Groups are used to organize data and control user access to items
Groups are used to organize data and control user access to items
Groups are used to organize data and control user access to items such as Projects, Activities, Pay Types, Bill Types, Time Entry Screens, etc. Groups may be thought of as sets that contain one or more users and projects, activities, etc. that those users can access. Each user can be assigned to one or more Groups, and each item such as a Project, Activity, Pay Type, etc. can be assigned to one or more Groups. Groups are the ultimate access control devices in the system and as such require particular attention.
Access to the following items are managed through groups:
General:
Entry screens:
Time entry screen content:
Expense entry screen content:
Custom entry screen content:
In addition to Groups that the administrator creates to establish the order within an organization, the system contains one default Group that is consistent across all installations - the All Group.
Every installation of Journyx contains a Group named 'All'. This Group contains each item created within the system. Every non-user item must exist in this Group or it may become inaccessible. Users may be removed from the All Group once they have been placed into at least one other Group or if their statuses have been changed to 'hidden'. To facilitate these requirements, modification of the All Group has been limited by default. Without making a change to the System Settings, only users may be removed from the All Group.
It is highly recommended that only users be removed from the All Group. All other changes to the All Group should be avoided.
When you do not create other groups in the Journyx system and only use the 'All' group, then all users will have access to any item in the Journyx system. That means every project, activity, task, time entry screen you have defined. If your organisation requires that every employee needs to be able to track time on any project then not creating other groups is an easy solution. With dependencies (entry column and/or column-to-column dependencies) you can define which items (activity, task etc.) are available when a user selects a project.
The All Group contains every item in the Journyx system (image 1).
If you want to make projects available per department (all the users from department A see only the projects of department A and all of the users from department B see only the projects of department B), then you could define a group per department. In the screenshot below you see that users from department A only have access to the projects 'P2' and 'P4' while department B users have access to the projects 'P1' and 'P3'.
Notice that in the screenhot below (image 2) that all the Activities (A), Pay Types (PT) and Bill Types (BT) are placed in both groups. This means that both department members have access to the same values in the different columns on the time entry screen (column 2, column 3 and column 4). This example shows you that:
Example a group per department (image 2).
Let's continue the group per department example. If you want to use a group per department (which contains the available projects for that particular department) and access to the other columns on the time entry screens are filtered by entry column dependencies and/or column-to-column dependencies, then you might want to use an extra group to make the administration easier. Check out the next screen shot (image 3).
The example set-up in the screenshot below (image 3) is the same as in the previous screenshot (image 2). The difference is that user access to the column 2, 3 & 4 values are set by using another group. By defining a group which contains all the users and all the values for the other columns on the time entry screen (activity, pay type and bill type), you are making sure that every user has access to these values. Access to the projects (column 1 on the time entry screen) are handled to the department group.
Example a group per department with an extra group (image 3).
This example would mean that a user must be placed in at least 2 groups. One group arranges access to the projects, the other group handles the access to the values in the columns 2, 3, & 4.
Create a group
To modify an existing Group, specify the search criteria in the main Groups screen. You can search by Group name, description and type. From the search results, click the Group name. This will direct you to the Group Management screen where you can select the users and items to assign to the Group. Alternatively, you can select the category that you want to manage for the Group by selecting it from the respective Modify column from within the search results. When finished making modifications, click the Save button.
To delete a Group, select the Group from the main Groups screen and click the Delete Group button. Remember that if a user has been removed from the All Group and does not exist in at least one other Group, that user will be changed to 'hidden' status and will not be able to login until he/she is returned to 'active' status under Manage->User accounts. Therefore, if you will be deleting a Group, please ensure that users in that Group still requiring system access are reassigned to another Group beforehand. Also, keep in mind that access to every item is controlled through the Group structure. If you delete the only Group that contains a particular item without first putting that item into another Group that your Users can access, that item will be inaccessible to everyone who might still need access to it.