Version 8 lets one account hold several campuses and several organizations, and it changes how staff access works around them. This article explains the new model in the order you need it, then answers the questions the release is most likely to raise. Each question has its own heading, so you can link straight to one answer.

A campus is a place your organization runs ministry from. People, groups, events, forms and most other records can belong to one campus, several campuses, or all of them. Staff can be limited to the campuses they serve.

A venue is any location that is not a campus, such as a rented hall or a gym. A venue holds rooms and resources, but records and staff limits are never tied to it, and it does not count toward multi-campus.

Campuses and venues now have separate lists, Campuses and Venues. Changing the type of a location does not move it across that line. To turn a campus into a venue, or a venue into a campus, use Convert on the location's page. Converting a campus to a venue removes that campus from every record, and converting it back restores nothing.

An organization is a separate legal entity inside your account, such as a school run by the same ministry. Each organization has its own name, EIN, logo, books, giving setup, texting number and public site. Organizations are managed on the Organizations tab of Account Settings.

Every account has exactly one default organization, and your account's identity comes from it. On release day, your existing locations and financial records all belong to the default organization.

There is no setting for multi-campus or multi-organization. Both read your account's actual setup every time, so they turn on and off by themselves.

When a save would take your active campus count across two, the screen asks Turn On Multi-Campus? or Turn Off Multi-Campus? before anything changes. Together, the two switches give four account states:

Staff access now has two layers. Permissions say what someone may do. They are set directly on a person with Custom access, or through roles with Role Based access. Limits say where they may do it. A limit is the Campuses field on a user or a role, set either to specific campuses or to whole organizations.

A campus limit applies campus by campus only while multi-campus is on. With more than one organization and multi-campus off, it applies as a limit to the whole organization of each campus it names. With both switches off, it does not apply at all. A limit that stops applying is still stored, and it applies again as soon as multi-campus is back on.

Permissions also come in two kinds. Campus-scoped permissions can differ from one campus to the next. Account-wide permissions apply everywhere and cannot be changed for one campus. Texting and email permissions, for example, are account-wide.

One rule settles most "why can't they" questions: to edit a record, you need the permission at one of its campuses. To delete a record, you need the permission at every campus on it. A record available to All can only be deleted by someone with no limit.

A Super User has every permission at every location, with no limits. Full Account is different: it is one ordinary permission, and it does not lift a limit.

A campus override gives someone a different set of permissions at one campus. It replaces their usual permissions there completely: a permission left unticked is removed at that campus, and a permission ticked is added there. Their usual set, called Default, applies at every campus without an override.

To add one, open a user or a role, open Permissions For, and choose Add campus override. Pick the campuses and what the override should Start from, then change what should differ. Overrides only change campus-scoped permissions, and they never change which campuses someone can reach. That always comes from the limit on Default. Overrides apply only while multi-campus is on.

While multi-campus or multi-organization is on, a band under the page header lets staff choose the campuses they are working in. It reads Campuses:, or Organizations: when organizations are offered. Click it to open the side panel and change your selection.

Lists and searches then show records at the selected campuses, plus records available to All, plus your own records, such as your profile and the groups you belong to. Your choice saves to your profile, so it follows you to any device.

The selector narrows what you see. It never adds access, so you can only pick campuses inside your limit. It also never stops you opening a record directly. A record outside your selection still opens, with a banner saying it is outside your selected campuses.

No. Nothing asks you to opt in. The release moves every account to the new model, and your account lands in one of the four states above based on your plan and how many campuses and organizations are active.

If your plan includes multi-campus and you already have two or more active campuses, multi-campus is on from your first login, and every campus limit you have stored applies right away.

Multi-campus is probably off. Before Version 8, campus limits applied on every plan. Now they apply only while multi-campus is on, which needs a plan that includes it and two active campuses. On an account with one organization, a plan without multi-campus or fewer than two active campuses means stored campus limits stop applying.

The limit is not lost. It stays stored and applies again once multi-campus is back on. With two or more organizations, the limit still holds by organization: the person sees every campus of the organizations their campuses belong to, and nothing of the others.

Editing needs the permission at one of the record's campuses. Deleting needs it at every campus on the record. A record available to All can only be deleted by someone with no limit at that permission, because All also covers campuses added later.

Instead of deleting a shared record, a limited staff member can remove their own campus from it. For a repeating event, they can still delete dates, but not the whole event.

Check the campus selector first. A narrowed selection hides records at other campuses, even ones the person can reach. Next, check the page's campus filter, which hides records available to All unless (Blanks) is ticked. Last, check the person's limit and whether they hold an override at that campus.

Both are hidden while multi-campus is off. That includes every plan without multi-campus, and any account with fewer than two active campuses. The stored values are kept, and both come back when multi-campus is on.

Check the person's limit first. A campus or organization limit counts even when it lists every campus, so the limit itself has to be cleared. A campus override, even one that only adds access, also blocks adding, archiving or making default an organization, moving a campus, and inviting team members.

The quickest fix is to have someone with no limit and no override do the action.

Bank Reconciliations and Close Accounting Periods are new permissions in Version 8. At release, everyone with Full Read Accounting or Full Write Accounting received Bank Reconciliations, and everyone with Full Write Accounting received Close Accounting Periods.

Both also need accounting access at every active campus, or at every campus of that organization when each organization keeps its own books. A staff member limited to some campuses can reconcile or close a period only when their limit covers all of those campuses.

Your records stay where they are, but the ones with no campus get an owner. When you add a second organization, every record with no campus and no organization is assigned to the default organization in one step, and the new organization starts empty. Records already on a campus are not touched. Before you save, the Before Creating preview shows how many records of each type will be assigned.

Records meant for both organizations can be set to All afterwards. Financial records are the exception. Designations, batches, giving pages, campaigns, accounts and funds always belong to one organization.

No. There is no transfer between organizations, and a gift's organization never changes. Each organization records its own side of any shared arrangement in its own books. A fund transfer, for example, cannot move money between two organizations' funds.

That is expected. Each organization has its own texting number and its own opt-in list. Texting STOP, or even STOPALL, to one organization's number stops texts from that organization only.

Email works differently. An email unsubscribe covers every organization in the account.

Once giving is split by organization, built-in giving reports and giving widgets read one organization at a time, so they ask you to pick one. A Query Builder query that reads giving asks the same.

A few places can still add organizations together: the Batches overview cards, the recurring gifts overview, and Query Builder totals. If a total looks too high, check for an Organization filter.

No. Archiving an organization cannot be undone, and organizations cannot be deleted. An archived organization's records stay readable, but its money and the records held only by it can no longer be changed. The archive window says this before the final confirmation.

Start with three questions:

Most access questions are answered by one of those three. If they all look right, check the page's own campus filter next.

Limiting Campuses

How do I add, deactivate, or delete a campus?

User Access Types

How do I set permissions on a user?

How do I set role-based permissions or role-based system access?