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-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.
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 | ❌* | ✅ | ✅ |
*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.
To add an org 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 Org admins tab (under the Members section). Here you'll find a list of all 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, click the +Add org admin button in the upper right. 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).
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 are 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.