Overview
Castaway Cloud is a SaaS product and this allows for excellent collaboration features. Advisors, customers and others required to contribute can access the same file and work more efficiently together — from different locations, as long as there is internet access.
Real-time collaboration is powerful and a team working on common goals can achieve them faster.
There are several things to consider when deciding who should have access to Castaway Cloud internally and externally. Access, privacy, collaboration and security have been the focus of the permission standards built into Castaway. The structure is provided for you to determine your own policies and procedures around your Organisation's practices.
Internal Access
Internal access applies to members of your Organisation. Internal users can access Projects across the whole Organisation account, subject to Private Project restrictions. For step-by-step instructions on adding internal users, refer to 'Managing Users in your Organisation'.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Our Company | Financier Software Pty Ltd, trading as Castaway Forecasting. Products include Castaway Cloud and Castaway Desktop (legacy product, in deprecation). |
| Organisation | The company or overall group account that includes all users (internal and external), files, permissions, account management and commercial subscription arrangements with Castaway. |
| Organisation Owner | Holds the highest administration and reporting functions within the Organisation. Responsible for maintaining the commercial relationship, subscription and billing with Castaway. Only the Org Owner can cancel subscriptions, though anyone in the Organisation can set up a Castaway Cloud subscription on behalf of the resultant Org Owner. |
| Administrator | Can manage Groups, Projects and Brands and can assign and manage roles for Analysts. Cannot access Organisation account or subscription management. Can manage Invited Users (Guests). |
| Analyst | Can access and manage Groups, Projects and Brands. Cannot manage other users in the Organisation or any aspect of the Organisation account. Can manage Invited Users (Guests). |
| Create User | The function used by Org Owners and Administrators to invite internal colleagues to the account as either Administrators or Analysts. |
| Organisation Member | A member of the project-owning Organisation. |
| Project | One file — typically representing one entity, one company, one forecast model or one Consolidation file. Projects are sold in a variety of Plan packs. |
| Plan | Each Organisation subscribes to a Plan. Available Plans are: Plan3, Plan10, Plan20, Plan50 and Plan100. Projects can be added or removed above your Plan and Plans can be increased or decreased. Org Owners, Administrators and Analysts can add Projects. Only Org Owners can manage Plan changes. For Plan pricing and inclusions refer to the Castaway pricing page. |
| Private Project | A Project set to Private is hidden from all Organisation members except those explicitly granted access. Appropriate for sensitive Projects or where a firm needs to keep its own files separate from client files within the same Organisation. |
External Access
External access applies to individuals outside your Organisation. External access is limited to individual Projects only — Guests cannot access the broader Organisation account or see other files within it. For step-by-step instructions on inviting Guests, refer to 'Inviting Guests to your Project'.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Guest | Referred to in-app as an 'Invited User'. An external user with access to specific Projects only. Guests cannot see other files or information in the Organisation's account. Guests can be assigned one of two access levels: Active or Read-Only. |
| Active | Allows the Guest to operate a Castaway model in the same way the project owner can, with no restrictions. Only Active Guests can be given approval to consolidate — enabled by checking the Allow Consolidation box when sending the invitation. |
| Read-Only | The Guest can access the Project and all feature pages (Overview, Forecast, Analysis, Reports and Storyboards) but cannot make any changes to data. |
Important Considerations
Do not Create a Separate Account if your Organisation Already Uses Castaway
If your Organisation already has a Castaway Cloud subscription or evaluation account, do not create a separate account. Instead, contact your Org Owner and request to be invited to the existing Organisation account. Creating a separate account will result in permanent loss of any work you create when you are later transferred to your correct Organisation.
Email Addresses and Invitation Tokens
When registering for Castaway or inviting others, an email is sent to the invitee with steps to accept the invitation and set up their account access. Two things are critical:
- Enter email addresses carefully — an incorrect address means the invitation will not reach the intended recipient.
- Advise your invitee that an invitation is on its way. Invitation tokens expire after 45 minutes. If the invitee does not act in time, the invitation will need to be resent.
Guest Access Duration and Management
Guests are automatically granted 10 years' access to the Project they have been invited to. Guests can be managed via the Overview screen by navigating to the Invited Users modal and clicking Manage. To remove a Guest, locate them on the Invited Users page and click the delete icon. If a Guest is accidentally deleted, follow the standard invitation steps to re-invite them.
Guests and Private Projects
Guests cannot be added to a Project while it is set to Private. To invite a Guest to a Private Project, the Accessibility setting must first be changed from Private to Global via the Overview screen, Project Details modal, then Edit. For full detail on Private Project behaviour, refer to 'Private Projects'.
Billing and Project Transfers
The Organisation that owns a Project pays the subscription fee for that Project, regardless of who has external access to it. Individual Projects can be transferred to another Organisation, provided the receiving Organisation has an active Castaway Cloud subscription and follows the instructions to accept the transfer.
Inviting an Existing Organisation Member as a Guest
Inviting an existing Organisation member as a Guest will not be successful. Unless the Project is set to Private, the Organisation member already has access to the file. If the Project is Private, access can be granted via the Overview screen under Private Users, then Manage.
Troubleshooting Invitation Issues
If you experience problems inviting someone, or see a popup advising that an invitation cannot be sent, this is likely because the individual already has a Castaway account in some form. If you are unable to resolve this internally, contact the Castaway Customer Success team at support@castawayforecasting.com