User Management – Happeo

User Management

This article explains how Happeo admins can manage users effectively through seating and permissions, ensuring the right people have the right access at the right time.

🗒️ Note: To manage Happeo users, you must be a Happeo admin.

What is User Management?

Managing users is an essential part of running your intranet effectively. The User Management section in the Admin Settings gives you full control over who can access Happeo, what they can do inside it, and how your seats are allocated.

This ensures your workspace stays secure, organized, and optimized for collaboration.

Where to find User Management

You can access User Management by:

  1. Clicking your avatar at the top-right corner of your intranet’s main navigation.
  2. Selecting Admin Settings > User Management.

User management contains the following:

Seats Overview

The Seats Overview provides a clear picture of how your Happeo license is being used.

Here you’ll find:

This overview helps you balance seat allocation, ensuring important users always have access.

💡 For more information about seat usage and more, see this article: Seats Overview.

User statuses

Each user in Happeo has a status that tells you their current access level and seat assignment. You can filter these in the user list.

💡 For more details on statuses and types, see: User Types and Statuses.

User information available

For each user, you can view key details:

Managing users and groups

Admin role & permissions (how it works)

The Admin role grants platform-wide control in Happeo. This means that Admins have full access and their permissions can’t be limited or overridden. Treat Admin as a role to keep governance simple and ownership clear.

Admins inherently have the following permissions:

Apply the Admin role only to trusted individuals who are responsible for intranet governance and platform operations. If someone shouldn’t have full access, demote them to a regular user and then tailor their permissions, as shown below.

Manage users

In the User Management tab, click the three dots next to a user or group to:

Make sure to Save after making changes!

🗒️ Note: Admin privileges can only be given via Happeo, and not through a provisioning source.

Permission inheritance by provisioning source:

🔎 See the following articles for more information about user provisioning:

Bulk manage users

  1. Select the checkboxes for the people or groups you want to update.
  2. Open the three dots next to any one of your selections and choose the action you need.
  3. Review the settings, then click Save to apply the changes.

Customize permissions

When you disable permission inheritance for non-admin users or groups, you can grant or revoke:

For any type of user(admin, regular user, group), you can also set the user’s seat type (Seated or Unseated).

Suspending and deleting Users

You can refer to the following articles:

Invites

Use the Invites section to bring new people into your intranet environment.

Here you can:

Once a user accepts, they’ll move from the Invited list to All Users.

💡  Learn more about managing invites here: Invited Users.

Provisioning source settings

Your intranet environment can integrate with:

Through these integrations, you can seat or unseat users directly.

System accounts

System accounts are special accounts used by Happeo to run background processes and integrations.

💡 Learn more about them here: System Accounts.

Exporting user data

You can export all user information to CSV for auditing, reporting, or seat management.

💡 Learn more about exporting user data from here: Export Data from Happeo.

FAQ

Seating & licensing

What happens when I reach my seat cap?

When you’ve reached the maximum number of seats in your license, new users can’t be seated unless you free up space or add more seats. If auto-seating is turned on, users marked as “Awaiting” will be seated automatically once you expand your license or remove existing users. This helps ensure important users don’t get blocked from access — but it’s best to monitor your Seats Overview so you’re not caught off guard.

What exactly is a "seat" in Happeo?

A seat is essentially a license that allows one person to actively use Happeo. Think of it as a “pass” into your intranet — every user with a seat can log in, access content, and collaborate. The number of seats you have is tied to your subscription plan, so managing them wisely ensures you’re not paying for unused spots or leaving people without access.

Users & statuses

What is the difference between 'Unseated' and 'Awaiting'?

This distinction makes it easier to see who you need to take action on versus who the system will handle for you.

What is a "Synced / provisioned user"?

A synced or provisioned user is created in Happeo directly from your identity provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra, or Okta). Their details, like name, email, and OU, come from the source of truth in your organization. This reduces manual admin work and keeps data consistent across tools.

Can external or guest users be made admins?

No. External and guest users are more limited — they can access content, but they’re not part of your intranet organization, so they can’t be elevated to admin roles. This ensures that only trusted, internal users manage sensitive settings and permissions.

Admin role & permissions

If a user had only ‘Analytics’ or ‘Branding’ permissions, will those be removed if they’re given admin privileges?

Admins always have all four capabilities: can create page groups, can create channels, can access analytics, and can manage branding. Admins won’t lose capabilities, and regular users won’t lose the permissions they already have.

Offboarding & user life cycle

What steps should I take when offboarding a user to preserve content?

When offboarding, it’s not just about removing access — you should also make sure content ownership is transferred. Update channel ownership through the Members tab, reassign page editors (in Pages 2.0) and/or page authors (in the original page editor), and ensure no critical content is “orphaned.” If a user is suspended, they’ll appear as “Suspended” in past content but will still retain attribution unless reassigned.

🗒️ Note: Creators of posts cannot be reassigned. Suspended post creators will appear as “Suspended.”

After suspending a user in Google Workspace, when will their status update in Happeo?

Suspensions usually sync within 24 hours. Once synced, the user moves to “Suspended” in Happeo and disappears from the org chart, the People Directory, and cannot be searchable. This ensures a clean experience for active employees while still retaining historical data (posts, comments, etc.).

Provisioning & sync

(Google): How does OU-based auto-seating work with Google Workspace?

If you connect an Organizational Unit (OU), everyone in that OU can be synced into Happeo automatically. You can also choose whether these users get seated right away or remain awaiting until a seat is available. It’s a great way to keep your environment aligned with your Google structure, though permissions may still need fine-tuning after import.

(Google): What happens to previously synced users from an OU when the OU sync is disabled?

Disabling an OU sync doesn’t retroactively remove users. They remain in Happeo but will no longer sync automatically. If you want them fully removed, you’ll need to suspend and delete them. This is helpful if you’re restructuring OUs and don’t want old users to vanish unexpectedly.

Directory & visibility

(Google): How can I hide unseated users from the People Directory or search?

Happeo mirrors much of your identity provider’s data. To hide unseated users, you can either disable directory sharing in their Google profile or suspend them and move them to an unsynced OU. This way they won’t appear in searches, directories, or org charts, keeping things clean and relevant.

Can I manage custom user attributes in Happeo?

Not directly. Custom attributes, such as department codes or custom job titles, need to be managed in Google Admin (or your provisioning source). Once set there, they’ll show up in Happeo.

Invites & external Access

When should I use invites instead of provisioning?

Invites are ideal when you want to add someone who isn’t part of your Google or Microsoft directory — for example, external consultants, contractors, or partners. They occupy a seat just like provisioned users, but they’re managed inside Happeo rather than your identity provider.

Can invited users be granted admin privileges?

Yes, invited users have the same rights as internal users once they’ve joined, meaning you can give them admin privileges if needed. This is useful for trusted external stakeholders — though many organizations keep admin roles internal for security reasons.