Before you start

You need to be logged in to the Civic.ly web app with an organisational admin account. If you're not sure whether you have admin access, check with the person who set up Civic.ly for your council.

This guide shows you how to invite new users — councillors, grounds staff, volunteers, or contractors — so they can log in to Civic.ly on the web or the mobile app.

The Settings & Support dropdown menu showing the Manage Users option
Click the app icon in the top right corner and select Manage Users

Step-by-Step

  1. In the web app, click the app icon (four small squares) in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
  2. Select Manage Users from the dropdown menu.

The Settings & Support dropdown menu showing the Manage Users option

  1. On the user screen, click the add user icon (the person with a plus sign) near the top right.

The Manage Users screen showing the list of current users

  1. Enter the person's first name, last name, and email address.
  2. Click Generate to create a temporary password for them.
  3. Choose a role from the dropdown — Read Only (can view everything but not make changes) or Organisation Admin (full access). Once the user is added, you can fine-tune exactly what they can see and do — see How to Manage User Permissions.
  4. Click Add User.

The Add User form filled in with name, email, generated password, and role

The new user will receive an email with their temporary password and a link to log in. Let them know to check their junk or spam folder if it doesn't arrive straight away.

The invitation email with temporary password in Gmail

The Manage Users screen showing the list of current users with their names, emails, and roles
The Manage Users screen shows everyone who has access to your Civic.ly workspace

What the New User Needs to Do

  1. Open the link in the invitation email (or go to app.civic.ly).
  2. Enter their email address and the temporary password from the email. Copy and paste it carefully — it's case sensitive.
  3. They'll be prompted to create a new password. It must be at least 12 characters long, with uppercase, lowercase, a number, and a symbol. Important: the password form currently accepts any input without telling you if it does not meet the requirements. If your new password seems to be accepted but you still cannot log in, double-check it meets all four requirements.
  4. Once their password is reset, they can log in.

The New Password screen where the user creates their own password

They can do this on the web app or the mobile app — whichever they prefer. If they're going to be working in the field, the next step is to configure their mobile device so photos automatically map to the right location.

The Add User form filled in with a name, email, generated password, and Organisation Admin role selected
Fill in their details, generate a temporary password, and choose a role
Tips
  • Tell new users to copy and paste the temporary password rather than typing it out. It's easy to get wrong, especially with mixed case and special characters.
  • If the invitation email doesn't arrive, ask them to check their junk folder before generating a new one.
  • Once a user is set up, they use the same login for both the web app and the mobile app.
A Gmail inbox showing the Civic.ly invitation email with a temporary password
The new user receives an email with their temporary password and a link to log in
The Civic.ly New Password screen where the user creates their own password
On first login, they create their own password — it must be at least 12 characters

Common Questions

Yes. Set their role to Read Only when you add them. They'll be able to see the dashboard, asset register, and map, but won't be able to edit anything.

The most common issue is copying the password incorrectly — extra spaces or missing characters. Ask them to copy and paste it again carefully. It is case sensitive, so uppercase and lowercase letters matter.

Yes. They set a new password when they first log in, and they can change it again at any time through their account settings.

There's no limit — add as many team members as you need. You might want to add your grounds staff, councillors doing inspections, and any contractors who need to see their assigned jobs.

On the mobile app, team members can only see tasks that are assigned to them. This is by design — it keeps their task list focused and means contractors or volunteers only see their own work. If you need several people to see the same task, assign it to multiple people using the Assigned to field.