Groups

Groups are used to organize data and control user access to items

Groups

Configuration

Access Groups

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:

  • Role (authorization roles)
  • Holiday schedule
  • Team (only Journyx PX)

Entry screens:

  • Time entry screen
  • Expense entry screen
  • Custom entry screen
  • Punch and Start/Stop entry screen

Time entry screen content:

  • Project (column 1 on time entry screen)
  • Activity (column 2 on time entry screen)
  • Pay Type (column 3 on time entry screen)
  • Bill Type (column 4 on time entry screen)

Expense entry screen content:

  • Expense code (column 2 on expense entry screen)
  • Currency (column 3 on expense entry screen)
  • Source (column 4 on expense entry screen)

Custom entry screen content:

  • Location (column 2 on custom entry screen)
  • Item (column 3 on custom entry screen)
  • Unit (column 4 on custom entry screen)
Configuration

The All Group

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.

Configuration

Only use the All Group?

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.

Example

Groups Screenprint

The All Group contains every item in the Journyx system (image 1).

Groups?

Example, groups per department

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:

  • All items (users, projects, activities, pay types, bill types, authorization roles, time entry screens) can be placed in one or more groups.
  • A user has only accress to the items that are placed in a group (or groups) where the user is placed.
Groups Screenprint

Example a group per department (image 2).

Groups?

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.

Groups Screenprint

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.

Groups?

Creating and Managing a Group

  • To create a new Group, click the Create button on the main Groups screen located under Manage-->Access to data-->Manage access groups. This will direct you to the Group Creation screen where you can specify the name and description of the Group.
  • Create a group (image:denise jans @unsplash)

    Create a group

  • Once saved, select the newly created Group from the main Groups screen. This will take you to the Groups Management Screen. Here you will select the items that are to belong to the Group along with the users that will have access to these items. In other words, assigned users will be able to log time, expense, and custom entries against the assigned items as these items will be displayed in dropdowns within their timesheets, expense sheets, and custom entry sheets. For each item displayed, the listbox to the left contains the available items and the listbox to the right contains the items that have been assigned to the Group. You can use the ctrl-click and shift-click functionality to select multiple items. Once you have selected the items to assign to the Group from the left listboxes, click the Save button.

    Upon refresh, you will see that the items you selected are now in the listboxes to the right. Note that if you have set up projects with dependencies, you need to make sure that you include at least one valid item for each entry field for the projects included in the Group. Otherwise, the users in the group may be unable to log time, expense, or custom entries to the project.
Groups?

Modify 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.

Groups?

Delete a Group

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.