RidingDesk Office guide

Sign up as a new office (no campaign)

1. Go to /signup. Under What are you setting up?, choose A constituency office.
2. Enter your name, email and password.
3. Fill in Office name and Municipality / ward, tick the box confirming you are authorized to create the office, and accept the terms.
4. Click Create Account and open the verification link we email you (valid 24 hours). Then sign in: your office is listed at /office; click Open office.

Move from your campaign after the election

1. In your campaign, click Move to the Office plan (Settings → Plan and billing, the Campaign over card, or under the Campaign / Office switch). It opens /office/move.
2. If you don’t have an office yet, fill in Set up the office (office name, municipality / ward, the authorization box) and click Create the office and continue. If you already own your account’s office, the page skips this and takes you straight to its Billing page.
3. You land on the office’s Billing page, where you can start the Office plan.

Join an office as staff

1. Your office owner invites your email address from Team. The invitation email is valid for 7 days.
2. Sign in with that exact address, or sign up at /signup with A constituency office and tick I’m joining an office I was invited to. Verify your email.
3. Open Office (/office), or the link in the invitation email (it’s in English and French). Your invitation shows first; click Accept invitation. Set up an office is under Running your own office instead?.

Without the Office plan, an office uses its account’s campaign plan limits (requests / members / emails a day)

• Free preview, or a campaign on the free Community plan: 25 / 2 / 10
• Starter: 250 / 3 / 25
• Pro: 1,000 / 5 / 100
• Campaign HQ: 10,000 / 15 / 500
• With the Office plan, each limit is 10,000 / 10 / 250, or the campaign plan’s if that is higher.

• /office lists your offices and any invitations. Click Open office to go in; an office opens on its Requests page.
• The sidebar is grouped into Casework (Requests, My follow-ups, Issues, Map), Residents, Communications (Updates, Templates, Delivery), Insights (Reports) and Admin (Workflow, Team, Settings, and Billing, Records and Audit log for the owner). On a phone, open it with the menu button.
• The top bar shows the office name and municipality / ward, the EN/FR switch and New request. Your name and role (Owner or Staff) are at the bottom of the sidebar, with Sign out.
• Campaign / Office switch: if you also work on a campaign, the switch at the top of the sidebar moves between the two. The side you switch to opens next time you sign in. People with only an office don’t see it.
• The ? button at the bottom right answers how-to questions; in Office it suggests Office questions to start. It never sees your office’s records.

• Search looks in the subject, reference, resident name and resident email.
• The filter offers Open requests (the default), Overdue (due or follow-up date), Waiting on department, Waiting past expected response, Resolved / closed and All requests. Any channel narrows the list to one channel (Phone call, Walk-in, Letter, Social media, Email, Web form, Other, Public form, Staff entry).
• The cards along the top count open, overdue, waiting and resolved/closed requests (click one to filter), and show the average days open.
• Due and follow-up dates turn red when overdue and amber when due today or within two days.
• The list shows 50 requests a page, most recently updated first.

Log a request (a call, walk-in, letter or email)

1. Click New request in the top bar. (From a resident’s profile, New request for this resident opens it with the resident already picked.)
2. Under How did it come in?, pick Phone call, Walk-in, Letter, Social media, Email, Web form or Other.
3. Type the resident’s name and at least one of phone, email or address. If Already a resident? appears, click Use … to keep their history together.
4. Enter a Subject and choose a Category. If your office has categories (see Workflow), the category fills in the due date, assignee and department under Routing; change them if needed.
5. Under Routing, the request is assigned to Me unless you pick someone else or the category has a default assignee. Add a Due date and an optional Follow up on date.
6. Type or paste what the resident asked for. Attach a scanned letter or photos if file storage is set up.
7. Tick Restricted for a sensitive request (see below).
8. With an email address, Email a receipt with the reference number is ticked by default; untick it if you don’t want one sent. Without an email, give the resident the reference number by phone or letter.
9. Tick I am authorized to record this information for office service. and click Log request.

• To resolve or close a request, fill in Outcome (required to resolve). You can type the outcome and choose Resolved in the same save.
• Due date is the deadline; Follow up on (your reminder) is a personal reminder that drives My follow-ups and the daily summary. Both count toward “Overdue”.
• Municipal ticket / reference keeps the city’s or agency’s ticket number with the request.

Change many requests at once

1. Tick the requests on the list (or Select all on this page).
2. In the bar that appears, choose Change → Assignee, Status, Priority, Follow-up date or Due date, then the new value under To. Nothing is chosen at first, so Apply to N stays off until you pick both; leave a date empty to clear it.
3. Click Apply to N. It is all or nothing: if any request can’t take the change (for example closing one with no outcome), nothing changes and the message lists which ones.

Reply to a resident or add an internal note

1. Open the request. Under Message type, choose Internal note (team only) or Email reply to resident (only offered when the resident has an email).
2. To start from a saved reply, use Insert template: pick the template and a language (Resident’s language, English or French) and click Insert. It fills in the resident’s details; edit the text.
3. Click Save internal note or Queue email reply. Your office signature is added under every reply. Nothing is sent until you queue it, and Delivery shows its status.

Print a letter

1. On the request, in the Letters panel, choose a template or Blank letter and click Create letter.
2. Edit the Subject line (Re:) and Letter text, then click Save and open printable letter.
3. Click Print letter. Your browser’s print dialog can also save it as a PDF. The letterhead, date, resident’s address and signature are added for you.

Refer a request to a department

1. In Department referrals, click Refer to department. (Departments come from Workflow.)
2. Pick the department, add their reference or ticket number and a note. Response expected by is filled in from the department’s typical response time.
3. Click Record referral. The request moves to Waiting on department and shows how many days it has been waiting, in red once past the expected date.
4. When they answer, click Response received, add what they said and click Record response. When no referrals are left open, the request goes back to Researching.

Set a follow-up and work your list

1. On a request, in Request details, set Follow up on (your reminder) and, if useful, a Follow-up note such as “Call the resident if no crew date”. Click Save changes.
2. Open My follow-ups. Requests are grouped Overdue, Today and This week (the next seven days).
3. Below them, Waiting past the department’s expected response lists your requests with a late referral.
4. Switch Mine to Whole team to see everyone’s follow-ups.
5. When you’re done, clear or move the follow-up date on the request.

• The number next to My follow-ups in the sidebar counts yours due today or overdue.
• If the owner turns on the daily summary in Settings, each person gets an email with their overdue and due-today follow-ups and their requests waiting too long on a department. It lists references and subjects only, with no resident names or contact details, and is in English. The owner also gets unassigned requests that are waiting too long on a department.

Create an issue and link requests

1. Click New issue, give it a Title (and optionally a category and description), then Create issue. You can also start one from a request’s Issue panel (New issue from this request) or from the request list.
2. On the request list, tick requests and choose Link to issue… (or New issue…) in the second bar, then Link.
3. On the issue page, use Find similar requests: enter Words to look for and search. It looks in request subjects and residents’ messages. Untick any that don’t belong and click Link N to this issue.
4. A request belongs to one issue at a time; linking it elsewhere moves it.

Reply to everyone on an issue

1. Make sure you have a template (see Templates).
2. On the issue page, under Reply to everyone on this issue, choose the Template and Language (Resident’s language, English or French) and click Preview.
3. Check the counts: who will be emailed now, who is left for later because of the daily email allowance, and who needs a letter instead (no email, a bounced address, or consent withdrawn). Read the sample replies.
4. Owners click Confirm and queue N replies. Staff tick “I’ve reviewed this preview…” first.
5. If some were left for later, come back another day and click Check for remaining on that reply. It picks up where it stopped without emailing anyone twice. (Starting a new reply to everyone is a separate send.)
6. For residents listed under Send these residents a letter instead, open each request and use Create letter.

• Issue statuses are Open, Monitoring and Closed: change them with Edit issue. Closing an issue doesn’t change its requests; it just stops the issue being offered when linking.
• Delete issue keeps the requests; they are just no longer grouped.

Use the map

1. Open Map. The first time, RidingDesk places residents’ addresses for you (or click Place N more addresses if some are still waiting).
2. Use Status (All open by default, All requests, Open, Researching, Waiting on department, or Resolved or closed, which combines the two) and Category to narrow the pins.
3. Click a pin, then Open request.
4. Prefer a list? Open List the requests on the map under the map.

• Positions come from the postal code anywhere in the resident’s address, looked up in RidingDesk’s own postal code table. Addresses are never sent to an outside service.
• Requests without a postal code in the resident’s address aren’t shown; the line under the map says how many have a position. Pins carry the reference, subject, status and category, never the resident’s name or address.
• Only this office’s requests appear. Campaign voters are never on the Office map.

Finding people

• Search by name, email, phone or address. Filter by tag or Has open requests, and sort by name, number of requests or last contact (on a phone, the sort menu also has Recently added). 50 residents a page.
• Click a resident for their profile: contact details, language, tags, Notes · office team only, the Consent panel, Requests (N) and their full message History, newest first. Restricted requests show only for the owner and the assigned staff member.

Add a resident (a walk-in or caller with no request yet)

1. Click Add resident. Only the name is required; email, phone, address, Preferred language, tags and notes are optional.
2. Type a tag and press Enter (or a comma) to add it. Tags are shared across the office.
3. Click Add resident. Adding someone doesn’t record any consent.
4. To log a request for them, click New request for this resident on their profile.

Merge two records (owner)

1. Open Residents → Possible duplicates (or the pair on a resident’s profile).
2. Choose Keep this record on the one to keep, then Merge into … and confirm.
3. Requests, messages, tags and consent move to the kept record, empty contact fields are filled from the other one, and the other record is deleted. This can’t be undone.
4. Not the same person (for example a couple sharing a phone)? Anyone (owner or staff) can click Not the same person to hide the pair. This button isn’t shown in the demo.

Record consent, a withdrawal or a refusal

1. On the profile’s Consent panel, click Record consent. When consent was given, click Record withdrawal. When it was never recorded and the resident says no, click Record a refusal (it shows as Refused).
2. Check the wording under What the resident agreed to (or What the resident asked, or What the resident said for a refusal) and pick How: in person or by phone, or in writing.
3. Save. The change appears in the history.

Import residents from a spreadsheet (owner)

1. Save your spreadsheet or Outlook contacts as CSV (up to 5 MB and 5,000 rows). Click Import on the Residents page.
2. Choose a CSV file. It’s read in your browser.
3. Match the columns: use Full name, or First name and Last name; email, phone, address, city, postal code, language, tags and notes are optional.
4. Click Preview and check for duplicates, then review the counts: new, possible duplicates, already in the directory (skipped), repeated in the file, can’t import. A row whose email has accents or other special characters (such as lucía@…) can’t be imported, because RidingDesk can’t email it; check the address with the resident.
5. Tick the box if you also want the possible duplicates imported (you can merge them later), then click Import N residents.

Export residents (owner)

1. Click Export on the Residents page.
2. Under Why are you exporting these records?, give the reason (at least 10 characters).
3. Click Download CSV. The file has every resident’s contact details, language, tags, notes, consent and request counts. The export is kept in the Export register and the audit log.

Open your form

1. Go to Settings. Under Request intake and follow-ups, write your Collection, use and retention notice: who runs the office, why information is collected, who can see it, how long it is kept and how residents can contact you about their records (at least 40 characters).
2. Optionally add Notice in French, shown when a resident chooses French (otherwise the English notice is shown).
3. Tick Enable public resident request form and click Save settings.
4. Optionally type a short name under Request form web address (for example ward-5, for ward-5.ridingdesk.ca) and click Save settings.
5. Copy the link under Your public request form and put it on your website, social media and email signature.

What residents see

• An English / Français switch; the form opens in the visitor’s browser language, and the language they submit in becomes their preferred language if none is on file.
• A notice that the form isn’t monitored for emergencies (call 911).
• Your name, Your email, optional phone and address, How can the office help? and Request details, then your notice and a required box confirming they read it.
• An optional, unticked box to receive office updates. Ticking it emails them a confirmation link; they’re only signed up once they open it and press Confirm.
• After Send request, a reference number (R-000123) on screen and an emailed receipt.

Write and send an update

1. Click New update. Write the Subject and Message. Use the buttons for a heading (## Heading), a list (- item), a link ([text](https://…)) or bold (**bold**); {{first_name}} becomes each resident’s first name.
2. Optionally switch to Français and add a French subject and message (both, or neither). Residents whose preferred language is French get it; everyone else gets English.
3. Under Audience, leave it as everyone who agreed, or narrow it by Postal code prefixes, Streets and Residents with past requests about chosen categories. The count updates as you go.
4. Click Preview to check it, then Save draft. Drafts are shared with the whole team.
5. The owner clicks Send to N residents and confirms. Every update ends with the update signature, the office contact email and an unsubscribe link. The signature is fixed when you press Send; the sent update’s preview shows the one residents got.

• Large updates go out over several days within the plan’s daily email limit. Updates never use the last 20% of the day’s allowance, so replies to residents still go out.
• Each update shows recipients, waiting, sent, delivered, bounced, failed and skipped. The owner can Stop sending an update that is still going out; emails already sent can’t be recalled.
• Unsubscribing stops updates from your office only. It never stops replies to the resident’s own requests.

Set an election-period blackout (owner)

1. On the Updates page, find Election-period blackout and signature.
2. Enter the First day of the blackout and Last day (election day), or click Use these dates to take the suggested Ontario municipal dates (Labour Day to election day). Check your own rules: provincial and federal offices follow different calendars.
3. Add the update Signature if you like, then Save update settings.
4. During the blackout, updates can be drafted but not sent, and an update still going out stops. Replies to residents’ own requests aren’t affected.

Create a template

1. Click New template. Give it a Name and, optionally, a Category so it’s easy to find.
2. Write the English Subject (used for letters and issue replies) and Message, the French version, or both.
3. Click a merge field to insert it at the cursor: resident first name {{resident.firstName}}, full name {{resident.name}}, request reference {{request.reference}}, request subject {{request.subject}}, office name {{office.name}}, your name {{staff.name}}, today’s date {{today}}.
4. Click Save template.

• On a request, Insert template fills the reply with the resident’s details; edit it before you queue it. Resident’s language uses their preferred language when it’s on file, otherwise the language their request is written in.
• If the version in the resident’s language is empty, the other language is used. Your office signature is added automatically, so don’t put it in the template.
• Templates never send anything on their own.

Reading the list

• The latest 100 messages, each with its subject, recipient, kind (ack, reply, digest, invite, update, and the updates confirmation email sent when a resident ticks the updates box on the public form), date and status.
• queued is waiting to go (for example, the day’s email allowance is used up); sent means accepted by the mail provider; delivered means the provider confirmed delivery.
• failed, expired (not sent within seven days) and unknown (the send was interrupted, so it may or may not have gone out) need attention, and the sidebar shows how many. bounced, complained (the resident marked it as spam) and suppressed (the address bounced or complained before, or is a reserved test address such as example.com that can’t receive email) stay in the list with an explanation but aren’t counted. Each problem shows a plain explanation, with the code in small text for support.

Deal with a failed email (owner)

1. Click Refresh to see the latest status.
2. For a failed or unknown email, click Retry. For an unknown one, first check with the resident or your mail provider whether it arrived: retrying can send a duplicate.
3. To stop a queued, failed, unknown or expired email from going out, click Cancel.
4. For a bounced or suppressed address, update the resident’s email on their profile, or send a letter instead.

Read a report

1. Pick a Report period: Last 12 weeks (the default), Last 6 months, Last 12 months, This year, or Custom with From and To dates and Apply. The period is in the page address, so you can share the view with a colleague.
2. The tiles show requests Received, Resolved or closed, Open today (the hint counts how many are past their due date), and the median and average days to resolve.
3. Received vs resolved charts requests per week (per month for longer periods); Show as a table gives the numbers.
4. Below are open requests by status and priority, then tables By category, By department and By intake channel, Top streets from residents’ addresses, and Staff workload.
5. Owners can click CSV on a table to download it. Tables hold counts with category, department, street and staff names (or email addresses when no name is set), never resident details. Each download is recorded in the audit log.

Print the end-of-term report

1. Click End-of-term report on Reports (or Open the end-of-term report under Records → End of term).
2. Set Term start and Term end and click Update.
3. Click Print or save as PDF. Only the report is printed.

Set up categories (owner)

1. Click Add suggested municipal set for a starting list (general inquiry, roads and sidewalks, snow clearing, garbage and recycling, parking, bylaw and noise, parks and trees, permits and planning, transit, water and sewer, property tax and other), or Add category.
2. For each, set Due in (days, optional), Default assignee (or Whoever records it), Default department and Active (offered on new requests), then Save category.
3. When staff choose the category on a new request, its due date, assignee and department are filled in. They can change them.

• Renaming a category renames it on its requests. Deleting one leaves the name on its requests, shown as uncategorised; to hide a category from new requests instead, untick Active.
• Uncategorised names in use lists categories on requests that aren’t in your list (older requests, or “General inquiry” from the form and email if you don’t have it). Add these to my categories turns them into categories.

Keep the department directory

1. Click Add department (or Add suggested municipal set).
2. Enter the name, Typical response (days), contact name, email, phone and notes, and tick Active (offered when referring a request). Click Save department.
3. On a request, Refer to department uses the typical response time to set the expected response date, and each department shows how many requests are waiting on it.

Invite a staff member (owner)

1. Type their email in the box (it shows “colleague@example.ca”) and click Invite staff member. Reserved test addresses such as example.com can’t receive email, so they’re refused and don’t take a seat.
2. They get an email in English and French (your screen language first) and have 7 days to accept. They sign in with that exact address (or create an Office account with it), verify it and click Accept invitation in Office.
3. Until then the invitation shows as Pending. Click Revoke to cancel it, or Resend to send it again; resending restarts the 7 days and works even when every seat is used.

Remove someone (owner)

1. Click Remove next to their name and confirm.
2. Their requests become unassigned and any AI app connections they made are revoked. The removal is in the audit log.

What’s on the page

• Usage and records: requests stored against your limit, residents and emails per day. The owner also gets the records export and links to Retention and end of term and Plan and billing.
• Office and campaign records are kept apart: what never crosses between Office and Campaign.
• Request intake and follow-ups: the public form’s notice (English and French), Enable public resident request form, Request form web address and the daily summary email to the team (see The public request form and My follow-ups).
• Signature and letterhead: a Signature and a Contact block (letterhead), both added under every email reply and printed on letters (the contact block also forms the letterhead), with a preview. Left empty, the office name and contact email are used.
• AI assist (off by default): see Requests. Shown only where the server supports it, and never in the demo.
• AI app connections: see below.
• Resident tags: every tag with how many residents have it. The owner can delete a tag, which takes it off every resident.
• Email intake: whether incoming email is connected (see below).

Export the full office records (owner)

1. Under Usage and records (or Records → End of term), fill in Reason for this export, or pick a suggestion such as “End-of-term handover”.
2. Click Export records (JSON). The file has every request, resident and message, updates, templates, issues, categories, departments and the audit log. Attached files are listed, not included.
3. The reason, your name and the time are kept in the audit log. Office records must not be given to a campaign.

Connect Claude or ChatGPT

1. The owner clicks Allow AI app connections in Settings. (It’s off by default; Stop AI app connections revokes every connection at once.)
2. Each person connects their own account. In Claude, go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector; in ChatGPT, add a custom connector. Use the address https://ridingdesk.ca/mcp/office.
3. Sign in to RidingDesk, choose the office, untick anything the app doesn’t need and allow access.
4. Ask away, for example “Which of my requests are waiting on a department?”. Drafts the app writes stay in the chat; review them and send from RidingDesk.

• The owner is emailed when an app is connected. Every lookup is in the audit log (Source → Through an AI app).
• Settings lists connections: the owner sees everyone’s, staff their own, each with what the app can see (for example “Can see: Requests and their timelines · Reports”) and Revoke. Access lasts up to 90 days, then the app asks you to sign in again.
• The Office connector is separate from the campaign one (https://ridingdesk.ca/mcp). A connection covers one office, never a campaign; don’t move office records into campaign work.
• A connected app sends what it reads to the AI company you chose, which may store it outside Canada. Check your office’s rules first.

Start the Office plan

1. Open Billing. The Limits table compares what you have now with the Office plan.
2. Click Move to the Office plan. Stripe’s secure checkout opens; enter the office’s card.
3. Back in Office, the plan shows Free trial (14 days, if the office hasn’t had the plan before) or Active. It can take a minute to appear.

• Status shows Free trial, Active, Payment overdue, Ending or Not started. The owner is emailed a few days before a trial ends.
• Manage billing opens Stripe’s page to update the card, download invoices or cancel. When the plan ends, the office keeps all its records and goes back to its campaign plan’s limits.
• Invoices lists recent invoices with a View link.

End the campaign plan after the election

1. Once the Office plan is active, Your campaign plan offers End the campaign plan at period end… (you must be the office owner and a Campaign Manager or admin of that campaign).
2. Read the confirmation: it shows the office’s limits once the campaign plan ends and warns if any go down (for example from Campaign HQ’s 15 seats and 500 emails a day to 10 and 250).
3. Click Yes, end it at period end. The campaign keeps its plan and data until the end of the billing period, then moves to the free Community plan (up to 1,000 voters). Keep the campaign plan undoes it before then.

Set a retention schedule and review old requests

1. Under Retention schedule, choose Flag closed requests for review after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 or 10 years (it’s Off by default) and click Save. Check your council’s or legislature’s records policy first.
2. Records review then lists closed requests past that time, 100 a page.
3. Tick the ones to delete and click Delete N selected permanently, then Yes, delete permanently. Each request goes with its messages, attached files and email history. A resident left with no requests may be deleted too. Residents are kept if they were added or changed since the cutoff, ever had office updates consent, or got a consent record, an update or a tag since the cutoff.

At the end of a term (Records → End of term)

1. Print the term report: a summary with no resident contact details.
2. Export the full records: the JSON export, for the official records holder or a successor office (give a reason).
3. Hand over or close the office: turn off the public form in Settings, remove staff who are leaving in Team, and contact RidingDesk support to transfer the office to a successor so ownership and billing move together.
4. Only if your records policy allows it: Purge resident records…, type the office name exactly, and click Permanently delete all resident records.

Find something in the log

1. Use Action to pick one kind of entry (each with its count), By for one member or System or resident, and From / To for dates.
2. Set Source to Through an AI app to see only what was done through Claude, ChatGPT or another connected app; each entry shows which app.
3. Click a request reference to open it. Requests deleted since show as “deleted request”.
4. Use Newer and Older to page through, 50 entries at a time.

The wall between Office and Campaign

• Residents, requests, messages, notes and replies stay in the office. They are never copied into campaign voters, donors, volunteers, lists, segments or email.
• Campaign voters, donors and volunteers are never shown in Office, including on the map and in reports.
• A campaign role gives no access to an office. Staff join only by invitation to their own email.
• A request never creates a voter record or marketing consent. The public form tells residents that sending a request doesn’t sign them up for campaign or marketing messages.
• Only the owner can export, and every export records who, when and why. Office records must not be given to a campaign or party, including a re-election campaign.
• AI app connections cover one office and can only see that office’s records.

Restricted requests

• Use Restricted for sensitive requests: only the owner and the assigned staff member can see the request, its files and its mail.
• Restricted requests are left out of other staff members’ lists, counts, search, follow-ups, map, reports and daily summary.
• They are never shared with an AI app, even the owner’s, and neither are residents known only through them.

Why some records are kept

• The unsubscribe list stays even when resident records are purged, so someone who unsubscribed isn’t emailed updates again. Only the resident (by confirming a new signup link) or the owner (with a note describing the evidence) can reverse it.
• Consent history shows what each resident agreed to, when and how. It stays with the resident’s record and is deleted with it.
• The audit log stays after deletions and purges, as proof of who did what and when, including each export and its reason.
• The export register keeps who exported residents, when, how many and why.

Good practice

• Confirm a resident’s identity before sharing sensitive information; a submitted email address alone isn’t proof.
• Downloaded exports are outside RidingDesk: store them securely and delete them when you’re done.
• Write a clear collection, use and retention notice before opening the public form, and set a retention schedule that matches your records policy.
• Don’t paste identity documents, passwords or payment details into requests.