Your first login

What to expect when you log in for the first time, where everything is, and how to orient yourself.

Procedure Clerk ★ Priority

Setting your password

When your council is set up on CouncilPapers, the system sends you a welcome email. Click the link in that email to set your password and access the system for the first time.

If the link has expired, use the Forgotten Password option on the login page to request a new one.

What you will see

After logging in you will arrive at the Dashboard. At this stage your council has just been configured, so the dashboard will be fairly sparse — there are no councillors, no meetings, and no minutes yet. That is expected.

The left-hand menu is your main navigation. It contains the following sections:

Menu item What it contains
Dashboard Your council overview and quick links
Meetings All past and upcoming meetings
Minutes Minutes pending approval or adoption
Committees Your council's committees
Files Uploaded documents and papers
Tags Tags used across agenda items
Library Reusable agenda items
Emails Notification emails sent to councillors
Planning Planning applications
People Councillors and staff
Council Your council's details and settings

Where to go first

Your first task is to work through the setup steps in the Onboarding checklist. This takes you through adding committees, councillors, and meetings in the right order.

A good place to start is Committees in the left-hand menu, where your pre-configured Full Council committee is already listed. From there you can add any additional committees your council needs before moving on to adding councillors under People.

Last updated: 31 August 2026

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