Email verification and promotion FAQ

This article provides answers to frequently asked questions about upcoming changes to the sign-in process, including email verification, and promotion.

Email collection and verification

Q: What will users experience during the email collection and verification steps?

A: These initial steps are part of the onboarding process for Boards. When a new user signs in to their Diligent account for the first time, the system requires additional data, such as their email address and answers for security questions. This data is used for account validation and email recovery.

During the email collection step, users receive a 6-digit security code via email, which they enter to verify their email address.

Q: What is this email used for?

A: Emails collected in Boards during this step are strictly used for account management purposes. Users can recover their credentials and their email addresses via registered email. It cannot be used to receive notifications from admins about books, documents, and approvals. Diligent does not send marketing messages via email without a user’s consent or approval.

Q: Will users be able to change or update their email addresses later?

A: Yes, account and board type email addresses can be updated in the Account Management hub. For more information, see Updating your Diligent Boards contact information.

Q: Will admins be able to change or update directors’ email addresses later?

A: Yes, users with Contacts Admin role can update other users’ board emails in Site Management. For more information, see Editing users' information.

Review the next question, A user didn’t get the verification code. What can they do? for more information.

Q: A user didn’t get the verification code. What can they do?

A: Select Email not received?. A dropdown menu appears. Select Skip from the list of options. If email verification isn’t required for a site, you can skip the verification step unlimited times. If verification is required, you can skip up to three times. If there’s still a problem verifying your email address, you can either try another email or contact Diligent Support for additional help.

Q: Where can admins see their users’ registered sign-in or board emails in Boards?

A: From Boards Web Admin, navigate to the Site Management hub. Select the Manage Users tab, and then select Export All Users (subject to permission). A Microsoft Excel file will start to download. Every user’s sign-in email and contact email (if available) are listed in the generated Excel file.

Q: Can admins enter board email addresses on their users’ behalf?

A: Yes, navigate to the Site Management hub, select the Manage Users tab, and then select Edit to add an email address on a user’s behalf. For more information, see Editing users' information.

Q: A user already entered a board email. How do the changes impact them?

A: No impact in the immediate term, as the system recognizes that the user already has an email address on file. With the onset of promoting a sign-in email for authentication, every user will be asked to confirm an existing email address or add a new one upon sign in.

Q: Do users have to change to sign-in email now?

A: No. In the immediate term, only users who don’t have an email address registered with their Boards account will encounter the account email collection screen upon sign-in. All users who already have a verified email address on file will not be interrupted.

Sign-in email promotion

Q: What is a sign-in email address?

A: The sign-in email address is a user identifier, just like a username. While it has the email format, it is not used for communication purposes. The sign-in email is a designated credential to access Boards. Any communication related to the user’s account or book content are distributed via the account email or board email on file.

Q: Will this process prevent directors from accessing their board materials?

A: No. For directors’ convenience, they can temporarily bypass the email promotion screens to access their boards materials quickly. If directors need to sign in multiple times, they can skip the email promotion step as many times as they want within a 24-hour period. After the first 24-hour time period, directors have two more similar opportunities to skip the email promotion screens before it becomes mandatory.

Q: What will users experience during the sign-in email promotion step?

A: The sign-in email promotion step is part of the onboarding process for Boards. Once the feature is turned on and after a user successfully signs in to Boards with their current username and password, they are redirected to the onboarding screens.

First, users must decide which email should be designated as the sign-in email. They can either select a current email address or enter a new one.

If the user doesn’t have a validated email address on file, Diligent sends an email containing a security code to the email address they designated as the sign-in email. The user enters the security code on the next screen to complete validation.

Once the sign-in email is confirmed, the user continues to their Boards site.

Q: What are potential error cases during email promotion?

A: The promotion of an email address can fail for two reasons:

1. The email conflicts with the configured SSO settings for the user’s Boards site (or other sites in the same datacenter, in case of overlapped users). In this case, the user is stopped to prevent SSO user creation.

2. The email is already designated as a sign-in email in the system. Sign-in emails must be unique across all datacenters.

When an error is displayed, there are two options to resolve the conflict:

1. The user can select or enter a new email address for their sign-in email.

2. The user pattern in the site’s SSO configuration can be altered to exclude users who shouldn’t be switched to SSO usage because of their matching sign-in emails

Q: Does the upgrade have any effect on accessing sites and content?

A: No, the upgrade process does not have any effect on accessing sites or content. Users can access their accounts and materials as before. The only change is during the sign-in process: instead of a username, users must enter their sign-in email.

Q: Can users still receive notifications to the email address they promoted to sign-in email?

A: It’s up to the customers’ preferences. If they don’t want to use separate emails for identification and notification, then they can keep the same address for both purposes. However, if they want to keep identification and notification separate (e.g., to keep notifications inside the company email domain) then it’s recommended to register a board email accordingly.

Review the previous questions, What is the purpose of the registered email addresses for notifications in Boards? and What is a sign-in email address? for more information.

Q: A user has two different username and password combinations for their two Boards sites. After the upgrade, will they need to use the same username and password for both accounts?

A: No, they can continue to maintain two distinct accounts, provided they designate a different email address to sign in to each one.

Q: A user has a common username and password for all their sites, but their notifications go to different email addresses, depending on which company they are for. How does this change impact their configuration?

A: It’s up to the customers’ preferences. If they don’t want to use separate emails for identification and notification, then they can keep the same address for both purposes. However, if they want to keep identification and notification separate (e.g., to keep notifications inside the company email domain) then it’s recommended to register a board email accordingly.

Review the previous questions, What is the purpose of the registered email addresses for notifications in Boards? and What is a sign-in email address? for more information.

Q: How will directors know which email can be upgraded to sign-in email?

A: They can select any of their email addresses that are already registered in Boards. If the selected email conflicts with a setting in their Diligent account, or if it already exists in the datacenter, an error message is displayed.

Review the previous question, What are the potential error cases during the email promotion? for more information.