Your account and signing in

Your UnitTally account is you, the person signing in. It is separate from the roster entries organizations keep for you or your child. Open it by selecting your name and email in the top bar of the console. On a phone, open the menu and select your name. The Account page has three tabs: Profile, Security and Appearance.

The Sign in page offers up to four ways in.

1. Enter your email under Email Address.
2. Select Send sign-in link.
3. Open the email and follow the link. It expires in 15 minutes.

If no account uses that address yet, the link creates one. There is no “forgot password” option. If you forget your password, sign in with an emailed link instead. If your account has no password, you can add one under How you sign in.

If your email isn’t confirmed yet and you created the account with a password, read Confirming your email before you use an emailed link.

1. Select Sign in with password instead.
2. Enter your Email Address and Password, then select Sign in.

To create an account with a password, select Create one on the sign-in page, fill in Full Name, Email Address and a Password of at least 12 characters, and select Create account.

To go back to the emailed link, select Use magic link instead.

Select Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft and sign in with that provider. The first time, this creates your UnitTally account. Work, school and personal Microsoft accounts all work.

If you already have an account under that email, the provider signs you in to it only when both the provider and UnitTally have confirmed the address. Otherwise the page says “An account with this email already exists. Sign in with an email link or your password instead.” Microsoft often doesn’t confirm the address to UnitTally, so this message is more common with Microsoft.

A browser stays signed in while you keep using it. One you haven’t used for 7 days is signed out, and you sign in again.

Too many sign-in attempts, emailed links or sign-ups for one address in an hour are refused with “Too many sign-in attempts. Wait before trying again.”

If you created your account with a password, UnitTally emails you a Confirm email link when you sign up. You can use the console right away, and confirming doesn’t hold anything up. An account made with an emailed link is already confirmed, and a Google or Microsoft sign-up gets no confirmation email.

Until your email is confirmed, the first emailed sign-in link to your address removes your password, along with any Google or Microsoft account connected to it, and signs you out everywhere you were signed in. From then on you sign in by emailed link, Google or Microsoft. You can add a new password afterward under How you sign in. This protects the real owner of an address from someone who signed up with it first, but it applies to you too. Confirm your email before you ever use an emailed link, and the password stays.

1. Sign in, then open Account > Security.
2. If the page shows Confirm your email, select Send confirmation link.
3. Open the email in the same browser where you’re signed in, and select Confirm email.
4. Security shows Email confirmed, and the Confirm your email card goes away.

The link lasts 1 hour. If it expired, Security says so. Select Send confirmation link again.

A confirm link does nothing unless the browser that opens it is signed in to the account it was sent for. That way only someone who can sign in to the account can confirm its address.

• Opened on another device, or while signed out: the console takes you to the Sign in page. It opens on the password form and warns: “An emailed sign-in link removes the password from an account whose email isn’t confirmed yet.” Sign in with your password. Security then says the link only works in a signed-in browser. Open the link from your email again and it confirms. You can still switch to an emailed link, but on an unconfirmed account that removes your password.
• Opened while signed in to a different UnitTally account: nothing changes. Security says “That link is for a different account. Sign out, sign in with the address the email was sent to, and open the link again.”

If UnitTally has stopped sending email to your address, the console says it can’t send a confirmation link.

Account > Security has a How you sign in card. It lists the ways you can sign in: Email link (always on), Google and Microsoft (where UnitTally has them turned on), and Password. Keep more than one, so you can still get in if you lose one.

Select Connect next to Google or Microsoft, then sign in with that provider. You come back to Security and the row says Connected. If it doesn’t work, the card tells you why:

• “That Google account uses a different email address from this one.” Connect an account that uses the same email address as your UnitTally account.
• “That Google account is already connected to another UnitTally account.”
• “Google didn’t confirm that account’s email address, so it can’t be connected.”
• “Connecting Google was canceled.”
• “Couldn’t connect that account. Try again.” for anything else.

Microsoft shows the same messages with its own name. When an account connects, UnitTally emails you that the change was made.

Select Disconnect to remove a connected Google or Microsoft account. You get a Google disconnected or Microsoft disconnected message, and UnitTally emails you that the change was made. You can’t disconnect your last way to sign in. The button is turned off and the row says “Add a password or connect another account before disconnecting this one.” The emailed link doesn’t count, because it isn’t an account you hold.

If the Password row says Not set, select Add a password, enter a New password of at least 12 characters, repeat it under Confirm new password, and select Add password. UnitTally signs your other devices out and emails you that a password was added to your account.

If the row says Set, select Change password, enter your Current password, a New password and Confirm new password, and select Change password. Your other devices are signed out, and UnitTally emails you that your password was changed.

Connect, Disconnect, Add a password and the device list wait until you have signed in within the last day, counted from when you signed in, not from when you last used the console. After that, Security shows “You signed in more than a day ago. Confirm it’s you to see your devices and change how you sign in.” and the device list says “Confirm it’s you to see the devices signed in to your account.”

1. Select Confirm it’s you. The sign-in page opens. If your email isn’t confirmed yet, it opens with your email filled in.
2. Sign in the way you normally do. If your email isn’t confirmed yet, the page offers only what your account already has, which is your password, or Google or Microsoft if one is connected. It offers no emailed link, because that would remove your password.
3. You return to Security with everything turned on. Change password works without this step, because it asks for your current password.

Open Account > Profile.

• Full name is the name on your account, shown in the top bar. Change it and select Save name.
• Email address is the address you sign in with. It can’t be changed.

Each organization keeps its own name, email and phone for you or your child on its roster, and the organization’s admins see those. They are not your account details. Change them with Edit details under Settings on the seller page, which Open on My organizations takes you to. Changing a roster email doesn’t change the address you sign in with, and changing your account name doesn’t change any roster.

Account > Security lists each browser or device signed in to your account under Where you’re signed in, such as “Chrome on Mac”, with its IP address, when it was last active and when it signed in. The one you’re using is marked (this device).

• Select Sign out on a row to sign that device out. Whoever uses it has to sign in again.
• Select Sign out all other devices, which appears when another device is signed in, to sign out everything except this browser. Use it after signing in on a shared or borrowed computer.

The list only loads within a day of signing in. After that, select Confirm it’s you. See Confirm it’s you.

Two-factor authentication asks for a 6-digit code from an authenticator app when you sign in. It is optional.

It asks for a code only when you sign in with a password. Signing in with an emailed link, Google or Microsoft does not ask for one.

When it is on for your account, after you enter your password the console shows Identity Verification:

1. Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app under Verification Code, then select Verify.
2. If you don’t have your app, select Use a backup code instead and enter one of the backup codes you saved.

Open Account > Security and find the Two-factor authentication card. It shows Status: Off. If your account has no password, the card says to add one first, because two-factor asks for a code when you sign in with your password. See Add a password.

1. Select Turn on, enter your Password, and select Continue.
2. Scan the QR code with your authenticator app. If you can’t scan it, enter the setup key shown under the code instead.
3. Enter the 6-digit code your app shows under 6-digit code, then select Turn on two-factor. Two-factor is not on until the console accepts this code. If you leave before then, nothing is turned on, and Turn on starts over with a new QR code.
4. Save your backup codes. Select Copy codes or Download codes, tick I saved these codes, and select Done. Each code signs you in once if you don’t have your app, and this is the only time they are shown.

Two-factor is on as soon as the console accepts your first code, even while the backup codes are still showing. UnitTally signs your other devices out and emails you that two-factor was turned on.

With two-factor on, select Get new backup codes, enter your password, and select Get new backup codes again. The new codes replace the old ones, which no longer work. Save them the same way. UnitTally emails you that new backup codes were made, and your other devices stay signed in.

Select Turn off, enter your password, and select Turn off two-factor. UnitTally signs your other devices out and emails you that two-factor was turned off. Your next password sign-in asks for no code.

If two-factor is on and your account has no password, the card shows Status: On and the add-a-password text, with no Turn off button. Add a password to change it.