ℹ️ This article assumes you've already used ChangePlan as a regular user and are now taking on admin responsibilities. If you're brand new to ChangePlan entirely, we recommend reviewing the general user guides first.

What is a ChangePlan Admin?

Admin only privileges

• See all initiatives and portfolios across the entire organization — including hidden initiatives and portfolios that are invisible to all other users

• Create hidden initiatives and portfolios

• Access the Settings page, which is hidden from all other user types

• Provision and deprovision users — add new users and remove leavers

• Create and delete Portfolios (Full Access users cannot do this)

• Adjust system-wide configuration settings

• Edit any initiative or activity across the platform

• See when users last logged in, useful for auditing platform usage

What admins cannot do from within the platform

• Add or remove another admin — email or lodge a ticket with support

• Delete all data or export all data — contact support to request this

What Admins Can and Can't Do

How many admins?

⚠️ We recommend no more than 1–2 administrators, as it's possible to make changes that significantly affect your entire organization's instance. Administrators receive separate, deeper training beyond the standard user guides.

⚠️ To add or remove another admin, email support@changeplan.co or use the Feedback / Support link at the bottom-left of the app. ChangePlan will action this within a few hours.

Navigating to the Admin Settings

1. Click Settings in the left-hand navigation menu (this option is only visible to admins)

2. You'll land on the Settings page, which has 7 tabs across the top: General Settings, Users, Initiative, Impacts, Org chart, Key dates, Assessment — plus SSO Setup (scroll right if needed)

To Create a Hidden Initiative

• Navigate to the initiative

• Click Initiative Setup → Edit Initiative in the left-hand menu

• Set the Status to Hidden

The Settings Tabs

1. General Settings

• Organizational logo — upload via URL. Appears in system-generated emails, PDF and PowerPoint exports

• Date format — choose between dd/mm/yy and mm/dd/yy

• Email sender display name — the name that appears on system emails sent to your stakeholders (e.g. pulse check emails)

• Initiative hierarchy field names — customise the label for the Portfolio field and the Hashtags field. The Hashtags field is multi-select and can be renamed to match your organization's terminology (e.g. "Function", "Theme"). We recommend keeping the name "Hashtags" as it reflects the multi-select nature of the field

• Hashtags fields — toggle on/off and manage the list of tag values available on initiatives

• Initiative types — toggle on/off and manage the list of initiative type options. Note: this field may appear as "Project type" in some parts of the app — this is a known labelling inconsistency

• Activity burden heatmap sensitivity — set the hour thresholds at which the heatmap shifts colour for both average hours and total hours (Yellow / Orange / Red / Purple)

• Custom Individuals Fields — add up to 3 custom fields that appear on individual audience member records (e.g. "Representation", "Worker Station")

• Change effort assessment heatmap axes titles — customise the X and Y axis labels on the change effort scatter chart (default: Readiness Risk / Change Magnitude)

2. Users

3. Initiative

• Checklist — the list of deliverable items that appear in each initiative's checklist (default: 10 items including stakeholder analysis, change canvas, communications planning, etc.). Add, edit, delete, or reorder

• Change Phases — the 5 stages of the stakeholder change journey shown on the activity Kanban view. Rename to match your methodology (default: Awareness, Eagerness, Know-How, Understanding, Sustainment)

• Custom activity types — add custom intervention types under Communication, Learning, or Custom categories

• Risk categories — manage the list of risk categories available in the change risk assessment

• Custom Groups — toggle labelled "Allow Full Access users to manage Custom Groups." Off by default — turn on if you want Full Access users to manage custom audience groups themselves without needing admin involvement

4. Impacts

• Impact types — the categories of change impacts (default: Customers, Organizational, Structural, Technological, Environment). Each has editable helper text

• Impact magnitude helper text — define what High, Medium, and Low impact means for your organization (shown as hover text to users)

• Heatmap colour logic — toggle between Dominance Rule and Weighted impacts score

• Impact Weighting — set the point values for Low (fixed at 1), Medium, and High impact levels

• Aggregated view colour thresholds — set the green/orange/red thresholds at each org chart level (Level 1–5) to avoid heatmaps being skewed at higher aggregation levels

⚠️ Avoid changing heatmap settings frequently — it makes historical report comparisons unreliable. Use Restore Defaults if needed.

5. Org chart

• Org chart tiers — rename the vertical levels of your org chart (default: Org Level 1 through Org Level 5)

• Org chart browser — a multi-column view of your hierarchy. Click a group to see its children. Use the + button at the bottom of any column to add a new group at that level

• Update Org Chart button (top right) — upload a full org chart via the XLS template. The system flags differences and prompts you to handle deleted groups and reallocate project data

• Delete All Individuals button (bottom right) — removes all individual audience members. Licensed users are not affected. Use with extreme caution — this cannot be undone

⚠️ Child group inheritance: When you add a new child group under an existing org chart group, the child automatically inherits all initiative, impact, and activity data from the parent — unless the parent was only partially added to those items.

💡 For large or frequently-changing organizations, always contact your ChangePlan Customer Success contact for support with org chart uploads — it's easy to create duplicate records or mapping errors.

6. Key dates

• Description — the label that appears on timelines

• Start date and End date

• Blackout period? toggle — when enabled, users receive a warning if they try to schedule an activity overlapping this range. This does not prevent scheduling, it only warns

💡 Use the description to explain why a period is blacked out — users will see this in the warning message.

7. Assessment

• the questions used in readiness & adoption pulse checks

• the questions and answers in the change effort assessments

• the text sections available in the Change Canvas page

• Readiness questions — one question per change ‘phase’ (these phase names are configurable and are intended to align to steps of the stakeholder’s experience of the change ‘journey’). Edit to match your organization's language

• Adoption questions — 3 questions tracking adoption criteria. Default adoption sections are Uptake, Proficiency, and Usage outcome. These are configurable.

• Export All Assessment XLS — downloads all assessment data for your organization

• Questions — 12 questions total covering scale of change and stakeholder readiness. Click a question to see and edit its answer variants in the right-hand panel. Each question's Likert scale responses can be calibrated with specific point values

• Assessment result text — customise the explanatory text shown with the change effort result

• Toggle individual sections on/off and rename them.

• Default sections include: Vision, Benefits, Implementation approach, What's changing?, What will teams do differently?, Change Approach, Change Governance, Change Success, and more

8. SSO Setup

User Management: Your Core Responsibility

Understanding License Types

Adding a New User

1. Go to Settings (left-hand nav) and click the Users tab

2. Click the + ADD button

3. Fill in: First Name, Last Name, Email Address

4. Select the User Type: Full or Read-only

5. Assign Portfolio Access and/or Initiative Access

6. Click Save

💡 A user's email address is their unique identifier — the system will not allow two accounts with the same email address.

Assigning Access to Portfolios and Initiatives

• Full Access — can read and add other users to the portfolio

• Editor — can read and write

• Viewer — read-only

• Full Access / Change Manager — can read, write, and add other users

• Editor / Contributor — can read and write

• Viewer — read-only

⚠️ Portfolio access overrides initiative access — but only upwards. If someone has Full Access to a portfolio, that overrides a lower Viewer-level initiative access within it. If their initiative-level access is already higher, it holds. When in doubt, use initiative-level access only.

✅ Tick the checkbox next to each portfolio or initiative when assigning access — the dropdown alone is not enough to save the permission.

Removing a User

1. Click on the user in the Users tab

2. Click Delete User and confirm

💡 Consider whether disabling their SSO/Microsoft account achieves the same goal while preserving the audit trail.

Common Gotchas & Troubleshooting

Getting Help

• In-app: Feedback / Support link at the bottom-left of the nav (all users). Creates a support ticket; you'll receive a confirmation email with a ticket number

• Email: support@changeplan.co

• Org chart uploads & data setup: Contact your named Customer Success contact

• SSO changes or admin additions/removals: Contact support