In addition to the three main roles in Coda (Doc Maker, editor, and workspace admin), customers on our Enterprise plan will also have some additional admin roles: org admin, org Pack admin, and content admin. Read on to learn all about the abilities of these admins, 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-level settings, 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 technically distinct from the workspace admin role. You may need to add yourself as a workspace admin to view and modify workspace membership and settings. If you need help getting workspace access as an org admin please contact Coda support.
Additional admin roles
There may be times when you want to grant org members additional permissions without granting them the full suite of org admin abilities. For such cases, there are two additional admin roles that you can assign:
Org Pack admin
Like org admins, org Pack admins are assigned at the organization level, meaning they have access to org-level settings. Specifically, org Pack admins can approve Pack requests and manage Pack usage in the organization. This includes managing Pack requests and configuring custom access to Packs. Org Pack admins will therefore have access to the Org Pack approvals section of the admin settings. Note: Only org admins can enable Pack controls.
Content admin
Unlike org admins and org Pack admins, content admins are assigned to a specific workspace within the org. Content admin abilities include updating doc and folder permissions, managing public docs, transferring doc ownership, and moving and deleting docs. They will therefore have access to the Doc management and Doc transfers sections of the admin settings, which are pre-filtered to the specified workspace they can manage.
Org admin abilities
The table below shows some of the abilities of an org admin, an org Pack admin, and a content admin. We’ve also included the abilities of a workspace admin for comparison. To put it simply, a workspace admin controls workspace-level settings, whereas an org admin controls organization-level settings.
📣 Note that a single user can have multiple admin roles at once, in which case they will have the combined abilities of their roles.
Ability | Org admin | Org Pack admin | Content admin | Workspace 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 | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Configure custom access to Packs | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
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 | ❌* | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
*If you're an org admin who wants access to these abilities, you can add yourself as a workspace admin or contact Coda Support for assistance.
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.
Add a new admin
If you’re an existing org admin, you have the ability to add new admins, including org admins, org Pack admins, or content admins. To add a new admin, follow these steps:
Navigate to coda.io/docs
Click on Admin settings in the upper left
Note that if you belong to multiple organizations, you will see a pop-up where you can select which organization you want to manage.
Click into the Admins tab (under the Members section). Here you'll find a list of all current org admins.
To add a new admin, click the +Add admin button in the upper right.
In the pop-up, type in the name or email of the soon-to-be admin, then hit Next.
Now use the checkboxes to indicate the appropriate role(s) for this new admin.
If you are assigning the content admin role, you will also need to select at least one workspace from the dropdown.
Click Confirm to finalize.
That’s it! The user will be notified via email about their new admin role and will automatically have access to the appropriate admin controls. They can access these controls by navigating to coda.io/docs, then clicking Admin settings in the left-hand panel.
Change roles of existing admins
Anyone with an admin role - whether it be org admin, org Pack admin, content admin, or some combination - will appear in the list of users on the Admins page of the admin settings. You can use this list to update admin roles at any time.
To modify the roles of an existing admin, follow these steps:
Navigate to coda.io/docs
Click on Admin settings in the upper left
Click into the Admins tab (under the Members section). Here you'll find a list of all current org admins.
Scroll or use the search bar at the top to locate the user in the list. Once found, click the Update button to the right of their name.
Now you can use the checkboxes to adjust the roles as needed.
Note that if you are assigning the content admin role, you will also need to select at least one workspace from the dropdown.
Once you’ve selected the roles, click Confirm to save changes.
Remove admin roles
Org admin can adjust a user’s admin roles at any time, including removing all admin roles. To do so, follow these steps:
From your Coda homepage (coda.io/docs), click on Admin settings in the upper left
Search for - or scroll to - the Admins page (within the Members section)
Find the user in the list of admins (or use the search bar to search for them), and click Update.
To remove just an org Pack admin or content admin role, uncheck the corresponding checkbox. Then click Confirm.
To remove all admin roles entirely, including the org admin role, click Remove admin.
Removing an admin role as described above will not remove the user from your organization, but will take away their admin permissions.
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 is a content admin different from a workspace admin?
How is a content admin different from a workspace admin?
While content admins and workspace admins are both roles that are tied to specific workspaces, there are some notable differences.
The content admin role is only available to customers on our Enterprise plan, whereas the workspace admin is available in all Coda workspaces.
The workspace admin role is designed to help manage the individual workspace, including managing membership, removing members from a workspace, and changing workspace settings.
Unlike workspace admins, content admins have access to an Enterprise-level suite of controls: the Doc management and Doc transfers section of the admin settings. Here, they can view and change permissions on publicly shared docs, transfer doc ownership, move and delete docs, and more.
Can org admins do everything that org Pack admins and content admins can do?
Can org admins do everything that org Pack admins and content admins can do?
Yes - org admin abilities are a superset of org Pack admins and content admin abilities. In other words, anything that can be done by an org Pack admin or a content admin can also be done by 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).
How do we upgrade to an Enterprise plan?
How do we upgrade to an Enterprise plan?
To learn about your options for upgrading to Enterprise, check out this page.
What sections should I expect to see in Admin Settings?
What sections should I expect to see in Admin Settings?
This depends on your permissions.
If you’re both an org admin and a workspace admin you will see all possible settings in the admin settings, including both workspace-level settings and org-level settings.
If you are only an org admin, you will see sections for org-level settings only and will not have access to the workspace-level settings pages.
If you are an org Pack admin, you’ll have access to the Org Pack approvals section of admin settings.
If you’re a Content admin, you’ll have access to the Doc management and Doc transfers sections.