People, Users and Logins
Qik keeps three closely related ideas apart: the profile that describes a person, the Qik account someone signs in with, and the login that gives that person access to your organisation. Knowing which is which explains why adding someone to your database doesn't let them sign in, and why one person can have different access in different places.
The three ideas
| Concept | What it is | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Profile (Person) | A data record about a human being: name, emails, phone numbers, date of birth, custom fields, group memberships. A profile has no password and grants no access by itself. | People → Profiles |
| Qik account | A person's own identity on the Qik platform: an email address with a password (or Google / Apple sign-in). One account can belong to many organisations. | The account menu → User Settings (your own only) |
| Login (shown as a "User") | Someone's membership in your organisation. This is where access lives: access passes, roles and the Account Administrator switch. | People → Users, and Access Control |
In short: a profile is information about someone; a login is permission for someone. Creating a profile never gives anyone access, and removing a login doesn't delete their profile.
Two kinds of login
Every login is one of two kinds:
| Dashboard login | App login | |
|---|---|---|
| Signs in to | The Qik dashboard (app.qik.dev) | Your own apps and websites built on Qik that have sign-in turned on |
| Identified by | The person's Qik account (their email) | A username (an email address) and a password that belong to your organisation only |
| Typically used for | Staff, administrators, coordinators | Members, customers, students, parents using your portal or app |
| How it is created | You invite them by email, or they join with an invite code | The person signs up in your app, or you invite an existing app login to an app |
The same email address can hold one of each kind in your organisation — for example, a coach who manages records in the dashboard and also uses your club app as a member. It can't hold two logins of the same kind in the same organisation; update the existing login's access instead.
Finding logins in the dashboard
Go to People. The Users panel ("People who can log in to your apps and dashboard") has:
- Invite User — invite someone to the dashboard.
- Your organisation App Users — every app login (shown when you have at least one app).
- View All Users — every login of both kinds.
- Dashboard Users — everyone who can sign in to the dashboard.
- Pending Invitations — dashboard invitations that haven't been accepted yet.
- Blocked / Banned Users — logins that have been blocked.
Inviting someone to the dashboard
- Go to People and click Invite User. (Or, from a person's profile, use the Invite as user action — it fills in their name and first email for you.)
- Enter their first name, last name and the email address to send the invitation to.
- Give them access by adding one or more Access Passes. Only switch on Account Administrator for people who should have full control of the whole organisation.
- Save. Qik emails them a "You're invited" message with a Complete your registration button.
What happens next depends on the person:
- They don't have a Qik account yet — they register using the link. Once their email address is confirmed, the invitation is accepted automatically and they land in your organisation.
- They already have a Qik account with that email — the login is usually connected to their account straight away, and your organisation appears in their Switch Organisation list.
If an invitation goes missing, open the login from Pending Invitations and use Send Invitation Link to send it again.
Invite codes
Instead of inviting people one by one, you can let them join with a code:
- Open an access pass (in Access Control) and switch on Enable Invite Code.
- Save. An Invite code panel appears with the full code (your organisation's key plus a short code) and a Copy button.
- Share the code. When someone signs up to Qik they choose Join an existing organisation, enter the code, and get a dashboard login with that access pass attached. If they already have a login in your organisation, the pass is added to it.
People who join this way are never made Account Administrators. If a code leaks, click Regenerate — the old code stops working immediately. Turning the switch off pauses the code without changing it.
App logins
App logins are for your own apps and websites, not for the dashboard. They usually appear when someone signs up or signs in to one of your apps. To send existing app logins a welcome email with a link to choose their password, select them and use Send App Invitation, then pick the application. Only applications with sign-in enabled are offered, and the link signs them straight in to that application once they've chosen a password. See Application Access and Permissions for how app sign-in and permissions are configured.
How logins are linked to profiles
A login is connected to profiles by email address. When someone signs in, Qik looks for profiles in your organisation that list their login email, and treats those profiles as "theirs" for that session:
- App logins: if no matching profile exists, one is created (or merged into an existing match) when they sign in.
- Dashboard logins: matching profiles are linked once the person has confirmed they own their email address. If none exists, a profile is created in the login's scope.
One of the matched profiles is recorded as the login's Linked Profile — "who this login is", used for things like messaging.
Why the link matters
Many features use "the profiles this login belongs to" to give access based on what someone is involved in, rather than through a broad role. For example:
- Groups — holding a position (such as leader) in a group can give access to that group's members and records.
- Events and rosters — someone rostered onto an event can see what they need for that event.
- Workflows — people attached to a workflow card can work with that card.
- Participants — on types that support it, "in" permissions apply to records where the person is listed as a participant.
- Self-service — where it has been set up for your organisation, people can update their own profile (and those of their dependants) from your app.
So keeping profile email addresses accurate is important. If a person's profile has an old email, their login won't find it, and any access based on their groups or rosters won't appear. If they have two profiles with the same email, both are linked — consider merging duplicate profiles.
Blocking and removing access
- To reduce someone's access, remove access passes from their login. People who are signed in are notified that their access has changed.
- To stop someone signing in at all, delete (block) their login. It moves to Blocked / Banned Users, and an app login that tries to sign in is told it has been blocked. Their profile is not affected.
Deleting a profile does not remove a login, and deleting a login does not remove a profile — manage each separately.
Permissions
Viewing and managing logins needs permissions on Users, and managing access passes needs permissions on Access Passes; see Roles and Permissions and Managing Users and Access Passes. Administrators can also impersonate a login to check what that person sees.