Account Setup

This guide covers creating your account, joining or creating your company workspace, and configuring security and subscription settings.

Creating your account

Go to the Cothon sign-up page and choose how to register:

• Email and password — enter your name, email, and a password, then confirm your account via the verification email
• Google — sign up with your Google account
• Microsoft — sign up with your Microsoft account
• Slack — sign up with your Slack account

After signing in you land on the Opportunities page, and a short product tour highlights the main areas of the app. You can dismiss the tour at any time and relaunch it later.

Joining your company workspace

Cothon organizes teams into organizations — shared workspaces with a common company profile, opportunities, and analyses.

With a claim code

If your company received a claim code from Cothon, the company setup wizard uses it to link your workspace to your company's existing government contracting record:

1. Open the company setup wizard and enter the claim code. It is validated as soon as you type it.
2. Confirm the matched vendor and choose a workspace name.
3. Review the profile suggestions inferred from your company's award history, and accept or adjust them.

Without a claim code

You can also create a workspace from scratch and fill in your company profile manually. A claim code can be applied later from Settings, so nothing is lost by starting without one.

Joining an existing organization

If a teammate already created your organization, ask them to invite you. Your active organization appears in the sidebar just above your user footer; if you belong to several, use that switcher to change context.

Completing your company profile

Open Company Profile in the sidebar and describe your business: basic information, capabilities, certifications, and the procurement industries you operate in. This profile drives requirement matching and relevance scoring across the platform, so the effort pays off immediately.

Securing your account

Two-factor authentication

Cothon supports two-factor authentication using TOTP authenticator apps (for example 1Password, Authy, Google Authenticator, or Microsoft Authenticator):

1. Go to Settings → Security.
2. Start the enrollment under Two-factor authentication.
3. Scan the QR code with your authenticator app and enter the generated code to confirm.

You can review and remove enrolled factors from the same panel.

Password

Use Forgot password on the login page to reset your password by email, and Settings → Security to manage it while signed in.

Settings overview

Settings in the sidebar groups your preferences into panels:

• General — account basics
• Appearance — theme and display preferences
• Bid Strategy — defaults that shape bid decision guidance
• Security — password and two-factor authentication
• Privacy — data and privacy controls
• Notifications — notification preferences
• Templates — reusable content templates
• Organizations — your workspaces and members
• Integrations — connected services
• Subscription — your plan and billing

Subscription tiers

• Free — view government tenders with basic search and filters
• Pro — adds opportunities, analytics, bid configuration, company profile, proposals, lessons learned, and organization intelligence
• Enterprise — custom pricing; everything in Pro

Sections your plan does not include appear with a lock icon in the sidebar. Upgrade from Settings → Subscription.

Next steps

• Your First Analysis — analyze a tender end to end
• Navigation Guide — find your way around
• Company Profile — go deeper on capabilities