What a co-admin is: IT admin: What is a co-admin and when to use one.
For the account admin: IT admin: How to invite a co-admin and manage co-admins.
- Introduction
- Use Cases
- How to accept a co-admin invitation
- The co-admin banner
- How to switch between the admin’s account and your own account
- Your Account page as a co-admin
- What a co-admin cannot do
- Next Steps
Introduction
A co-admin is one more admin of a company’s cloudHQ setup. You sign in to cloudHQ with your own email address and password, and you get the same view and the same control over that setup that the admin has: the team members, the sync pairs, backups and shares, along with the cloud accounts that are connected and the settings of every cloudHQ app. Every page carries a yellow banner so you can see whose setup you are working in, and you can switch back to your own cloudHQ account whenever you want. The subscription and the list of co-admins stay in the admin’s hands only.
Use Cases
- Your company has a cloudHQ admin and you manage the team too
One person owns the cloudHQ account of your company, and that person is the admin. As a co-admin, you are another admin on that same account. You set up the company backups and check them, you keep the team’s shared labels, templates and signatures in shape, you invite new colleagues and you remove the people who left. All of this runs through your own login. The subscription stays with the admin.
- You cover for the admin
When the admin is away, you can restart a sync pair that stopped, re-authorize a cloud account or help a team member. No need to wait for the admin. The account looks the same to you as it does to the admin.
- You manage the cloudHQ account of a client
As a consultant or an agency, you work inside the client’s account with your own login. The client can see what you created, since each sync pair shows its creator, and takes the access back once the engagement ends.
How to accept a co-admin invitation
- Open the invitation link
An email reaches you with the subject <admin’s email> invited you to be a co-admin of their cloudHQ account. Click the link inside that email. You have 15 days to use the invitation. On the invitation page you’ll see the name of the admin who invited you, along with a description of what a co-admin can do. - Log in or create your cloudHQ account
If you don’t have a cloudHQ account yet, make one on the invitation page and use the email address the invitation went to. If an account already exists for you, log in with it. - Accept the invitation
Click the Accept Invite » button. The admin’s cloudHQ dashboard opens for you, and an email goes to the admin saying you’re now a co-admin. - Signed in with another email address: enter the verification code
Sometimes you’re logged in with a different address than the one the invitation went to. For example, the admin invited an alias of yours. The page then shows You are signed in as <your address> and the invitation was sent to <invited address>. To accept it we will send a code to <invited address>, which you then enter here. Click the Send the code to <invited address> » button.
A 6-digit code arrives at the invited address in an email with the subject Your cloudHQ co-admin verification code. Type the code into the page, then click Confirm and accept ».
Each code works for 15 minutes. To get another one, click Send a new code. That sends a fresh code, but no more than one a minute. Five wrong entries and the code no longer works, so request a new one. The invitation locks after 10 codes or 20 wrong entries, and then the admin has to send you a new invitation.
Three cases make the page turn the invitation down: you run a cloudHQ team of your own, you’re already a co-admin on a different cloudHQ account, or you’re already a co-admin on this one. The page tells you which of the three applies. Ask the admin who invited you how you should proceed.
The co-admin banner
When you work as co-admin, a banner sits on every page of the cloudHQ dashboard: You are acting as co-admin of <admin’s email> and you manage the team in the same way as <admin’s email> can. You are logged in as <your email>. Up in the page header you’ll see your own email address, followed by the note (co-admin of <admin’s email>). Any page you open and anything you change there belongs to the admin’s account.
Each sync pair on the Sync & Backup page names the person who set it up: Created by admin <email> or Created by co-admin <email>.
How to switch between the admin’s account and your own account
- Switch to your own account
In the banner, click Switch to my own account ». You now work in your own cloudHQ account. Your own sync pairs, cloud accounts and settings apply. The banner then reads IMPORTANT: You are working in your own account <your email> and not acting as co-admin. You also have permission to act as co-admin of <admin’s email>. - Act as co-admin again
In the banner, click Act as co-admin ». That takes you back to the admin’s account.
cloudHQ remembers your choice. It is kept after you log out, and on every browser and device, until you switch again. The cloudHQ Chrome extensions you use with your login follow the same choice, so as long as you act as co-admin, they work on the admin’s account. Your admin can see on their Users page when you are working in your own account.
Your Account page as a co-admin
Even when you’re working as co-admin, the Account page shows your own name and email address. That’s the place to change your own password and the security settings for your own login. In the subscription row you’ll see this: Controlled by the account admin, <admin’s email>. Only the admin can upgrade, add licences or cancel. If you’re a co-admin, no Upgrade or Add licenses buttons appear.
When you use the delete-account option here, it removes your own cloudHQ account and leaves the admin’s account alone.
What a co-admin cannot do
- You can’t change the subscription. That covers upgrades, adding licences, switching the plan and cancelling. Ask the admin to do it.
- Inviting, revoking and removing co-admins is off limits too. The Co-admins section on the Users page is read-only for you, and you won’t find a co-admin option in the invite form.
- You can’t give up the co-admin role or leave the team yourself. The admin has to revoke your access or remove you from the team.
Regular team members are a different story: you invite them and manage them the same way the admin does.