Creating User Accounts

Learn how people will create user accounts on your website.

Pete Zimek, CAE avatar
Written by Pete Zimek, CAE
Updated over a week ago

A User Account in Novi is what allows individuals to log in to your website. It's important to note that:

  1. Only people have user accounts, not companies.

  2. A person can have a record in the database without having a user account.

The user account information can be found on the Settings tab of an individual's record.

If the user account already exists, you'll see:

  • The email address being used to login

  • Whether the email address has been verified

  • The last time the user logged into the site (this is not the last time they visited the site, so keep in mind they may have interacted with the site more recently)

  • Options to send a password reset or remove the user account for this record

If the user account has not been created yet:

    • Note: Creating an account will send an email to the email address used in order to validate the email and allow the user to set their own password. Admins may want to communicate with the individual ahead of time so they know to expect an email!

  • Users can create their own account on the frontend.

    • For what options your members or guests will see for creating user accounts themselves, read on...


Creating a New User Account from the Join Link

1. Select "Join" in the upper right of the association's website.

2. Click the 'Create an Account' button.

Note: The verbiage in the white areas seen here is editable, but the buttons are static and cannot be changed.

3. Enter Login information.

Users will first be asked to enter their email address. If the email address is already in use, it will prompt them to login, reset their password, or contact the association for assistance.

If the email address is available, they can continue.

Note: All new users will be asked to agree to your terms & conditions - so remember to fill out this page in your Novi site!

4. Fill out Key Information.

Key Information consists of fields the association has determined should be asked upon signup. Other additional fields may appear in the user's profile to fill out at a later time (in the Member Compass) once their account has been created.

Please Note: There are different settings that may affect this process, including:

  • Allowing Non-Member Accounts: The association can choose whether individuals who would be considered non-members may create an account. More info on this setting.

  • If they are joining as a member or inheriting membership from a company: Key fields may be different for those creating a user account at the same time they are joining as a member, or if they connect to a member company in this step. More info about Key Information configuration.

  • Parent Member Labels: The field labeled "Company Name" and the description below the label can be customized to be labeled as something else more fitting for your association. More info on this setting.

  • Duplicate Detection: See the section below for information on how we help protect the integrity of your data.

5. Validate the Email Address

Novi has protections in place to protect your data integrity from bad actors creating fake accounts. Novi will:

  1. Ask new signups to confirm their email by entering the code they receive to that email address

    And, if the setting for employee sign-up protections is on:

  2. Verify the new user account email address against existing, verified email domains in your database at the same parent company.

Items of Note

  • The name and email address that was used to create their user account (in step #3 above) will auto-fill in their profile information (on the Key Info screen).

  • If you have the setting turned on to allow non-members to create accounts, they can also add a new company as their parent during this process.

    • The user will then need to fill out Key Info fields for the company's profile as well as their own.

    • In this case, both records will show up in your Recent Signups list and will have a status of Non-Member.


Creating a New User Account from the Login Screen

If your member or guest goes straight to the login screen, Novi will check for the email address they enter against emails currently in your database.

If no user account exists, they'll be prompted to create one (see screenshot below). After clicking the Create Account button, they will be taken to Step 3above.

Note: For new Novi launches, individuals who were imported into Novi during onboarding may have had an account created during data import and do not need to follow the steps for creating an account. Instead, they can go to the Login page and request a password reset using their email on file to log in for the first time.


Additional Info

If the user's company is the member...

  • The user will only be asked for information about themselves and the name of their company when creating their user account.

  • If a record does not already exist for this person in your database, they will appear in your Recent Signups for you to do one last check that this isn't a duplicate record.

  • For checks and balances, people who have management access to the company record will also receive an email notifying them that an individual has been associated with their company's account. Learn more about this email notification here.

If non-member accounts are not allowed...

  • If the association has individual member types, users will be prompted to view available member types and to join.

  • If the association does not have individual member types, the user will need to indicate their parent member before moving on to the Key Info step. If they cannot provide one, they'll be prompted to join or contact the association for assistance.


Duplicate Detection

There are multiple ways that Novi works to protect the integrity of your data in terms of not allowing duplicate records to be created during account creation. Click below to learn about the ways!


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