Roles, Permissions, and User Management  

Every person on your team who needs access to the Polco Admin Platform gets an admin account with an assigned role. That role determines what they can see, create, publish, and manage. Getting roles right from the start saves confusion later — a staff member who can see everything but can't accidentally delete anything, or an elected official who can view results without touching content settings.

This article covers the four admin roles, what each one can do, how to add and manage users, how seats work, and how subscription plans interact with access.

The Two Layers of Access Control

Access in Polco works at two levels, and it's worth understanding both:

Layer 1 — Subscription plan: Your organization's plan (Basic, Pro, or Enterprise) determines which features and tools are available at all — how many Track dashboards you can access, how many AI questions per month, whether simulations are included, and so on. These limits are set for your entire organization, not per user.

Layer 2 — Admin role: Within whatever your plan makes available, each user's role determines what they personally can do with those features. A Manager and a Viewer on the same Enterprise plan see the same tools — but the Manager can create and publish content while the Viewer can only read it.

If a team member can't access a feature, the answer is usually one of two things: either the organization's plan doesn't include it, or the user's role doesn't permit it.

The Four Admin Roles

Manager

The highest level of access. The first admin added to any Polco account is automatically assigned the Manager role.

Managers can do everything:

• Create, edit, publish, and delete any content
• View and download all results and reports
• Add new admin users, remove existing ones, and change any user's role
• Update the organization's public profile settings
• Access all features available under the organization's plan

Best for: City managers, department directors, primary platform administrators — anyone who needs full control and accountability over the account.

Because Managers can add and remove other admins (including other Managers), this role should be assigned carefully. Most organizations have one to three Managers.

Publisher

A broad content role. Publishers can handle most day-to-day platform work but cannot manage the admin team or delete content.

Publishers can:

• Create, edit, and publish polls, surveys, content posts, live events, engagement pages, and other content types
• Share published content
• View and download results and reports

Publishers cannot:

• Delete any content
• Add, remove, or change the role of any admin user

Best for: Communications staff, engagement coordinators, department leads — team members who are actively building and publishing content on a regular basis. 

Collaborator

A drafting and editing role. Collaborators work on content without having the ability to put it in front of the public.

Collaborators can:

• Create and edit polls, surveys, content posts, and other content types (saving as draft)
• View and download results and reports

Collaborators cannot:

• Publish or share any content
• Delete any content
• Add, remove, or change the role of any admin user

Best for: Interns, new staff in training, subject matter experts who contribute content for review, or team members who draft content that a Manager or Publisher approves and publishes. 

Viewer

A read-only role. Viewers can observe and share but cannot touch anything.

Viewers can:

• View all published content and draft content
• View and share results and reports

Viewers cannot:

• Create, edit, publish, or delete any content
• Add, remove, or change the role of any admin user

Best for: Elected officials who need to review results, external stakeholders given temporary visibility, department heads who need to monitor engagement activity but won't be creating content. Viewer seats are unlimited. 

Role Comparison at a Glance

Admin Seats

Your organization starts with 10 shared seats for Manager, Publisher, and Collaborator roles combined. Viewer seats are unlimited and do not count against this total.

The Settings page shows your current seat usage — for example, "8 of 10 seats available" — so you can always see where you stand.

If your organization needs more than 10 active non-Viewer seats, contact your Customer Success Manager or email success@polco.us to request additional seats.

Tips for staying within your seat limit:

• Use Viewer roles for stakeholders who only need to read results — Viewers don't consume seats
• Remove admin accounts for staff who have left the organization
• If someone only needs temporary access, set them up as a Viewer rather than a Collaborator

How to Manage Admin Users

All user management is done from Account → Settings → Administrators tab. Only users with the Manager role can access this page and make changes.

Viewing your current team

The Administrators tab shows a Roles Overview panel at the top — cards for Manager, Publisher, Collaborator, and Viewer, each showing how many are currently active. Click Details on any card to see a full breakdown of what that role can do.

Below the overview is a table listing every current admin by name, email, and assigned role, along with a Remove option for each.

Adding a new admin

1. Go to Account → Settings → Administrators
2. Click Add Admin
3. Enter the new user's name and email address
4. Select their role from the dropdown
5. Click Add New Admin to confirm

The user will receive an email invitation to set up their account. They'll appear in your admin list immediately.

Changing a user's role

1. Find the user in the Administrators list
2. Use the Role dropdown next to their name
3. Select the new role

The change takes effect immediately — no save button required. The user's access updates the next time they perform an action on the platform.

Removing a user

1. Find the user in the Administrators list
2. Click Remove next to their name
3. Confirm the removal in the pop-up dialog

The user is removed immediately and loses all access to the platform. Their past contributions (content, results) remain intact.

How Plans Affect Feature Access

Your admin role controls what you can do with the features your plan includes. Your subscription plan controls which features exist for your organization at all.

Here's how the three plan tiers differ in terms of what's available to all users on that plan:

If a feature isn't visible or accessible for your organization, it's most likely not included in your current plan. Use the Request Information button in the top nav or contact your CSM to discuss upgrading. 

Controlling Content Visibility

Beyond admin roles, there's one additional access control worth knowing: content visibility settings on individual polls and surveys.

When publishing a poll or survey, the Manage Access setting lets you choose:

• Public — The content appears in the public resident feed and is discoverable by anyone
• Only people with the link — The content is not listed publicly; only people who have the direct URL can access it

This is useful for internal-only surveys, employee feedback, or targeted outreach to specific groups. Regardless of visibility setting, all responses are captured in the admin platform and accessible to users with appropriate roles.

Best Practices for Role Assignment

Start with fewer Managers. Most organizations need only one to three Managers — the people responsible for the account overall. More Managers means more people who can accidentally delete content or change someone else's role.

Default new staff to Collaborator. Let people draft and learn the platform before giving them publishing rights. Once you're confident in their work, upgrade them to Publisher.

Use Viewer generously. Elected officials, department directors, external partners reviewing data — anyone who needs to see results but won't be creating content should be a Viewer. There's no seat cost and no risk.

Audit your team list periodically. Staff change roles, leave organizations, or shift departments. A quarterly review of your admin list keeps access current and your seat count accurate.

Don't share accounts. Every team member who needs platform access should have their own account. Shared accounts make it impossible to track who published what and create security risks. 

Related Articles

• Navigating the admin dashboard
• Admin vs. Resident interfaces
• How the platform is structured