New feature: Masquerade Mode

After school admin staff now have a tool in Arux to see what families see and resolve questions faster. 

Supporting families who call with trouble registering or managing their accounts should not require guesswork. With Masquerade Mode, authorized admins can temporarily view the Community Portal as a parent or community member would, making it easier to understand questions, troubleshoot issues, and provide confident answers to families who need help. 

What is Masquerade Mode?

Masquerade Mode allows authorized program admin users to temporarily access the Community Portal as a selected parent or guardian. 

Instead of guessing what a family is experiencing, staff can see the same pages, menus, registrations, and account details that the parent sees. This makes it much easier to answer the variety of questions received by after school teams every day. 

When the support conversation ends, admins simply exit Masquerade Mode and return to their own account.

Masquerade Mode enables after school program staff to effectively support users by temporarily viewing their Community Portal.

View the Community Portal as parents view it

Every minute spent asking parents to describe what they’re seeing, asking for screenshots, or trying to recreate an issue is time that can be spent helping another family or working on other tasks. 

Masquerade Mode reduces that back-and-forth by allowing staff to verify what families are seeing in real time. Whether you’re helping someone over the phone or responding to an email, you can quickly understand their experience without asking them to explain every step.

For programs managing hundreds or thousands of family accounts, that saves meaningful time during busy periods like registration or back-to-school. 

After school admin staff will see a confirmation before they enter Masquerade Mode for the selected user.

Built with activity tracking

Because Masquerade Mode provides temporary access to an Arux user’s Community Portal, activity tracking was part of the feature’s design.

Every Masquerade Mode session is:

• Limited to authorized permission groups

• Clearly identified while active with a prominent Masquerade banner

• Recorded in account activity history for reference

• Logged so organizations have visibility into when sessions occur

• Time-limited, with sessions automatically expiring after a set period

Parents are not notified when a Masquerade Mode session occurs, allowing staff to investigate and resolve issues without interrupting the support process. Some actions may also remain restricted while in Masquerade Mode. Available options may vary based on your permissions, the user’s account, and current Arux settings.

Staff can access Masquerade Mode in the upper-right corner of the People View Page in the Admin Portal.

Real-world support and better family experiences

Now, with Masquerade Mode, when a parent calls with an issue, admin staff with appropriate permissions have a faster path to help.

1. Open the parent’s account

2. Start a Masquerade Mode session

3. View the Community Portal exactly how the parent sees it

4. Confirm the issue, or explain where information is located

5. End the session
   

Masquerade Mode gives your team another way to provide responsive, informed support while maintaining visibility and accountability. When families have questions, staff can get closer to the answer by seeing the same experience they do.