Users & roles: how-to

Step-by-step instructions for managing your team and your own account. For what each option means, see Users & roles; for problems, see Users & roles: troubleshooting.

Find your task

If you’re here because…	Go to
A new colleague is starting	Invite a team member
Someone hasn’t received, or lost, their invite	Send an invite link again
A colleague needs more, or less, access	Change someone’s role
A colleague needs to onboard tenants but you don’t want them in Finances	Give someone onboarding access
None of the ready-made roles fits	Create a role
A role you made needs adjusting	Edit or delete a role
Someone has left	Remove a team member
You removed someone by mistake	Restore a team member
COHO says it has stopped emailing someone	Resolve a blocked email address
New work should go to a particular person	Set up automatic assignments
You want to connect your own software, an AI assistant or Zapier	Create an API key
COHO asks you to accept the API/MCP terms	AI assistants & API: how-to
An API key needs more or less access, or isn’t needed any more	Change or delete an API key
You’re connecting a self-hosted AI agent over MCP	Create an MCP OAuth application
You want to change your name, email, mobile or picture	Update your own details
You want to make your sign-in more secure	Turn on two-factor authentication or a passkey
You’re getting too many, or too few, emails and texts	Change your notifications

Invite a team member

Do this when someone new needs access to your COHO account.

Before you start: you need Write for Team. Check which role they need: see Ready-made roles. Their email address mustn’t already be used by a team member in any COHO organisation.

1. From your organisation dashboard, open Users.
2. Click Invite team member.
3. Choose a Role. Only roles you’re allowed to give are listed.
4. Enter their Forename, Surname and Email Address.
5. Click Add.

What happens next: they appear in the list with Invited and “Invite sent to:” their email. COHO emails them “You have been invited to join [your organisation]”. They click Register to accept and create an account, or log in if they already have one, using that same email address. Once they’ve joined, the Invited badge goes.

Tip

If they already use COHO with another email, invite the email they actually sign in with.

Send an invite link again

Do this when someone can’t find their invite. COHO doesn’t resend invites itself.

1. Open Users and find the person (they show Invited).
2. Click (Copy invite link) next to their email.
3. Send them the link yourself, for example by email or chat.

What happens next: the link opens COHO’s sign-up page for your organisation. They must register or log in with the email shown after “Invite sent to:”.

If the email address is wrong, remove the person (see Remove a team member) and invite them again with the right address.

Change someone’s role

Do this when someone needs different access.

Before you start: you need Write for Team. You can only move people to roles whose access you have yourself, and only change people whose role you could give.

1. Open Users and find the person.
2. Click Change role.
3. Under Select a role, choose the new role.
4. Click Save.

What happens next: the change applies straight away. Ask them to reload COHO so menus and buttons update. COHO doesn’t tell them their role has changed.

Caution

You can’t change the role of your last Admin who has joined. Make someone else an Admin first.

Give someone onboarding access

Do this when a colleague should run onboardings, contracts and deposit paperwork, but not see Finances or Transactions or log rent payments.

1. Follow Change someone’s role and choose Onboarding.

What happens next: they can see and progress onboardings, generate rent schedules, set up, keep and return holding deposits, and record deposit certificates. They can see, but not change, Rent Collection, Credit Control, Rent Review and Recurring Items.

If they need something slightly different, create a role instead.

Create a role

Do this when none of the ready-made roles gives the right access, for example for an out-of-hours call handler who only needs access codes.

Before you start: you need Write for Team. You can only tick areas you have yourself.

1. Open Users and expand Roles.
2. Click Create role.
3. Enter a Role name (up to 80 characters).
4. Under What this role can do, open each group (Portfolio, Lettings, Operations, Money, Organisation) and tick Read or Write for each area they need. Click the i next to an area to see what it covers.
5. Click Create role.
6. Give the role to people: invite them with it, or change their role.

What happens next: the role appears in the Roles list and in the Role choices.

Tip

Start from the least access and add to it. To see what each row unlocks, use the permissions table. Some tasks need more than one area: for example, onboarding someone needs Onboarding, and creating their contract also needs Tenancy agreements.

Edit or delete a role

Do this when a role you created needs changing, or isn’t used any more. The ready-made roles can’t be edited or deleted.

1. Open Users and expand Roles.
2. Click View on the role.
3. To change it, click Edit, change the name or ticks, and click Save role.
4. To delete it, click Delete, then confirm “Delete this role? This cannot be undone.”

What happens next: edits apply straight away to everyone with the role. A role that someone still has can’t be deleted: move them to another role first.

Remove a team member

Do this when someone leaves or should no longer have access.

Before you start: you need Write for Team. You can’t remove yourself, or the last Admin who has joined.

1. Open Users and find the person.
2. Click the bin icon.
3. Confirm “Are you sure you want to delete this team member?” by clicking Delete.

What happens next: they lose access straight away and move to Deleted users. COHO unassigns them from open maintenance issues, viewings, onboardings, Actions and conversations, deletes their automatic assignments and clears them as a default assignee. Reassign that work: check the “Unassigned” filters on each panel. COHO doesn’t email them.

Restore a team member

Do this when you removed someone by mistake, or they’ve come back.

1. Open Users and expand Deleted users.
2. Click Restore on the person.

What happens next: they get access back with their previous role. Their old assignments aren’t put back, so assign their work to them again.

Resolve a blocked email address

Do this when Users shows “COHO has stopped sending emails to this address.” under someone. It happens when emails to them bounced or were marked as spam.

Before you start: only the organisation owner, or the person themselves, can do this. First check the address is right and their mailbox accepts COHO’s emails.

1. Open Users and find the person.
2. Click Resolve.

What happens next: COHO starts sending them emails again. The person can also click Resolve in their own Settings.

Set up automatic assignments

Do this when new work should go to a particular person without anyone assigning it.

Before you start: you need Write for Team to change these.

1. Open Users and expand Automatic assignments.
2. Under Organisation default, choose who gets Lettings and sales, Property management and Tenancy management tasks. Click Save.
3. To use someone different for one property, click Edit on its row, choose the people under Property default, and click Save.
4. For messages, maintenance or viewings, under Task types click New. Choose the Type, then All properties or Selected properties (and the Properties), then the Assignee. Click Create.

What happens next: new tasks are assigned as you’ve set. A property’s setting beats the organisation default. Existing work isn’t reassigned. To remove a task type assignment, click Delete on its row.

Create an API key

Do this when you want software, such as your own reports, an AI assistant or Zapier, to connect to COHO.

Before you start: you need Write for API keys (organisation owners and Admins have this). Decide exactly what the software needs to see and change: you can only give a key access you have yourself. If nobody in your organisation has accepted the current API/MCP terms yet, you’ll be asked to accept them on this screen. One acceptance covers the whole organisation. See AI assistants & API: how-to.

1. Open Users and expand API keys.
2. Click Create API key.
3. Enter an API Key Name (up to 50 characters), for example the name of the tool. Use a name you haven’t used for another key.
4. Under What this key can do, tick Read for each area the software needs to see, and Write only where it must make changes.
5. If COHO shows I accept the API/MCP terms on behalf of my organisation, tick it. You can open Read terms first.
6. Click Create or Generate.
7. On the new key, click Copy, and paste the key into your software.

What happens next: the key works straight away. It’s listed with what it can do (for example “Core API access, properties.read, tenancies.read”). For how to use it, see COHO’s Public API documentation.

Caution

Anyone who has the key can use it with the access you’ve given. Don’t share it in emails or chats, and delete keys you no longer use.

Change or delete an API key

Do this when software needs different access, or isn’t used any more.

1. Open Users and expand API keys.
2. To change its access, click the pencil icon on the key. Under Edit API key scopes, change the ticks and click Save.
3. To delete it, click the bin icon, then confirm “Are you sure you want to delete this API key? Any integrations using it will stop working.” by clicking Delete.

What happens next: changes apply straight away. A deleted key stops working immediately, and the key can’t be brought back: create a new one and update your software.

Create an MCP OAuth application

Do this when you connect a self-hosted AI agent or MCP client (for example n8n) that signs in with OAuth.

Before you start: you need Write for API keys. Have the agent’s exact callback (redirect) URL ready.

1. Open Users and expand MCP OAuth applications.
2. Click Create application.
3. Enter an Application name, and the Redirect URIs (one per line). Each must use HTTPS, unless it’s localhost.
4. Click Create.
5. Copy the Client ID, Client secret, Authorization URL, Token URL and MCP URL into your agent.

What happens next: when the agent connects, a team member signs in to COHO and approves it, and the agent works with that person’s access. To stop it, click Revoke and confirm.

Caution

“Copy the client secret now. It will not be shown again.”

Update your own details

1. Click your name (top right) > Settings.
2. Under Your details, click the pencil icon next to Name, Email or Mobile Number, or Change under Image.
3. Make your change and click Save.

What happens next: a new email address needs verifying: COHO sends a link to it (“Email updated. Please check your email for a verification link.”).

Turn on two-factor authentication or a passkey

1. Click your name (top right) > Settings.
2. Under Security, click the cog next to Two-factor authentication or Passkeys.
3. Two-factor authentication: scan the QR code with your authenticator app (or copy the key), enter the Verification code, and click Enable. Save your Recovery codes somewhere safe; each works once.
4. Passkeys: click Add passkey (or Add security key), name the device and follow your device’s prompts.

What happens next: from your next sign-in, COHO asks for a code from your app, or lets you sign in with your passkey. Two-factor authentication is your choice: COHO doesn’t make it compulsory for your team.

Change your notifications

Do this when you want more, fewer, or differently timed emails, texts or push notifications.

1. Click your name (top right) > Settings.
2. Scroll to Subscriptions.
3. To stop everything, turn off All COHO notifications.
4. To change one way of sending (such as email or SMS), open its Settings, then turn it on or off, or choose its default: Grouped, Immediately or Off.
5. To change one kind of notification, open its group’s Settings, then choose Default, Grouped or Immediately for each way of sending, or turn the whole group off.

What happens next: changes save as you make them, and only affect you.