User Management
Invite, approve, and manage Relay users and control who can administer your organization's request portal.
Use User Management to control who can access your organization's Relay tenant and which users have Relay administrative privileges.
Relay users are separate from Monolith users and do not consume Monolith licenses. This allows a forensic team with a relatively small number of Monolith users to support a much larger population of investigators, attorneys, employees, partners, or other requestors through Relay.
Access User Management
In Monolith, navigate to:
Settings > Relay Settings > User Management
From here, administrators can:
Invite new Relay users
Review users requesting access
Approve or deny tenant access
Manage existing Relay users
Control Relay administrative privileges
How Users Get Access to Relay
There are two primary ways to add users to your Relay tenant.
Register through your organization's Relay URL
Receive a direct invitation from your team
Self-Registration
Each Relay tenant has its own URL.
Organizations can distribute this URL to people who need to submit requests. A user who visits the tenant URL can create a Relay account and request access.
Creating an account does not automatically grant access to the tenant.
The user's request must first be approved through User Management in Monolith.
Direct Invitation
Administrators can invite users directly from Settings > Relay Settings > User Management.
This is useful when you already know which investigators, employees, attorneys, partner agencies, or other requestors should have access to your Relay tenant.
To invite a user:
Select Invite User.
Enter the user's email address.
Select Invite.
Relay sends an invitation to the provided email address.
The invitation identifies the Relay tenant the user has been invited to and provides an Accept Invite option for completing account setup.
User Account Setup
After selecting Accept Invite, the user is directed to Relay to complete their account setup.
If the person does not already have a Relay account, they will be prompted to register and create one.
Once account setup is complete, the user can sign in to Relay and access the tenant they were invited to.
If the user already has a Relay account, the new tenant can be added to their existing account rather than requiring a separate Relay identity.
This is especially useful for requestors who work with multiple forensic organizations. For example, a detective may use one Relay account to submit requests to several different labs, with each lab appearing as a separate Forensic Partner in Relay.
Approve Relay Users
Users who register through your tenant URL remain pending until your organization approves their access.
Review pending users before granting access to confirm that they are an appropriate requestor for your organization.
Once approved, the user can access your Relay tenant and begin using the request portal.
If a registration request should not be granted access, it can be denied instead.
Relay Users and Monolith Licenses
Relay users do not require a Monolith license.
This allows organizations to provide structured request intake to a much larger group of people without providing each requestor access to the primary Monolith application.
For example, a forensic lab may have a small team of examiners working in Monolith while allowing hundreds of investigators or other requestors to submit work through Relay.
Relay access is independent of Monolith licensing. An organization may have a small number of licensed Monolith users while supporting a much larger community of Relay requestors.
Users Can Belong to Multiple Relay Tenants
A Relay user can have access to more than one organization's Relay tenant.
For example, a detective may submit forensic requests to several different labs that use Relay. That detective can use the same Relay account to access each Relay tenant that has granted them permission.
Within Relay, each organization appears as a separate Forensic Partner.
Requests and case information remain associated with the appropriate organization.
Standard Relay Users and Relay Admins
Most Relay users are requestors.
They use Relay to:
Submit forensic requests
Review their requests
Track request status
Review available case and evidence progress
Communicate through request Comments
Access files shared through Case Drives
Some members of the forensic team may also need Relay Admin access.
Relay Admin access is particularly useful for Monolith users responsible for reviewing and managing incoming Relay requests.
A Relay Admin may need to:
Access All Requests
Open requests directly in Relay
Review requests from the Relay side
Communicate with requestors through Comments
Use @mentions within request conversations
Help manage the Relay request workflow
Monolith Users Who Also Work in Relay
Monolith and Relay currently use separate user accounts.
A Monolith account does not automatically provide access to Relay.
For teams actively using Relay, the Monolith users responsible for request intake and triage should also have Relay accounts with the appropriate permissions when they need to work directly inside Relay.
A common workflow may look like:
A requestor submits a request through Relay.
The request appears under Case Management > Inquiries in Monolith.
A Monolith user reviews the submitted request and updates its Inquiry status.
If direct communication is needed, the Monolith user opens the corresponding request in Relay using their Relay account.
The forensic team and requestor communicate through Relay Comments.
When the request is ready for active casework, the Monolith user creates a new case or merges the Inquiry into an existing case.
Relay Authentication
Relay uses an authentication system separate from Monolith.
By default, Relay users sign in using their Relay account credentials.
Single Sign-On (SSO) can also be configured for Relay.
Relay SSO is configured separately from Monolith SSO, even when an organization uses the same identity provider for both applications.
See Single Sign-On (SSO) for additional information.
Recommended Practices
Review self-registration requests before approving tenant access.
Use direct invitations when you already know which users should have access.
Provide Relay Admin access to the forensic team members who need to work directly inside Relay.
Make sure Monolith users responsible for Relay communication also have appropriate Relay accounts.
Use your Relay tenant as a common intake point for the people who regularly submit work to your team.
Remember that requestors do not need Monolith licenses to use Relay.
Test the experience using both a standard requestor account and a Relay Admin account when initially configuring your tenant.
Related Documentation
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