it is more work once and safer thereafter.
Your plan sets how many people you can have. Deactivating someone who has left frees a place. If you genuinely need more, the plan can be upgraded from the billing section.
No. A padlock means that area is not included in your subscription, so nobody at your centre can use it whatever their role. Changing permissions will not unlock it - the plan needs upgrading.
Solid blue means you ticked that permission yourself. Pale means it is being granted by Full Access on that row. If you untick Full Access, the pale ticks disappear - they were never set individually.
