Users

Watch this video or read the text below to learn about users.

You should create a user account in Herdly for each person on your ranch who will be using Herdly. One of the strengths of Herdly is its ability to sync changes that different users make so everyone stays up to date. When you first created your ranch in Herdly, the first user account was automatically created. This topic explains how to create and setup additional user accounts. There is no limit to the number of user accounts you can set up.

To open the Users window, go to Set Up > Users. (Setting up users is only available on the computer.)

There is a search field at the top of the window which can be used to quickly find a user if you have a lot of them. You can also toggle between including or not including archived users in the list using the Archived checkbox. The list itself shows the following information:

  • Admin. This column indicates whether the user has administrator rights.  
  • Username. Shows the user name.
  • Full Name. Shows the user's full name. It is common to have a shortened username so it is quicker to type. 
  • Last Connection. If you have an internet connection when this window opens, Herdly will check to see when each user last synced with the server. This is based on a computer or mobile device that the user is currently logged in on syncing. Syncing should not be delayed longer than necessary when someone has made changes and this column can help you see how long ago each person synced.
  • Active Temporary Code. If there is an active temporary code for the user, it will be shown here along with information about when it will expire. See below for more information on this. 

The information in the Last Connection and Active Temporary Code columns come from the cloud server. As long as you have an internet connection, you can click the Refresh Server Info button to update these columns with current information.

Temporary Codes

When someone logs into Herdly, including after they install Herdly on a new device, they would normally enter their username and password (and the ranch ID after a new install). However, they also have the option of entering a temporary code instead of their username and password. This can be simpler to do in some situations. It might also be necessary if the user has forgotten their password.

To issue a temporary code for someone, select them in this list and click the Create Temporary Login Code... button (you must be connected to the internet for this to work). A code will be created and displayed in the Active Temporary Code columns. You can then give them the code so they can log in using it. If they are trying to log in after installing Herdly on a new device, you'll also need to give them the ranch ID which is shown at the top right of the window.

It is important to understand that temporary codes only last for a certain amount of time, usually about 24 hours. If they do not use the code within that time period, it is no longer valid. Also, a code can only be used once.

Creating and Editing Users

You can create a new user account by clicking the + button. Or you can edit the information about an existing user by double-clicking them in the list. In either case, a User Settings window will appear. (You can also delete a user by selecting them and clicking the - button. However, this only works if the user is not associated with anything in Herdly yet. Normally you would archive them instead.)

 

General Tab

  • Username. Each user account must have a unique username. This can simply be the first name of the user or anything else that you want.
  • Password. When a user account is first created, you must give them a password to use. It is up to you to determine how strong to make the password, but we encourage longer passwords for your data's security. This field can also be used to change the password of an existing user. For existing users, a Change Password... button will appear here. Clicking it will reveal the password field which you can use to create a new password. Please note that Herdly does not actually store your password which means we cannot retrieve it for you if you forget it. However, a temporary code can be issued when necessary.
  • Contact Name. You can enter the full name of the user here.
  • Recovery Email. If a user forgets their username and password, you can help them by giving them a new password or by creating a temporary code for them. When that is not possible, a working email address entered here may be necessary for us to validate a user before we can give out a temporary code.
  • Recovery Phone. Similar to the Recovery Email field, a valid phone number may be needed for us to validate a user before giving a temporary code.
  • Administrator. A user marked as an administrator has permission to do anything in Herdly. This setting overrides what is in the Permissions tab if it is checked. Only allow a user to be an administrator if you are confident they won't mess anything up. At least one user must be an administrator.
  • Archived. When someone leaves your ranch, you can mark their user account as archived. Their historical information will still be visible, but they will not longer be able to log in. Remember, however, that this change needs to be synced to their device before the change becomes effective.

 

Preferences Tab

Each user can have a different set of preferences for some things.

  • Preferred Language. Each user can choose the language they wish Herdly to be shown in. Currently only English is supported.

Email Options Tab

We communicate information about Herdly to our customers by sending emails to the addresses associated with each user. You can opt out of receiving different kinds of emails for each user by changing the checkboxes in this section.

Permissions Tab

The list in this tab shows a number of things that can be done in Herdly. Unchecking an item in this list means that Herdly will not allow this user to perform this task. These changes must be synced to the user's device before these changes take effect.