If your organization still has staff working in CoolFocus 3 while you set up CoolFocus 5, permission changes only travel in one direction: forward. A user group you create in CoolFocus 5 starts out with no CoolFocus 3 permissions, so its members will see almost nothing when they sign in to CoolFocus 3 until you set that group up there as well.
This is a one-time setup step per group, not a bug, and it only matters while your team is still using both versions.
An administrator creates new user groups in CoolFocus 5 (for example Client Advocates, Nurse Case Manager, Volunteers), assigns staff to them, and grants Module Access and Record Permissions.
Those same staff then sign in to CoolFocus 3 and see only Home and Reports. Areas they used before, such as Care, Scheduler, and Inbox, are gone. Re-saving the group in CoolFocus 5 does not bring them back.
When your organization was brought onto CoolFocus 5, we read each of your existing CoolFocus 3 profiles and translated them forward into CoolFocus 5 user groups. That translation was deliberately conservative: where a profile clearly had access to something, such as clients, the group received the default CoolFocus 5 permissions for that area. We would rather under-grant than accidentally hand someone access they should not have.
That translation runs one way, once. It does not run in reverse, and it does not run again on save. The two versions also store permissions in different places, so:
• A group you create in CoolFocus 5 exists in CoolFocus 3 as a profile with nothing selected.
• Changing Module Access or Record Permissions in CoolFocus 5 never changes what that group can do in CoolFocus 3.
• Groups that came across from CoolFocus 3 keep their original CoolFocus 3 permissions. Only groups created in CoolFocus 5 start empty on the CoolFocus 3 side.
CoolFocus 5 permissions are also much more detailed than the previous platform, which is why there is no clean automatic way to push a CoolFocus 5 setup backward into CoolFocus 3.
Do this once for each user group you created in CoolFocus 5, while your team is still using CoolFocus 3:
1. Sign in to CoolFocus 3 with your own administrator account.
2. Open the Profiles screen. User groups are called Profiles in CoolFocus 3 — they are the same records, just renamed in CoolFocus 5, so the groups you created in CoolFocus 5 appear in this list.
3. Edit the group you want to fix. A group created in CoolFocus 5 will open with nothing selected, including no person type.
4. Select the person types and areas this group needs. Grant only what the role actually requires — for example, client advocates usually need Clients but not Donors.
5. Open the Client Security tab on the left and check the items this group should be able to work with.
6. Save the profile.
7. Ask the affected staff to sign out of CoolFocus 3 and sign back in.
Repeat for each group. If you also change what an existing group should reach, remember to make that change in both versions.
• Changes move forward, not backward. Anything you add in CoolFocus 5 stays in CoolFocus 5. Plan on a single pass through CoolFocus 3 Profiles after you finish building your groups in CoolFocus 5.
• Starting fresh is still the right call. Building new groups that match real jobs is a better security position than carrying forward profiles that have accumulated for years. Some organizations arrive with hundreds of old profiles. The one-time CoolFocus 3 pass is worth it.
• CoolFocus 3 is less granular. A single CoolFocus 3 checkbox may open more inside CoolFocus 3 than the equivalent CoolFocus 5 permission does. Review what you check rather than assuming it mirrors the CoolFocus 5 group exactly.
• Administrators are different. A user marked Administrator in CoolFocus 5 can open every module your organization is licensed for, regardless of user group.
• If your team no longer uses CoolFocus 3, you can skip all of this. Manage permissions in CoolFocus 5 only.
I saved the group in CoolFocus 5. Why did nothing change in CoolFocus 3?
CoolFocus 5 permissions are stored separately from CoolFocus 3 permissions. Saving a group in CoolFocus 5 never updates the CoolFocus 3 side. Set the group up in CoolFocus 3 Profiles as described above.
Do I have to do this for every group?
Only for groups you created in CoolFocus 5. Groups that came across from CoolFocus 3 already carry their original CoolFocus 3 permissions.
Will CoolFocus start syncing these automatically?
No. The translation from CoolFocus 3 profiles to CoolFocus 5 user groups was a one-time, one-directional step taken during your move to CoolFocus 5. New groups are not pushed back into CoolFocus 3 automatically.
My new group is not showing in the CoolFocus 3 Profiles list.
Sign out of CoolFocus 3 and back in, then re-check the list. If the group still does not appear, contact WayCool support with your organization name and the exact group name.
Staff can only see Home and Reports in CoolFocus 5 as well, not just CoolFocus 3.
That is a different problem. Work through Troubleshooting: A module icon is missing from the sidebar instead — check administrator status, the group's Module Access, and whether the user is signed in to the right organization.
Should I set permissions in CoolFocus 3 or CoolFocus 5 going forward?
Build your real setup in CoolFocus 5. Treat the CoolFocus 3 pass as a temporary bridge that keeps staff working while your team finishes moving over.
• User Groups: What Staff Can Open and Change
• Troubleshooting: A module icon is missing from the sidebar
• Users
• Administration Overview
