Users and roles

A company file can have several people in it. Each person has a name, a PIN or passphrase and a role. The role decides what that person can see and change. Every change is saved with the name of the person who made it.

How it works

• A file with no users is open to whoever opens it. This is how older files behave.
• The first person you add is always the Owner.
• With one user, nobody has to sign in. Records are credited to that user.
• With two or more users, the file asks "Who is working?" Choose your name and enter your PIN or passphrase. It must be at least 4 characters.
• A sign-in belongs to one computer and one session. Another window or computer does not borrow it.
• Five wrong PINs in a row make that user wait five minutes.

What to do

1. Open Accountant, then the Users and roles tab.
2. Under People, use Add the Owner (first time) or Add a person. Type a name, pick a role and set a PIN or passphrase.
3. To change a role, pick a new one in the Role column.
4. To set a new PIN, press New PIN beside the name.
5. To stop someone working in the file, press Switch off. Press Switch on to bring them back.
6. To make your own role, use Make a custom role under Roles. Name it and tick what it can do.

The roles

• Owner: everything.
• Admin: everything except taking sales at the till.
• Bookkeeper: day-to-day work: entries, sales, bills, contacts, bank, reports, importing and exporting.
• Accountant: reports, entries, bank, review marks, the edit history, approvals, exporting, and locking dates.
• Approver: reports, and asking for and deciding approvals.
• Employee: expense claims only, and asking for approval.
• Till: taking sales at the till.
• View-only: looking at the books and reports.

The table on the Users and roles tab always shows the exact list for each role, including custom ones.

Important

• Only an Owner, Admin or Accountant can lock a period.
• The last Owner cannot be demoted or switched off. Only an Owner can make or change an Owner.
• A user is switched off, never deleted. Their past work stays under their name.
• Screens a person cannot use are hidden from them. An Employee sees only the expense screens.
• Older entries made before users existed show "before-users" in the edit history.
• The sign-in sheet and the Users and roles tab were not clicked through by hand before release. The Mac sign-in sheet was not run in the app. The Windows app has no sign-in sheet yet.
• Companies kept on the cloud server have their own member roles. This tab does not change those.