You've got access to the account — now what? Before diving in and making changes, it's worth taking a few minutes to get oriented. This article helps you understand what you're working with and where everything lives.
If you haven't sorted out your admin access and Account Ownership yet, start with Getting access and transferring Account Ownership to your incoming committee.
Step 1: Confirm your level of access
Check the bottom of the left-hand sidebar in the Admin Dashboard.
If you can see Organisation Settings → you have full admin access
If you can't → you have limited admin access
That's not necessarily a problem — many roles (e.g. Events Coordinator) only need access to certain areas. But you'll need full access to complete a committee changeover properly.
Step 2: Find your bearings
Work out where your organisation actually lives inside TidyHQ. There are three places to check first.
Contacts (your member list)
Click on Contacts in the left sidebar. This is the core of the system — everything from memberships to communications is built on top of it.
Look for:
How many contacts there are
What Groups you have (e.g. Members, Committee, Volunteers)
Don't try to fix anything yet — just understand what's there.
Finances (for recent activity)
Mouse over Finances in the left sidebar. You'll see links to Overview, Transactions, and to Invoices, Expenses & Deposits.
You're looking for:
Recent payments
Any unpaid invoices
Whether online payments are set up and active
Tasks and Meetings (if used)
Click on Tasks and Meetings in the left sidebar. Not every organisation uses these, but if they do, this is where you'll find what the previous committee was working on, any outstanding action items, and past decisions and records.
Step 3: Check what members see
Before making changes, look at the organisation from the outside. Visit yourclub.tidyhq.com as a member would.
Quick checks:
Memberships — are the levels current and clearly named?
Events — anything upcoming, or outdated listings that should have been removed?
Web Pages — does the public site reflect the current committee?
This helps you avoid fixing internal data while missing outward-facing issues that members are actually seeing.
Step 4: Resist the urge to tidy everything at once
It's tempting to fix everything you see on day one. Instead:
Take note of anything confusing or out of date
Check how things are being used before changing them
Make considered changes later, not impulsive ones immediately
What looks redundant might be referenced somewhere else — in a membership level, an automated email, or a financial report.
Step 5: Focus on what matters first
You don't need to learn the whole system today. Start with what keeps the organisation running:
Contacts and Groups
Memberships
Payments
Communication
If those are working, your organisation is in a good position.
Quick checklist
I can see the Admin Dashboard
I understand my level of access
I've looked through Contacts and Groups
I've checked recent payments
I've reviewed memberships and events from the member's perspective
Next steps
Once you've got your bearings, the next job is cleaning up what's out of date.