Organization settings

Organization settings is where you shape how your shelter works in ShelterSync. It has three tabs: Sites & locations (where animals live), Operational policies (your security and access rules), and Integrations (connections to outside systems).

Who can use this page: administrators. Staff can reach the Sites & locations tab.

Sites & locations

Your shelter is described as a tree of places — a campus or site at the top, the facilities inside it, and the individual areas or kennels at the bottom. Every animal lives at a location in this tree, so an accurate tree keeps the rest of the app accurate (filtering by location, checking animals in and out, reporting).

Each location has a kind (campus, facility, area, or unit) and an assignable flag — only assignable locations (the actual kennels and areas) can hold an animal or host an activity.

To manage the tree:

• Add a location — use Add top-level location for a new site, or the + on a row to add a child beneath it.
• Edit or delete — use the pencil and trash icons on a row. You can't delete a location that still has children or animals in it; move those first.
• Rearrange — drag a row by its handle to reorder siblings or move a location to a new parent.

Tips for structuring locations: mirror how your shelter is physically laid out, so volunteers recognize the names. Keep the assignable level (kennels, runs, rooms) consistent — that's the level animals are assigned to. Don't over-nest; two or three levels (site → building → kennel) is usually enough.

Operational policies

This tab controls how people sign in and how accounts are protected. The numbers here are security thresholds, so it helps to know what each one does and what happens when someone crosses it.

First, a few terms:

• OTP (one-time password) — a short code (usually 6 digits) sent by text message to confirm it's really you.
• PIN — a 6-digit code a user can set for quick re-verification on a device they've already used.
• MFA (multi-factor authentication) — a second sign-in step beyond the password, using an authenticator app (and optionally a texted code or backup codes).

Sign-in lockout

• Failed-login limit and lockout duration — after this many wrong passwords, the account is locked for the set number of minutes and the person can't sign in.
• What happens when it's crossed: the user sees a "locked" message. They can wait for the lockout to expire, or an administrator can clear it early: open the person on the Users page and reset their lockout.
• The same idea applies to PIN attempts and OTP attempts, each with its own limit and lockout time.

Devices and extra verification

• Maximum devices per user — how many phones/tablets one person can have signed in at once.
• Roles that require device approval — for the roles you list here, a new device must be approved by an admin before it can reach animal data (see Devices). Leave this empty and no approval is needed.
• Roles that require texted codes (SMS OTP) — roles listed here must also confirm a texted code at sign-in.
• Which roles must use MFA — set which roles are required to enroll in multi-factor authentication.

If users get locked out

A lockout is temporary — it clears itself after the duration you set. If someone needs back in sooner, an administrator resets the lockout from the Users page. If you find people are locked out often, consider raising the failed-attempt limit or shortening the lockout time here.

Integrations

If you use another system (such as ShelterLuv), connect it here so its data flows into ShelterSync. You enter the connection details once; the key itself is stored securely and is never shown again. After connecting, you can run a sync or remove the connection.

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