In addition to the three main roles in Coda (Doc Maker, editor, and workspace admin), customers on our Enterprise plan will also have a fourth role: org admin. Read on to learn all about the abilities of an org admin, plus how to add or remove org admins.
Within this article you’ll find...
What is an org admin?
💡 Org admin is short for “organization admin.” So to understand what an org admin is, it’s helpful to first know what an “organization” is within Coda. An organization is an Enterprise-only feature that enables customers to configure various policies for users and documents owned by the enterprise. These policies include how Enterprise users can authenticate with Coda, whether docs can be shared with external customers, and more.
You can think of an organization as the top of the hierarchy for Enterprise customers. Within the organization, we have workspaces, within workspaces we have folders, within folders we have docs, and so on.
Org admins have the highest level of control in an Enterprise workspace, and are therefore often members of your central IT team. They help ensure that their org operates smoothly and securely on Coda. They alone have access to the Organization Settings control center, where they can set policies that apply to their domain and users in all workspaces in their org. In particular, org admins control all of the security features that are available on our Enterprise plan.
Note that the org admin role is distinct from the workspace admin role. Just because you’re an org admin does not mean you’re also a workspace admin. An org admin can be an editor, Doc Maker, workspace admin - or they can have no workspace role at all.
Org admin abilities
The table below shows some of the abilities of an org admin, as compared to the abilities of a workspace admin. To put it simply, a workspace admin controls workspace-level settings, whereas an org admin controls organization-level settings.
📣 It’s important to note that someone can be either a workspace admin, an org admin, or they can be both. The column on the right represents the combined abilities - someone who’s both a workspace admin and an org admin.
Ability | Org Admin | Workspace Admin | Both (Workspace Admin + Org Admin) |
Access & adjust the Organization settings (including org security controls) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Use the Coda Admin API to audit events and more | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Enable SSO and configure SCIM for their org | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Deactivate org members and transfer ownership of their docs | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Set org-wide sharing rules for docs, forms, and Packs | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
View the org’s public docs (and change permissions) | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Approve Pack requests and manage Pack usage | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Install the Coda Admin Pack in docs | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Allow / prevent the creation of new workspaces within the org | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
Use the Coda Admin Pack once already installed in a doc *If Pack permissions allow | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Invite or remove members from a workspace | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Adjust member roles (e.g. Editor → Doc Maker) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Access & adjust Workspace settings | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Add or remove org admins
Your first org admin will be assigned by your Coda account team upon setup of your Enterprise org. From there, only existing org admins can add or remove org admins (or you can request help from your account team if needed). To ensure your organization can operate smoothly, we recommend having multiple org admins.
To add an org admin, follow these steps:
Navigate to coda.io/docs
In the bottom left corner, click on More options. Then select Organization settings.
Click on the rightmost tab, labelled Org membership
Scroll down to the Organization admins section to see a full list of current org admins
To remove an org admin, find their name in the list, click on Org admin to the right of their name, and select Remove admin. Doing so will not remove them from your organization, but will take away their org admin permissions.
To add a new org admin, scroll to the bottom of the list and select +Add org admin. In the popup, type in the name or email of the soon-to-be admin, then hit Invite. Note that they do not need to be an existing org or workspace member to be added as an org admin.
If you leave the Notify toggle on, they will receive an email notifying them that they’ve been added as an org admin.
That’s it! They will instantly become a new org admin.
FAQs
Are org admins only available on the Enterprise plan?
Are org admins only available on the Enterprise plan?
Yes, the org admin role only exists for Enterprise workspaces.
What’s the difference between an org admin and a workspace admin?
What’s the difference between an org admin and a workspace admin?
There are a few differences. First off, workspace admin is a role that exists in all Coda workspaces, from Free to Enterprise. Org admins, on the other hand, only exist for Enterprise workspaces.
Workspace admins control workspace-level settings, whereas org admins control org-level settings which apply to all workspaces within the org. Check out the table above for a breakdown of some of these responsibilities.
The roles are not mutually exclusive. In other words, you can be both a workspace admin and an org admin - or you can be just one.
Does an org admin also have to be a workspace admin?
Does an org admin also have to be a workspace admin?
No - one does not need to be a workspace admin in order to be an org admin. In fact, one does not need to be a workspace member of any kind to be added as an org admin.
How many org admins should we have?
How many org admins should we have?
We recommend always having more than one org admin for your Coda org. This way, if one org admin is unavailable or leaves the company, your org can continue to operate smoothly thanks to the other org admin. In general, 2-4 org admins is typically sufficient. Check out the section above to learn how to add org admins.
Do we pay for org admins?
Do we pay for org admins?
The org admin role is not a paid role, so you only pay for org admins if they happen to also be a Doc Maker or a workspace admin. Learn more about Coda’s billing model here.
How do I see who my org admins are?
How do I see who my org admins are?
Only org admins can see the list of org admins (via the steps described in this section). So if you’re not an org admin - maybe you’re only a Doc Maker or workspace admin - you won’t be able to see the list of org admins yourself. Instead, you can try contacting your IT team for this information. And when in doubt, feel free to reach out to Coda Support (via the ? in the lower right corner of your doc) for assistance.
How do we add a new org admin if all our current org admins are gone?
How do we add a new org admin if all our current org admins are gone?
Fear not - your account team can help with this! Feel free to reach out to your account team or Success Manager directly. Or you can always contact Coda Support (via the ? in the lower right corner of your doc).