Administrators and Operators

Ignition Crowdfunding has two kinds of staff: the people who set the site up, and the people who run the fundraising day to day. Often they are different people. An operator lets someone handle campaigns, pledges and refunds without giving them an administrator login.

Who each person is

Administrator — installs plugins, connects payment providers, and sets the site up. An administrator can also do everything an operator does.
Operator — runs the fundraising: approves campaigns, handles pledges and refunds, exports backers, pays creators, and changes business settings such as pledge limits or commission. Operators work in the WordPress dashboard (wp-admin), under the Ignition menu.

Both are staff. Wherever Ignition says “Staff” — the Staff group of emails, the (Staff) at the end of an email’s name — it means administrators and operators alike.

What each can do

In Ignition	Administrator	Operator
Campaigns, Pledges and Backers screens, and the Creators, Updates and Payouts screens that add-ons bring	Yes	Yes
Approving campaigns and updates, declaring results, refunds	Yes	Yes
Backer and pledge exports	Yes	Yes
Settings → General, Emails and Sharing	Yes	Yes
Business settings in Add-ons (such as commission, or whether campaigns need approval)	Yes	Yes
Settings → Setup: page assignment, currency, the terms page	Yes	No
The From Email sender address	Yes	No
The Payments tab: turning a payment method on or off, the offline payment instructions, payment keys and webhooks, connecting PayPal or Stripe	Yes	No
Platform Mode’s Who Receives Pledges	Yes	No
Plugins, Users and other WordPress settings	Yes	No

An operator’s powers add to whatever WordPress role they already hold. A Subscriber who is an operator can run the fundraising but cannot edit pages or posts; an Editor who is an operator can do both.

What an operator sees in Settings

An operator sees only what they can change. Administrator-only tabs, fields and switches are hidden, not greyed out. For example, the Setup and Payments tabs do not appear, and the Add-ons tab appears only when an active add-on has settings an operator may change.

The offline payment instructions are administrator-only because they tell backers where to send money, often a bank account number. Changing them is as sensitive as changing a payment provider’s keys.

Making someone an operator

You need to be an administrator to do this.

Go to Users and edit the person.
In the Ignition Crowdfunding section, tick Ignition operator.
Click Update User.

Or, on the Users list, hover over the person and click Make operator.

Their WordPress role stays as it is. The Role column on the Users list adds an Operator label so you can see who your operators are. Changing their role later keeps them an operator.

To remove every operator power at once, untick Ignition operator and save, or click Remove operator on the Users list. Administrators already have every operator power, so the tick box does not appear for them.

Staff emails

Staff emails — new campaigns going live, results to declare, cancellations, refunds and, with Platform Mode, campaigns waiting for review — go to administrators and operators alike. Each person switches their own on or off, on their WordPress profile page or in the Notifications section of their front-end account page. See Email Notifications.

Deactivating and uninstalling

Deactivating Ignition Crowdfunding leaves operators with only the powers of their WordPress role. Reactivating it gives their operator powers back.
Uninstalling removes the operator tick from everyone. Their WordPress roles are left as they are. See Uninstalling.

User Roles — the Campaign Backer role and the permissions Ignition adds
Settings