Who leads a zone

This is the one genuinely confusing corner of ReadyFactor, and it’s confusing because three different features ended up sharing a name. Here they are, weakest to strongest.

1. A name you typed

When you write the plan, each zone has an optional zone lead field. You type a name — Marcus — and that’s it.

No account. No permissions. Nothing happens. It’s a label. It’s shown to helpers in that zone so they know who to find first, and it’s printed on the report.

Use this when the person running a zone is someone who’ll be in the room with a clipboard and no interest in an app. It’s a sign, not a role.

2. A helper you promote during setup

Once setup is live, you can take someone who has already joined as a helper and give them lead controls for their zone, from the Helpers tab.

Now they can actually do things, from their phone:

• take ownership of help requests in their zone
• resolve those requests
• confirm the zone ready when its work is done
• reopen it if they were wrong

They’re still a helper. No account, no password. They just have more buttons than everyone else in that zone.

This is the one you want most of the time. The person standing in the room is better placed than you to say the room is ready.

3. A zone lead account you invite

The third is a real account with an email address, invited from your team settings with the role Zone lead.

They sign in as themselves, see the full roster, and can start, complete, confirm or resolve work — but only inside the zones you assign them. You choose which zones, per run.

Use this for someone who runs the same area every time and needs to see it across runs, not just on the day.

Which one you actually want

Somebody’s name on the plan so helpers know who to ask → type it in the zone lead field. Thirty seconds, no accounts.

Somebody who can confirm their zone ready without finding you → promote a helper during setup. This is the common case and the one most people are looking for.

Somebody who does this every week and needs their own sign-in → invite a zone lead account.

They can coexist. A zone can have a typed name and a promoted helper, and they don’t have to be the same person — though if they aren’t, expect questions.

The sentence worth remembering

Typing a name gives nobody any power. If you wanted someone to be able to confirm the zone, you have to grant it — from the Helpers tab during setup, or by inviting them as a zone lead account.