Understanding the Difference Between Users and Residents

Learn how a user with a MyWatchtower account differs from a resident record without an account, and which one to add for each person in your household.

A property can list two kinds of people: users and residents. Both show on the Residents tab of the property, and gate staff see both. The difference is the account. A user has a MyWatchtower account and signs in. A resident is a record of a person who does not sign in.

Users

A user has a MyWatchtower account.

A user signs in with an email address.

On the property, a user has a property role: Owner, Manager or Resident. The role sets what the person can do for the property, for example add guests or change the call order.

MyWatchtower sends notifications to a user.

A user added to a property also gets the Resident role in the community.

Community staff are users too. The default community roles are Admin, Supervisor, Gate Attendant and Resident. JEKA support assigns the Super Admin role.

Residents

A resident is a record of a person who lives at the property and does not need to sign in, for example a child.

A resident record has a first name and a last name. It has no email address, no phone number and no role.

A resident record can have a vehicle, a photo, a kiosk PIN, a QR pass and an access credential, when your community uses them.

Gate staff see the name of the resident when they look up the property.

How the Residents tab shows them

The Residents tab of the property shows both kinds in one list. The second line of each row starts with User or Resident. A user row shows the property role and the Has account chip. A resident row shows no role and the No account chip.

By default, the list shows Owners first, then Managers, then users with the Resident role, then residents.

The Residents tab of a property on a phone. The first row is a user with the Owner role and the Has account chip. The next row is a resident with the No account chip.

Add a user or a resident

One form adds both kinds. The Email (Optional) field decides which kind you add.

1. On the Residents tab of the property, select Add Resident. The Add a resident form opens.

2. Type the First Name and the Last Name.

3. Do one of these steps:

To add a resident record, leave Email (Optional) empty. The form shows "This will create a resident without an account." Select Create Resident.

To add a user, type the email address of the person. The form then asks for the Property Role and a phone number. It shows "This will create a user with a MyWatchtower account." Select Create User.

The Add a resident form on a phone, with the Email (Optional) field and its help text

By default, an Owner can add both kinds. A Manager can add resident records only. A person with the Resident property role cannot add people. Community staff with the residents write permission can add both kinds.

The community Residents list

Community staff see each user and each resident of the community on Community > Residents. Under each name, the row shows User or Resident. Select All, Users or Residents to show one kind. The Role column shows the community role of each user. The list also shows staff users.

The community Residents list on a computer, with user and resident rows

Which one to add

Add a user when the person must sign in, for example to add guests and vehicles, to make entry codes or to get notifications.

Add a resident when you only need the name of the person at the property.

MyWatchtower cannot change a resident record into a user. If the person later makes an account and joins the property, the tab shows a user row and the old resident row. Delete the resident row, so that the person shows one time only.