Spruce lets practice admins add new users, set roles and permissions, configure inbox access, and remove users when staff changes occur. Each user can be assigned to specific inboxes and given appropriate access levels. Billing adjusts automatically as users are added or removed.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Introduction to Teammates on Spruce
Spruce is built for teams, helping you communicate securely and collaborate around your patients' care. Adding teammates to your Spruce organization creates a shared inbox through which all team members can engage in patient communication and secure messaging with each other.
To see all of the teammates currently on your account, open your Settings and select Teammates.
Inviting Teammates
You must be an administrator for your Spruce organization to invite teammates. Follow these steps as an administrator to invite a teammate to your organization:
- Go to Settings > Teammates.
- Select the Invite Teammates button on web or the "+" icon on mobile.
- Enter your teammate's email address and mobile phone number, and select Invite. Note: Invite teammates using their personal cell phone number, NOT their direct Spruce Lines. If you are working with a VA, you can follow the steps here to send an invite without a phone number.
Teammate Invite Experience
- Inviting a teammate automatically generates an email from Spruce (support@sprucehealth.com) that will say, "You've been invited to join [Practice Name], and a button that says "Accept Invite."
- New teammates should wait to receive this email and select Accept Invite either on their computer or their mobile device.
- If they do not see this email, please have them search Spruce, support@sprucehealth.com, or check their spam folder. They cannot join your practice without an invite. See the image below.
Managing Pending Invitations
Only administrators have the ability to manage pending invitations. As an administrator, you can resend and delete invitations that are pending. An invitation counts as pending if it was sent, but hasn’t been accepted by the teammate yet. Once a teammate accepts the invitation and creates a Spruce account, they will show under the Active Teammates tab.
Resending and Deleting Pending Invitations
Follow these steps using Spruce in a web browser or the desktop app to resend or delete a pending invitation:
- As an administrator, go to Settings > Teammates
- Select the pending invitation you want to resend or delete
- To resend an invitation to the email address shown, select the Resend Invitation button.
- To delete an invitation, select the Delete Invitation button. This prevents this teammate from joining your Spruce organization and deletes them from your list of pending invitations.
If you accidentally sent an invitation to the wrong email address or phone number, you can delete the invitation with the incorrect information and send a new one from the Teammates page.
Deleting Teammates
Only Administrators have the ability to remove teammates from your organization. Follow these steps as an administrator to delete a teammate from your organization:
- Go to Settings > Teammates.
- Select the teammate you wish to remove and scroll down to select the red Delete Account button.
- You will be prompted to transfer ownership of resources to a team or teammate. Type in the team or teammate you wish to transfer ownership to.
- Select Continue with Deletion.
- Type “Delete Account” in the text box, then click the Delete Account button to confirm the removal of the teammate. Please note that this will revoke their access immediately.
What Resources Transfer When Deleting a Teammate
When you delete a teammate, you will select a team or teammate to transfer resources to. This simplifies the process for the administrator, as these steps do not need to be done manually. If you are uncertain who to choose as the recipient of the transfer, you can create a new team to act as a vessel until another decision is made.
When you delete a teammate, Spruce will automatically transfer the following resources to the team or teammate you select:
- Conversations assigned to the deleted teammate
- Scheduled messages created by the deleted teammate
- Phone numbers, fax numbers, and Spruce links where the deleted teammate was an owner
- Membership in any phone numbers, fax numbers, Spruce links, or conversations where the deleted teammate was added as an additional internal member
- Auto-replies and auto-welcome messages where the deleted teammate was the sender
- The deleted teammate's position in any ring lists they were part of
- Private schedules created by the deleted teammate
Note: We do not remove the teammate’s phone number from any ring lists if it was added as a direct phone number. Once you've removed a teammate, it's important to ensure that their personal cell phone number is not included in any ring lists or call forwarding that your organization has set up; otherwise, the old teammate may still be able to receive calls. Visit our Call Forwarding article for instructions on how to add and remove numbers from these lists.
Teams on Spruce
Teams let you group teammates together for shared workflows. You can assign conversations to a team, page the whole group at once, and forward calls to all team members via a ring list or numbers to ring list. If your organization uses contact membership, teams can also be set as default members.
When a teammate is added to a team, a dedicated inbox filter is automatically created for them. For example, a teammate added to a "Front Desk" team would see an inbox called "Assigned to Front Desk" where all conversations assigned to that team appear.
Teammates can belong to multiple teams, and administrators of your organization on Spruce can add and delete teammates from these teams. You can manage your teams in your Settings, under Teams. Please note that this option will appear only once you have added teammates to your Spruce account. Learn more about alerting and paging members in a team.
Everyone can view a list of your current teams from Settings > Teams, but only Administrators can make changes to the teams.
If you are an Administrator on your Spruce account, you can:
- Create new teams
- Add and remove members from existing teams
- Rename existing teams
- Delete teams
Creating a Team
Only Administrators have the ability to add a Team to your account. This can be done from both the web and mobile apps. If you are an Administrator, follow these steps to add a Team to your Spruce account.
From the web:
- Select Settings > Teams.
- Select the "Create New Team" button.
- Type in the name of your Team.
- Choose the members you'd like to add and select "Save."
From the mobile app:
- Select Settings > Teams.
- Select the "+" icon.
- Type in the name of your Team then click “Save” on iOS or "Create" on Android.
- On iOS, choose the members you'd like to add and select "Save." On Android, click "Edit" then choose the members you'd like to add and select "Save."
Removing a Team
Only Administrators have the ability to remove a Team from your account. This can be done from the web version of Spruce. If you are an Administrator, follow these steps to remove a Team from your Spruce account.
From the web:
- Select Settings > Teams.
- Find the Team you wish to remove and select the three-vertical-dot menu icon.
- Select Delete Team from the menu.
- This will open a box prompting you to "transfer ownership" to a Team or teammate. Type in the Team or teammate you wish to transfer ownership to.
- Select Continue with Deletion.
- Type “Delete Team” in the text box then click the Delete Team button to confirm the removal of the Team.
Spruce will transfer assigned conversations, conversation membership, phone numbers, fax numbers, Spruce links owned by the deleted team, auto-replies, auto-welcome messages, ring lists, and schedules to the designated team or teammate.
This simplifies the process for the administrator significantly as these steps do not need to be done manually. If you are uncertain who to choose as the recipient of the transfer you can create a new Team to act as a vessel until another decision is made.
Note: When you delete a team, the teammates on that Team will not be removed from your organization. If you are looking to remove individual teammates, follow the steps here.
Editing an Existing Team
Only Administrators have the ability to edit an existing Team from your account. If you are an Administrator, follow these steps to add or remove teammates from a Team or rename a Team.
Add or Remove Teammates
From the web:
- Select Settings > Teams.
- Find the Team you wish to add or remove teammates from and click “Edit.”
- Hover over a teammate's name and click the X icon to remove them from the Team
- Type in the name of the teammate you wish to add to the Team and select them from the list.
- Click “Save.”
From mobile:
- Select Settings > Teams.
- Select the Team you wish to add or remove teammates from.
- Click “Edit” then use the checkboxes to select which teammates should be added or removed from the Team and click “Save.”
Rename a Team
From the web:
- Select Settings > Teams.
- Find the Team you wish to add or remove teammates from and click “Edit.”
- Type in the name of your Team and click “Save.”
Managing Administrators
Certain sensitive options within your Settings on Spruce are restricted so that only designated Administrators have access. These restricted activities include:
- Inviting new teammates
- Removing teammates and teams from your account
- Selecting a paid plan if you are a new customer
- Changing billing information
- Creating Spruce Links
- Editing the owner of phone numbers and Spruce Links
Who is an Administrator?
The first person to join Spruce in your account is designated an Administrator by default. Any Administrator can promote other teammates to Administrators. Follow these steps to change a teammate's Administrator status:
- Log in to Spruce and navigate to your Settings.
- Select Teammates.
- Select the Teammate you wish to promote to an administrator.
- Select the Promote to Admin button if you're on web. If you’re on the mobile app, click directly on their name to show the option to promote or demote a teammate to and from Administrator status.
Please note that only Administrators can promote and demote other teammates to and from Administrator status. If you need help changing who is an Administrator on your account, please message our Support team through the app.
This article covers the Spruce functions that are unique to administrators.
Starting a Team Chat
Once your teammates have joined your organization, you can start a conversation for secure internal chat.
- To start a new team conversation, select the Team icon at the bottom of your app home screen. If you're on the web, select the +New button on the top left-hand side of your screen. Note: This will only be available if you have more than one teammate on your account.
- Select the "+" icon and then "New Team Conversation" on your phone, or the blue new-conversation icon at the top of your inbox if you're on web. Click on "Team Chat" from the drop-down menu.
- Add the members you'd like to include, and set a subject. Compose a message and send it. All of the teammates you chose will see this message appear in their Team inbox.
Unlike patient conversations, which by default are accessible to all teammates, only teammates who have been added to a team conversation can access that conversation and the messages exchanged therein.
You can add or remove teammates to existing team conversations at any time. To manage the teammates on an existing conversation:
- Select the conversation under Team then All.
- Select the Conversation Details “i” icon.
- Select Edit.
- Search for the teammate you wish to add and click on their name. They will immediately be added to the conversation.
- To remove a teammate, hover over their name and select the X icon.
Note: Any teammates you add at a later date will be able to see all previous messages exchanged.
Here’s a video demonstrating how to start a team chat:
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I add a new team member to Spruce?
Admins can invite new users from the Spruce admin settings by entering their email and mobile number. Once they accept, they can be assigned to inboxes and given appropriate permissions.
Does Spruce billing change automatically when I add or remove users?
Yes. Spruce billing is per user per month, so your bill automatically adjusts when users are added or removed, with changes being reflected at the start of your next billing cycle.