The Impact OS User Manual

01 Welcome

Impact OS is the system of record for everything your organization does for the people it serves — one place for intake, casework, scheduling, volunteers, and the outcome reporting your funders require.

The whole platform is built around a single idea: one person's journey, from their first request for help to a measurable result, tracked in one connected place instead of scattered across spreadsheets, inboxes, and paper files. There are three ways people use it:

02 How the system fits together

Every part of Impact OS is a step in one flow. A request for help comes in, your team decides how to respond, a case carries the work, and the results roll up into reports. Here's that flow end to end.

A person (or a partner, or your own reception desk) submits a referral. Staff run an eligibility review and either request more information, decline, or accept. Accepting opens a case — the working file that holds notes, services, documents, assessments and goals. As you deliver support you record outcomes, and at the end of each period you generate a funder report from those numbers.

The case lifecycle

Inside a case, the status moves through five stages. You control each move, and closing always records why.

03 Who does what — roles & access

Impact OS keeps sensitive client data on a need-to-know basis. What someone can see and do depends on their role. Staff have four roles; volunteers and program leads have carefully scoped access.

04 Getting started

Signing in, securing your account, the one-time setup wizard, and finding your way around the dashboard.

Signing in

Go to your workspace address (e.g. yourorg.impactos.ca) and you'll see Staff sign in. Enter your Email and Password and press Sign in.

Setting your password (new staff)

The first time a newly-created admin signs in with a temporary password, Impact OS shows Set your password. Enter a New password (at least 8 characters) and Confirm password, then Set password & continue.

Two-factor authentication (2FA)

2FA adds a second step at sign-in using an authenticator app. To turn it on for yourself:

1. Open 2FA setup From Settings → Security, choose Set up (or go to /mfa/setup). You'll see Set up two-factor authentication.
2. Scan the QR code Open an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, 1Password, Authy) and scan the code. Can't scan? Use Enter this key manually.
3. Confirm Type the 6-digit code from the app and press Enable two-factor.

After that, each new sign-in shows Two-factor verification — enter the current 6-digit code and press Verify.

First-run setup (the onboarding wizard)

The very first time an admin signs into a new workspace, Impact OS walks you through a 7-step setup wizard to brand your public site. (Until it's done, a Finish setting up… → Set up now banner stays at the top.) The steps:

1. Identity Confirm your organization name and a Tagline.
2. Branding Pick your Primary and Accent colors — they theme your public site and referral form.
3. Photos Upload up to 3 hero photos (they rotate as a slideshow). You can skip and add these later.
4. Contact Phone, email, address, and office hours.
5. Public copy Your homepage headline, subtitle, and a short programs intro.
6. Services Toggle which of your programs show publicly and give each a short description.
7. Review & launch Preview the site, then press Launch site. You land in Organization settings, where you can refine anything.

The dashboard

After signing in you land on the Dashboard (/dashboard) — a live overview of intake and casework. At the top are six numbers you can act on:

Below the numbers are charts (Referrals over time, Active caseload by program, Case status), your personal My caseload (with an All cases / High risk toggle), a Tasks & follow-ups list you can tick off, Upcoming appointments, and a Recent activity feed.

Finding anything — global search

The search box at the top of every page (Search clients, cases, referrals…) finds people and records by name, case number or reference number. Results are grouped into Clients, Cases and Referrals, each linking straight to the record.

Sending feedback

The Feedback button in the bottom-right corner is on every staff page. Open it, choose General, Idea, Bug or Praise, write a note, optionally rate Impact OS with stars, and press Send feedback. It goes straight to the Impact OS team.

05 Intake & referrals

Intake is the front door. A referral can arrive three ways, they all land in one queue, and from there your team runs eligibility and either requests more info, declines, or accepts and opens a case.

How referrals arrive

• Public self-referral — anyone can fill in your branded form at /referral (name, situation and consent are required; program, contact details and documents are optional). They get a reference number to track their status.
• Embeddable widget — the same form, chrome-free, to drop into a partner's website (an admin copies the snippet from Settings).
• Staff-taken referral — reception registers a phone/walk-in/partner referral at /intake/new (New referral): choose how it came in, enter the person's details and situation, tick the verbal-consent box, and press Register referral.

The submission queue

Open /intake (Submission queue). The cards across the top — New, Under review, More info, Eligibility review, Accepted, Declined — both count and filter. The table lists each referral by reference number, applicant, program, date, risk and status. (Once a referral becomes a case it leaves the queue.)

Reviewing and deciding

Click a referral to open its review screen. On the left, tabs show the Overview (applicant info + their situation), Documents, and a Timeline. On the right is the Eligibility review form — set the program, priority and risk, add optional decision notes, and choose whether to email the applicant (the Email the client about this decision box is ticked by default, with an optional message). Then pick one of three actions:

1. Accept & create case Converts the referral into a client + an open case in one step, and takes you straight to the new case.
2. Request info Marks it "more info" and (if enabled) emails the applicant asking for more. No case is created.
3. Decline Records a declined decision with your notes, and optionally emails the applicant.

06 Clients & households

A client is a person your organization serves. Their profile is the single place that ties together their cases, appointments, documents and household — created automatically the moment a referral is accepted.

The client directory

At /clients, search by name, email or phone, or filter by risk (Low / Medium / High — a client's risk is the highest across their cases). Each row shows contact, case count, risk and "since" date.

The client profile

Open a client to see five tabs:

A consent line under the name shows how and when consent was captured — it's inherited from the referral and never re-collected.

Household members

On the Household tab, use Add member (full name, relationship, date of birth, and a Dependent checkbox). Remove a member with the trash icon.

07 Cases: the case workspace

A case is the working file for one person's support. Everything you do for them — notes, tasks, documents, services, referrals, communications, assessments and goals — lives on tabs in the case workspace, with the whole history on one timeline.

Finding cases

At /cases, the tiles filter by status (Open, Active, Monitoring, Closing, Closed); the table lists case number, client, program, risk and status.

Inside a case

The header shows the case number, client, program, who it's assigned to, and risk/status badges. Just below sit two control cards — Case status and Reassign case — and then the working tabs:

Moving a case through its lifecycle

Use the Case status card. Choose the status to Move to, add an optional staff-only Internal note, and decide whether to Notify client (with an optional Message to client), then Update status. When you move a case to Closed, you must pick a Closure reason (Goals met, Referred out, Client disengaged, Ineligible, Other) and can add a closure note.

Reassigning a case

Use the Reassign case card: pick the New caseworker (staff only — volunteers aren't offered), add an optional internal note, choose whether to notify the client, and press Reassign.

08 Assessments & goals

Assessments are the scored questionnaires your team runs on a case (needs assessments, intake screens); goals & plans turn a case into a service plan you can track to completion.

Running an assessment

On a case's Assessments tab, press the + [Template name] button for the assessment you want. Each question is a scale (0–3), a yes/no, or a text box; fill it in and press Save assessment. The result shows a score and a need band:

• High need — 66% or more of the possible score
• Moderate need — 33% to 65%
• Low need — under 33%

Goals & service plans

On the Goals tab, add a goal (title + target date) with Add goal. Under each goal, add action steps and tick them off as you go — the progress bar and percentage update automatically. Set each goal's status inline: Not started, In progress, Achieved, or On hold.

09 Appointments & shifts

The calendar has two sides: a work calendar for client appointments, and a shift calendar for scheduling staff and volunteers. They share one header with two tabs.

Booking appointments — the work calendar

At /calendar (Work calendar tab) you see a month grid, an upcoming list, and a New appointment form. To book one: enter a Title, pick a Type (Intake, Assessment, Home visit, Case review, Follow-up, Group session, Other), set the date and start time, optionally a location, optionally Link to case, and press Schedule. The tiles at the top filter the calendar by type.

Scheduling shifts

The Shift calendar tab (/calendar/shifts) is part of the Volunteers add-on. All times use your organization's timezone (set it in Settings). Two ways to schedule:

1. A one-off shift On Schedule a shift: pick a person (staff or volunteer), date, start/end, optional location and note → Schedule shift.
2. A weekly pattern On Add weekly pattern: pick a volunteer, a weekday, times, and effective dates → Add pattern. Impact OS auto-generates the concrete shifts for the next 90 days (and keeps topping them up).

Cancel a one-off shift with Cancel; remove a pattern with Remove (past shifts are kept for history). If you schedule someone outside the availability they've set, you'll get a soft heads-up — it never blocks the shift.

10 Volunteers

Recruit, screen and track volunteers, tag them with skills, log their hours, and give them a secure, limited login. (Volunteers are part of the Professional plan.)

The roster

At /volunteers, the cards filter by status — volunteers move Applicant → Screening → Active → Inactive. Add someone with the Add a volunteer card (name + email → Add), then flesh out their profile. The Skills catalog card is your master list of skills/certifications to tag volunteers from.

A volunteer's profile

• Status & screening — set their status; while they're an Applicant/Screening you get a checklist (background check, interview, notes → Save screening).
• Skills & availability — tick skills from the catalog, mark availability slots and languages, then Save skills & availability.
• Hours — log a date, hours and activity with Log hours; a running total is shown.

Giving portal access

On the Portal access card, press Invite to portal to email a single-use invite link (valid 72 hours). Revoke with Deactivate access.

11 Field visits & the Impact Connect mobile app

For on-site work, coordinators assign field tasks on the web, and workers run them from Impact Connect — the mobile app that confirms they're really at the client's address before a visit can start.

Assigning field tasks (web)

Admins and supervisors create tasks at /tasks with New task: a title, an assignee (staff or volunteer), a scheduled start (and optional end), an optional linked client, and — importantly — a location. Type the street address and press Find to drop a pin (drag it to fine-tune), then Create task. Optionally override the geofence Radius. Each task's detail page shows an Activity trail of every check-in, completion and rejected attempt.

Running a visit in Impact Connect

Impact Connect is for the field worker. It requires location turned on before you can even sign in. After signing in (and a 2FA code if required), the Home tab shows today's visits and counts (Scheduled, Completed, In progress, Missed). Tap a visit to run it:

1. Go to the visit The visit screen shows the schedule, address, a map and your live distance. Tap Navigate for directions.
2. Check in on site When you're within range, tap Check in → Check in now. The server confirms your GPS location — you can't check in from the wrong place.
3. Record the visit Add a summary, tick the services provided, note the client's condition, optionally take a photo, and tap Complete visit.
4. Check out Tap Finish & check out to close the visit.

The Schedule tab (mobile)

Beyond visits, Impact Connect's Schedule tab is where workers manage their own availability: view upcoming shifts, Claim shift from available open shifts, request Time off, and set weekly Availability and days off.

12 Outcomes & funder reporting

Outcomes is how you measure the difference you make and prove it to funders. You define what you measure, record it each period, and turn it into a funder-ready report. (Outcomes is on the Professional and Enterprise plans.)

It follows one loop: define indicators → set baselines & targets → record values each period → watch the dashboards → report to funders.

Indicators

An indicator is one thing you measure (e.g. "Clients housed"), belonging to a program or to the whole organization. Set them up at Settings → Outcomes. Each is either:

• Manual — someone types the number in each period.
• Computed — Impact OS calculates it automatically from your case records, using a point-and-click measure builder (count records, count distinct clients, or sum a field — over cases, services, referrals or assessments, with optional filters and percentages).

Give each a baseline (where you started) and target (your goal) to unlock a progress bar.

Recording values & dashboards

On the Outcomes hub (/outcomes) or a program dashboard, set the period, then for a manual indicator type the number and Save value; for a computed one press Recompute & save. Each indicator shows a trend chart and, with a target set, its progress.

Funder reports

At Outcomes → Funder reports (admin-only): add a funder and link indicators to it (in Settings), then pick the funder + period and Generate / refresh draft to freeze a snapshot. Preview the lines, Export CSV or Export PDF, and Submit report to finalize.

13 Reports & exports

The Program report (/reports) is your at-a-glance operational summary — headline numbers and charts for any date range and program, printable to PDF, with admin-only CSV exports of the underlying data.

Set a From/To range and a Program, press Apply, and the eight KPI tiles (People served, Cases opened/closed, High-risk, Referrals made, Services delivered, Assessments, Active cases) and the three charts update. Save a copy with Export PDF or Print / Save as PDF.

14 Your public site & client portals

Every organization gets a branded public website and a set of surfaces the people you serve — and partner agencies — use, all styled with your logo and colors.

The public site & referral form

Your landing page (with your hero, programs and contact details) invites visitors to Submit a Referral or Check Referral Status. The referral form captures name, situation and consent (plus optional contact, program and documents) and gives the applicant a reference number.

Track my submission

Anyone can check status at /track with their reference number + date of birth. This is status-only — it shows a friendly status and nothing else (no personal details, notes or documents).

The client portal (paid)

On the Professional plan, the secure client portal at /portal lets a client verify with their reference number + date of birth and then see their status and caseworker, upcoming appointments, a timeline, and securely upload and download documents (handy when your team has asked for more information). Case updates appear here when your organization's client-notifications setting is on.

Partner referrals, signup & the demo

• Partner page (/partners, paid) — a branded page for agencies and professionals, linking to the referral form and status tracker.
• Self-serve signup (/signup) — how a new organization creates its own workspace: pick a web address, choose a plan, and start a 15-day free trial (card saved, no charge until the trial ends).
• Guided demo (demo.impactos.ca) — a read-only sample workspace anyone can explore; nothing is saved or charged.

15 The volunteer portal

Volunteers get their own limited, secure login — never the staff workspace. They see only their schedule, their assigned clients (with sensitive fields hidden), and their own hours.

Getting in

A volunteer accepts your emailed invite (Activate your volunteer account), sets a password (Set password & sign in), and afterward signs in through the same login page as staff.

What a volunteer sees

16 Settings & administration

Organization settings (/settings) is the admin control room — your public branding, contact info, team, notifications, security and privacy policies. Admin only; everyone else sees a "only organization admins can change these settings" notice.

Branding & your public site

Set your Logo, up to three rotating Hero photos, and Brand colors (applied live to your public site). Edit your Tagline, Contact details and office hours, the Public copy (homepage headline/subtitle/intro), and Social links. Manage the programs shown on your site in the Services editor (add a service, describe it, set its order, toggle Shown).

Team & roles

Manage staff at /users (Users & roles). The cards filter by role. To add someone, use Add a staff member (name, email, role) → Add staff; Impact OS creates the account with a temporary password shown once for you to share securely. Change anyone's role inline with the role dropdown + Save.

Notifications & email

Under Client notifications, toggle Send status-update emails to clients. Under Email notifications, confirm delivery is configured and Send test email to yourself.

Security & privacy policies

• Security — set up your own 2FA and toggle Require two-factor for all admins.
• Volunteer access — the portal login window and client-data rules for volunteers (see the volunteer portal).
• Data retention — optionally auto-anonymize old client contact details after 12/24/36/84 months. Aggregate outcomes are kept; this can't be undone.
• Field tasks — the geofence radius, check-in grace window, and minimum GPS accuracy for on-site visits.
• Embed — copy the snippet to put your referral form on your own website.

Assessment templates

Build the scored assessments your team runs on cases at Settings → Assessments. Press New template, name it, add sections and questions — each a Scale (0–3, scored), Yes / No, or Text — and Save template. Only scale questions contribute to the score. (Saving templates needs the Professional plan.)

17 Plan & billing

Everyone can view Settings → Plan & billing to see the current plan, usage and included features; only admins can change anything.

The page shows your Current plan and status, your Active clients and Staff seats usage, and an Included features checklist (a lock icon marks what your plan doesn't include). Below, the plans — Community, Starter, Professional, Enterprise — each show their allowances and module count, with your current tier highlighted.

Changing your plan

An admin presses Upgrade (or Change plan) and is taken to secure Stripe checkout or the Stripe billing portal — where cards, invoices and plan switches are handled. Changes take effect immediately and are prorated. Once you're a paying customer, Manage billing opens the same portal.

Cancelling

Use Cancel subscription. Payments are fully refundable within 48 hours; after that you keep full access until the end of the period. Cancelling never deletes your data — your workspace becomes read-only and your records stay exportable.

18 Security & your data

You're holding sensitive information about vulnerable people. Impact OS is built so that only the right people can ever see it — here's exactly how, in plain terms.

• Every organization's data is isolated at the database level. Row-level security means one organization can never load another's records — it's enforced by the database, not just the screen.
• Role-based access & scoped views. Staff roles, program-lead scoping, and the privacy-masked volunteer view all limit who sees what, down to individual fields.
• Encryption. Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest.
• Two-factor authentication for staff, and enforceable for all admins.
• A full audit trail of material actions — who did what, and when.
• Consent is captured and versioned at intake, storing the exact wording each person agreed to.
• Privacy by design. Funder reports are aggregate-only (never client-level); client-level exports are admin-only; and optional data retention can auto-anonymize old contact details. Practices are built with Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA) in mind.

19 Quick reference

Where things live

Glossary

Referral / submission

A request for support, with a reference number, that lives in the intake queue until it's declined or converted into a case.

Case

The working file for one person's support — notes, services, documents, assessments, goals — that moves through the Open→Closed lifecycle.

Client

A person your organization serves; created when a referral is accepted.

Program

One of the services your organization delivers (e.g. Housing). Cases and indicators are organized by program.

Indicator

One thing you measure for outcomes reporting — manual (typed in) or computed (calculated from your records).

Program lead

A staff member an admin puts in charge of a program's outcome data.

Funder report

A frozen, aggregate snapshot of a funder's indicators for a period, exported and submitted.

Impact Connect

The mobile app field workers use to run GPS-verified on-site visits.