Communities: Glossary of terms
This glossary of terms defines the terms that come up across the community articles. If you're new to communities, read this first — the articles assume you know what these words mean.
For what communities are and why they matter, please see our Communities: an overview article.
Community
An operational group that ties together Members, Helpers and Staffers. Communities shape what a Staffer sees on their dashboard, act as a filter across the platform, control who can access which records, and can carry their own settings such as public holidays. A place people belong to and work within.
Profile
The underlying record for a single person — their name, contact details and so on. Everyone is a profile first; what they do is layered on top as one or more roles. The same profile could be a Helper who is also, in another context, a Member's emergency contact.
Member
The role for a person receiving care and support — the client, participant or care recipient at the centre of the platform. Also called clients, participants or care recipients.
Helper
The role for a worker who delivers direct care services to Members. A Helper may be an internal employee or a worker from an outsourced third-party provider. Also called workers.
Staffer
The role for a member of your own internal team — rostering staff, Care Managers, administrators. Staffers coordinate, manage and oversee the care delivered to Members, rather than delivering it directly.
Membership
The service arrangement a Member sits within — think of it as the case or household file that holds a Member's plan, funding and history. When you add "a Member" to a community, it's really the membership that's linked, which is why a Member's funding and care details travel with them. For everyday reading you can treat "Member" and "membership" as the same thing.
Third-party provider (TPP)
An outside organisation whose workers deliver services on your behalf. A Helper from a TPP is outsourced rather than directly employed.
Add (manually)
Putting a specific person into a community by hand. Members and Helpers can both be added manually. Manual additions stay put until you remove them.
Helper rule
A set of conditions that fills a community with matching Helpers automatically, and keeps it up to date as your workforce changes. You set the conditions once; any Helper who matches is pulled in. Helpers added this way are managed by the rule, not by hand. → See [Managing Helpers in a community].
Dynamic (vs manually added)
The label showing how a Helper ended up in a community. Dynamicmeans a Helper rule added them; manually added means someone added them by hand. Dynamic Helpers can only be removed by changing the rule; manual ones can be removed individually.
Assign
To connect a Staffer to a community with a role. (Members and Helpers are "added"; Staffers are "assigned.")
Role (a Staffer's role in a community)
What a Staffer is given when assigned to a community — as opposed to simply being "added." A role records the category of work they do there (Care Management, Workforce or Clinical), their job title as Members will see it, their access level, and whether they're visible to Members.
For more information, please see our Managing Staffers in a community article.
Access reach
A setting on each Staffer's own record that decides which communities they can get into by default:
- Full — every community, no assignment needed (also required for reporting and data exports).
- General — any open community, plus anything they're specifically assigned to.
- Restricted — only the communities they've been explicitly assigned to.
Community access (open / restricted)
A setting on each community that decides how widely it can be reached. Open communities are reachable by anyone whose access reach allows it; restricted communities are reachable only by people explicitly assigned or with full reach.
Access level (full / read-only)
Set per assignment: whether a Staffer assigned to a community can make changes (full) or only view it (read-only).
Permission
A specific capability switched on or off for a Staffer's access role. For the community articles, the key one is Community access & Roles, which allows creating and editing communities and assigning Staffers. Access reach decides which communities you can reach; a permission decides what you can do once you're there.
Archive
To retire a record so it's no longer active, without deleting it. Communities, Members and Helpers can all be archived. Archived records drop out of everyday lists and counts but their history is kept. Archiving a community moves its active Members elsewhere and removes all its Staffer assignments.
On leave
A flag showing a Member or Helper is temporarily unavailable. In community Helper lists, on-leave Helpers are marked on their avatar so you can spot availability at a glance.
Public holiday set
A collection of public holidays for a particular state or territory that can be attached to a community, so pay and scheduling follow local rules. A Helper can only belong to one community that has a public holiday set attached.
Group activity / event
An activity Members can attend, which can be made available to specific communities so Members only see what's relevant to them.
Tag
A label that can be applied to Helpers, often grouped into categories such as skills or experience. Tags can be used as conditions in a Helper rule — for example, to build a community of Helpers with a particular skill.