Account Roles and Access

When To Use This#

Use this page when you need to understand who can sign in, what kind of account they use, and why an action may or may not appear.

Account Types#

• Customer portal users manage their own household, dogs, documents, bookings, billing, and messages.
• Business app users manage setup, staff workflows, customers, schedules, documents, billing, messages, reports, and the customer portal.
• Customer portal access and business app access are separate. A valid customer account may not work on the business sign-in page, and a staff account may not work on a customer portal page.

Activation And Password Reset#

• Activation is for invited or first-time users who still need to finish account setup.
• Password reset is for users whose account already exists but who need a new password.
• If activation or reset links expire, use the visible resend, invite, or reset option instead of reusing an older link.
• In the customer portal, a signed-out user who opens a link to a specific page is asked to sign in, activate, or reset first, and then returns to the page they were opening once their account is set up. They do not need to find the page again.
• In the business app, if you open a booking request review link while signed out, you are asked to sign in and then land on the booking requests view you were opening rather than on the usual landing page.
• An owner or manager sends and tracks customer portal setup invitations from the "Invite Families to Hello Sniff" section of the Data migration page in business settings. Families are grouped by where they are in setup — ready to invite, invite sent, setting up, needs card, and ready. You can send a group email from every one of those groups except "Ready", one group at a time, and from two of the follow-up groups described below. The "Ready" group is already finished, so no group email is offered there.
• Each send is capped at 500 families. A "Ready to invite" group larger than that cannot be sent as-is; contact support for help getting the group under the cap.
• On the first setup invitation and on the reminder sent to the "Invite sent" group, you can add a short personal message before sending. It replaces the standard wording for that send; the greeting and the setup button stay in place. The other group emails always use their standard wording.
• The same section groups families that need attention before another setup email helps. Families under "Link expired" can be sent a fresh secure link as a group. Setup emails that hit a temporary delivery problem appear under "Email failed" and can be retried as a group, while addresses that need a person to fix or confirm them appear separately under "Email problem" and are not included in that retry. "Missing email" covers active families without a usable setup email address — either no address on file, or an address that has been opted out of email. Other groups cover families with no active dog yet ("No active dog"), an open balance a staff member should look at ("Balance review"), and inactive or archived families ("Inactive / archived").
• A family that has never been invited and falls under "Missing email", "No active dog", or "Balance review" cannot be sent a first setup email at all. It does not appear in "Ready to invite" or any other stage group until that issue is resolved — add a usable email address, add an active dog, or clear or review the balance, and the family moves into "Ready to invite".
• A family whose bookable services are not ready is the one exception: it can still be invited, and is flagged under "Service review" only as a secondary reminder to finish setting up its services.
• Reminders to families who were already invited become available after 48 hours, and the secure link they already have keeps working.
• Sending these invitations depends on assigned access.

Staff Access#

The broad-access staff role is shown in the app as Manager. Regular staff are the Employee role, and the business owner is the Owner role. If you see *admin* used elsewhere in this help center, it means the Manager role.

Staff actions depend on the access assigned by an owner or manager. If a staff member cannot see an expected page or action, an owner or manager can review access on the Access page.

Every signed-in staff role can use Account to review and request a change to its own login email. This personal action is separate from the Access page and does not let a staff member manage anyone else's account.

A temporary Hello Sniff support session can view Account but cannot request a login-email change. Sign in with the business's own staff account to make that change.

If you have permission to reset account access, and the account is one you are allowed to manage, the Access page also lets you send that staff member a password setup link so they can choose a new password.

On Account, a staff member enters the current password and the new email twice. Hello Sniff sends a confirmation link to the new inbox. The current login address continues to work until the staff member explicitly confirms the change.

If someone with permission to manage users needs to help another staff member, the Access page has a Change login email option on accounts they are allowed to manage. You never see it on your own account, an owner sees it on everyone except other owners, and a manager sees it on employees only. It asks for the new address twice, a short reason, and confirmation that the address was checked with that employee. The account must be active.

That assisted request also sends the confirmation link to the new inbox rather than changing the address immediately. Once the employee confirms, the account and its history stay the same, the existing password still works, and the employee signs in with the new address. Every open session and unused password reset or email-change link is closed. A security notice goes to the previous address when possible.

If a replacement confirmation cannot be delivered, a previously delivered link remains available. Once a newer link is delivered, use the newest one.

How access is described in this help center:

• Access is described by the page and action names you see in the app — for example, "permission to review documents" or "permission to approve or deny booking requests" — not by technical keys.
• Business actions are available when your assigned access allows them.
• Customer actions are available when the action is shown.
• Not every staff user can approve, reject, bill, cancel, publish, or change settings — it depends on the access assigned to them.

Troubleshooting#

• If sign-in fails, confirm the user is on the correct customer portal or business app sign-in page.
• If activation fails, request a fresh invitation or confirm the invitation is still valid.
• If reset fails, request a new reset email.
• If an email-change confirmation is expired or already used, sign in with the

current address and send a fresh request from Account, or ask an owner or manager to resend the assisted request.

• If a business action is missing, confirm the staff user is in the correct business account and ask an owner or manager to review access on the Access page.