Practise common administrative tasks – Pl

Reading about the platform only takes you so far. The fastest way to become confident as an administrator is to do the work — ideally on test users and a test cycle, with your Customer Success Manager available to talk it through.

This guide lists the tasks worth practising, grouped by area, with a link to the detailed instructions for each. You do not need to work through it in order or complete all of it. Pick what matches the processes your firm actually runs, and come back to the rest when it becomes relevant.

If you are taking over from another administrator, work through the new administrator checklist first. That tells you what your firm has configured and why; this guide tells you how to operate it.

Before you start

Use test users and a test cycle. Most of these tasks are safe to practise, but some are not reversible on live data. Practise on test records first.

Ask why, not just how. If you inherited the platform, the useful question while practising is often "why was this set up this way?" Note anything nobody can explain — that is exactly the context that gets lost between administrators.

Get your CSM involved. Working through a representative set of these with them is a better use of a session than a demo.

Reviews and forms

The largest area, and the one with the most decisions embedded in it. Review building has its own set of guides — start with Create a new review cycle and work through the build sequence.

Update a test form's steps, questions, ownership, due dates, emails and final report. See Configure or manage review settings, Build a review first step (Reviewee), Build a review second step (Reviewer) and Build a review PDF.

Create a rating scale and a tooltip, and see where each appears for the person filling in the form. See Create a rating scale and Create a tooltip.

Duplicate an existing cycle to create your test cycle, rather than building one from scratch. See Duplicate and rollover a review cycle.

Run the design quality check on a cycle before launching it. See Test review design quality with Compass AI.

Review the collaboration points setup, if your firm uses it. See Using the Collaboration points tool.

Objectives, feedback and other modules

Your firm may call objectives goals, targets or plans — the module is Objectives.

Review objective fields, categories, instructions and templates. See Create and update objective templates and Manage, update and create objectives (with AI).

Check objective alignment and who can see it. See Create and update objective alignment and Manage objective alignment access and visibility.

Review Fast Feedback forms, visibility settings and notifications. See Setup and configure Fast Feedback and Create or edit Fast Feedback form templates.

Review the Training Diary setup, if your firm tracks CPD or continuing competence. See Set up and configure training diaries.

Review the RemCom workflow, participant access and financial inputs, if remuneration runs through the platform.

People and organisational data

Update a test user's role, department, location and supervisor. See Manage user details and roles.

Add or update an attribute value — a new role or department, for example — and confirm it appears correctly in filters. See Create, update or delete core attributes (roles, departments, location).

Deactivate and reactivate a test user, and check where deactivated users appear.

Run a bulk user update and work through any validation errors. See Import employee data and run HRIS sync.

Import sample financial data, validate the field mapping, and confirm it appears where you expect. See Bulk import financial data and Review your financial data after import.

Add imported data attributes, if your firm brings external data into reviews. See Create an import attribute or group to hold external data and Show imported data into a review form.

Access and leadership views

Assign restricted admin access and check its scope. A restricted admin sees a narrower platform than you do, so confirm the scope produces what you intended. See Manage permissions (Super and Restricted admins) and Introduction to Restricted Admin.

Create or update a leadership view, assign it to a test user, and confirm the intended population is visible. See Create and set leadership views.

Use proxy login to see the platform as someone else — an employee, a manager, and a restricted admin. This is the quickest way to answer "what will they actually see?". See Act as a user within a review.

Content and communications

Upload or replace a document in Key Documents. See Upload and manage key documents.

Update module wording, instructions, empty states or a page alert. See Update the system language to suit my firm and Edit navigation menu language and order.

Update an email template and preview it as the recipient will see it. See Create and manage email campaign templates.

Review the AI prompts behind any AI features your firm uses, so you know what the platform has been instructed to do. See Review and update Compass AI prompts.

Running a cycle

Enrol test users in different roles and move the cycle through each step. See Enrol users and launch a review.

Move a participant forward and back through steps. See Move users in reviews forward and back.

Confirm what each audience can see — employee, manager, contributor, administrator — using proxy login rather than assuming.

Regenerate a PDF and resend a step email. See Regenerate PDF or resend the step email.

Identify incomplete participants and build a reminder audience. See Track review cycle progress and export engagement data and Use email campaigns to nudge review completion.

Reporting and housekeeping

Export a report and confirm it contains what you expected. See Export data and pull user lists.

Review an active cycle's participation and completion status. See Track review cycle progress and export engagement data.

Close down your test cycle. In the cycle's settings, set Cycle Status to Complete, or use Hide Review to take it out of view. There is also a Lock Configuration setting that prevents breaking changes to a cycle's structure once it is live — worth understanding before a real cycle launches.

Support and your Performance Leader relationship

Know how to contact Support and what to include — the affected process, the user, what you expected to happen, what happened instead, and a screenshot. A good report is usually resolved in one exchange rather than three.

Know which issues are technical and which are decisions. "The email didn't send" is support. "Should partners see contributor comments?" is a decision for your firm, and your CSM can help you think it through.

Agree a check-in cadence with your Customer Success Manager, and keep them informed of upcoming cycles, organisational changes and anything you can see coming.

Use your CSM before significant changes, not after. Reviewing a plan, a launch or a configuration change with them is what the relationship is for.