Decentralized User Management

Summary: This guide explains how to enable and use decentralized user management in Speakap. Organizations with a centralized employee database typically rely on our automated User Sync, but companies with franchises or decentralized structures need more flexibility. With this setup, Network Administrators let local admins invite and remove users within their own Business Units or Local Departments.

1. When to use decentralized user management

For companies with a centralized database of their employees, the User Sync feature is often all they need to manage their Speakap users automatically. But if you don't have such a database, or you work with many franchises, a centralized approach might not be possible.

For these cases, Speakap lets you decentralize user management, so local managers handle the onboarding and offboarding of their own team members directly.

2. Configuring the role (for Network Admins)

Before a Business Unit or Local Department administrator can manage users, a Network Admin needs to give their role the right permission:

1. Go to your Network settings.
2. Select the Roles section in the menu.
3. Open the role you want to edit, or create a new role.
4. Go to the Network settings tab within the role configuration.
5. Enable the "Manage users and invites within managed organizational groups" permission.
6. Click Save to update the role.

Assigning the role: to assign this role to the right local administrator(s), go back to the Roles screen, hover over the role, click the settings cog on the right side, select Add members, and click Save.

For roles and permissions in general, see Creating and Managing Roles & Permissions.

3. Inviting new users (for Local Admins)

Once a Business Unit or Local Department administrator has the right permission, they can invite new users to their business unit and underlying departments by email:

1. Go to your specific Organization settings (e.g., your Business Unit or Local Department).
2. Select the Invitations section.
3. Click the + Invite button.
4. Enter the email address(es) of the user(s) you want to invite. Note: you can copy and paste multiple email addresses at once, separated by spaces or commas.
5. Select the Business Unit and/or Local Department(s) to assign the user to, and set whether they are an admin or not.
6. (Optional) Add a personal message to the invitation email.
7. Click Invite to send.

Important network access note: with this permission, local administrators invite new users to the entire Speakap network, not just the local group. Invited users will also be able to see and interact with messages posted to the main network Feed.

4. Removing users (for Local Admins)

When an employee leaves the company or changes locations, their access needs to change too. As a local admin with the right permissions, you'll see two options when removing a user from your Business Unit or Local Department:

• Remove from Business Unit: removes the user from your specific Business Unit or Local Department, but not from the Speakap platform. The user can still log in, read network-wide Feed posts, and access other groups they're a member of. Use this for employees transferring to a different company location.
• Remove from Network: completely removes the user from the Speakap network. The user can no longer log in or access any company information. Use this when an employee leaves the company entirely.

Still stuck?

Email us at support@speakap.com with your network name and the role or Business Unit involved, and we'll help you out.