Access Groups
Access Groups allow you to control the access that each User has to your Standard ERP system. For example, if the User is a sales person, you may want to grant them access to Quotations and Sales Orders while preventing them from using the Nominal Ledger.
If you have more than one Company in your database, it is recommended that you share the Access Groups setting. This means that the same Access Groups will be made available to every Company. If you want to share the Access Groups setting, you should do so while the setting is empty. Please refer to the Shared Registers page for details about sharing this setting, and then return to this section for details about entering Access Groups.
Follow these steps:
- Select the System module by using the Ctrl-0 (zero) (Windows) or ⌘-0 (macOS) keyboard shortcut to open the list of modules and double-clicking 'System'. If the System module is not available in the list of modules, this will probably be because you have not granted yourself access to the System module in the Configuration setting. Please refer to the Modules, Users and Companies page.
- Use the Ctrl-S (Windows) or ⌘-S (macOS) keyboard shortcut to open the list of Settings and double-click 'Access Groups'.
- The 'Access Groups: Browse' window opens, listing the Access Groups that already exist. To create a new Access Group, select 'New' from the Create menu above the list, or highlight an Access Group in the list and select 'Duplicate' from the same menu. The 'Access Group: New' window opens:
- There are two ways of configuring an Access Group:
- You can exclude members of the Access Group from everywhere in your Standard ERP database except those areas that you list in the grid i.e. you specify what the members of the Access Group can do. This is known as "Starting from No Access".
- You can allow members of the Access Group to go everywhere in your Standard ERP database except to those areas that you list in the grid i.e. you specify what the members of the Access Group cannot do. This is known as "Starting from Full Access".
Bear this choice in mind while configuring your Access Groups as described in the following steps. When you come to assign an Access Group to a User (step 7 on the User Accounts (Named Users and Concurrent Users with Mailboxes) page), you will also specify whether that User will start from No Access or from Full Access.
The example illustration below shows a "Starting from No Access" Access Group. Members of this Access Group will only have access to two modules - Sales Orders and Stock. The Sales Orders module is featured in the first row of the grid, so this will be the active module when they first log in to Standard ERP. They will be allowed access to every function in those modules, except the Number Series - Goods Receipts setting.
Use the grid area to determine the areas of your Standard ERP database to which members of the Access Group will be given access, and the level of that access. You can allow or disallow access to any module or any component of a module (such as a particular register or setting).
The access right that you specify in the row with the highest number will be given priority. For example, if you deny access to all settings on row 1 and then give access to the Payment Terms setting on row 2, then members of the Access Group will have access to Payment Terms. However, if you give access to the Payment Terms setting on row 1 and deny access to all settings on row 2, then members of the Access Group will not have access to Payment Terms. You can use this order of priority to set a general rule (e.g. a rule for settings as a whole) and then to make exceptions (e.g. for Payment Terms). To help organise an Access Group record in this way you can sort the rows by selecting 'Sort' from the Operations menu.
- To add a new item to the grid, place the insertion point in the Type field in the first empty row. From here you can specify the area of your database to which you are controlling access (for example, module, register, setting, report, document, etc.).Then, open the 'Paste Special' list of possible entries using the Ctrl-Enter (Windows)/⌘-Enter (macOS) key combination:
If you double-click "Module", this will allow you to give or deny access to an entire module. Otherwise, you can give or deny access to specific registers, settings, reports, forms and functions.
- After choosing a Type, press Tab or Return to move the insertion point to the Item field. Here you will name the specific component whose access you are controlling. Use 'Paste Special' (Ctrl-Enter or ⌘-Enter) once again to open a list of options. This list will depend on the Type. For example, if you entered "Module" in the Type field, the 'Paste Special' list from the Item field will contain a list of modules:
- Choose an Item (in this example, a module) by double-clicking, and then press Tab or Return to move the insertion point to the Level field, where you will specify the level of access to the Item that you will allow. Then, use 'Paste Special' once again to choose a Level of access. The options listed by 'Paste Special' will again vary depending on the Type. The full list of options is as follows:
You can use the following two options with any Type:
- Full
- Allows full access to the Item.
- None
- Denies all access to the Item.
- If the Type is "Form", this Level will allow Users to print forms from browse and record windows, but any further access will be denied. For example, a User with no access to the Invoice form will be able to print an Invoice record by opening it and clicking the Printer icon, and by highlighting it in the 'Invoices: Browse' window and selecting 'Print' from the File menu. They will not be able to choose the 'Invoices' option in the 'Forms' list window, so they won't be able to print a range of Invoices, and they won't have access to the 'Form Definition' window (i.e. they will not be able to change the Form Template that will be used when Invoices are printed).
You can only use the remaining options when the Type is "Register" or "Setting", with two exceptions noted in the text:
- Browse
- Allows Users to open the register or setting and to see the records it contains in a list (i.e. in a browse window or 'Paste Special' list). Users will be able to search for individual records in the list. Users will not be able to open, modify or create individual records.
- Browse/New
- Allows Users to open the register or setting and to see the records it contains in a list (i.e. in a browse window or 'Paste Special' list). Users will be able to search for individual records in the list. Users will not be able to open or modify individual records, but they will be able to create new ones (although not by duplicating existing ones).
- Read
- Allows Users to open the register or setting and to see the records it contains in a list (i.e. in a browse window or 'Paste Special' list). Users will be able to search for individual records in the list. Users will be able to open individual records but not to modify them or to create new ones.
You can also use this Level when the Type is "Report", in which case Users will be able to print the report to screen but not to a printer or to a text file (i.e. users will not be able to print the report using any of the Media options in the report specification window except Screen).
- Read/New
- Allows Users to open the register or setting and to see the records it contains in a list (i.e. in a browse window or 'Paste Special' list). Users will be able to search for individual records in the list. Users will be able to open individual records but not to modify them. They will be able to create new records (including by duplicating existing ones).
- Disable Browse
- You can only use this Level when the Type is "Register", not when the Type is "Setting". Users will not be able to open the register and so will not be able to see the records it contains in a list (i.e. in a browse window or 'Paste Special' list). Users will be able to open individual records and to create new records (including by duplicating existing ones). For example, they will be able to open records from the Calendar, Task Manager and Workflow Overview and by drilling down from reports when printed to screen. They will also be able to navigate between records using the [Previous Record] and [Next Record] buttons and by selecting 'Previous' and 'Next' from the Record menu (which has a 'cog' icon if you are using iOS or Android).
If you want to allow 'Paste Special' access to a register or setting to which access is otherwise denied, you should grant Browse or Read access to that register or setting. For example, if a User only has access to the Invoice register, you should grant them Browse or Read access to the Contact and Item registers if you want them to be able to choose Customers and Items using 'Paste Special' when they enter new Invoices.
- After choosing the Level, press Tab or Return and then use 'Paste Special' again to choose an Open Type. This only applies if the Type is Register. When Users open the register, the Open Type will determine whether a browse window or a record window will open. If a record window opens, this will allow the User to enter a new record immediately.
- After adding all the necessary rows to the Access Group as described in steps 5-8, save it by clicking the [Save] button in the top right-hand corner of the window or using the Shift-Enter key combination. Then, create other Access Groups as required.
In particular, in client-server systems it is recommended that at least one member of staff acts as a system administrator, able to use the Technics module on a client machine when other users are logged in. To implement this, create an Access Group that explicitly grants full access to the Technics module:
An Access Group that grants access to the Technics module allows you to carry out certain tasks (e.g. working with Global Users and configuring timed back-ups) on a client machine.
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User Accounts in Standard ERP:
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