User types

Introduction
User type = specific permissions, dashboard, menu
Create a new user type
Examples of user types settings
Detailed settings
Built-in roles

 

Introduction

Define user types to differentiate user permissions, dashboard, and menu. User types can be found in Global menu >> Administration >> User types. You will see all the existing user types and a possibility to create a new user type.

 

 

User type = specific permissions, dashboard, menu

There are 10+ predefined global user types in Easy Project. Each user type has a ready-to-use dashboard with features according to particular responsibilities. Complete permissions and workflow are defined for each user type. Permissions and workflow settings are divided into 4 levels (chief, management, executive and external) and implemented by roles & permissions. This makes Easy Project implementation as easy as setting up just 1 option for each user – select his/her user type. However, infinite possibilities of any custom set-up are kept, as well as dashboards and menu customizations.

Detailed description of the predefined User Types can be found on the following link.

Each user type might have a predefined default role, which will be preselected when adding user to a project. Thus eliminating the need to select a role to newly added users of specific user types. Of course, you will still be able to select different roles for the user. For the sake of simplicity, default user roles are reduced to a few most common roles in an organization. 

For each user type, a customized personal dashboard and user menu are available for immediate use.

 

 

Create a new user type

After clicking the button, you will land on this page. 

You can choose here, what you want the user type to see in the top menu, what other users can he see and if it will be a default user type, or if it is an internal user.

 

 

Examples of user type settings

External

This external user has everything disabled except for the meeting calendar. Also, external users are not included in the Budgets plugin so it is not possible to automatically convert their spent time to money. Therefore, if you have external workers and you need them to report their personal costs, you always need to set them as internal users.

Please note that even an external user can be marked as an administrator. Be mindful when granting these rights to a user with the External user type

What external users CAN use

• Meeting Calendar
• Project Modules:
• Project Overview
• Tasks
• Contacts

What external users CAN NOT use

• Resource Management:
  • Cannot manage external licenses in Resource Management.
• Budgets and Time Tracking:
  • Cannot log spent time.
  • Cannot be included in the Budgets plugin (spent time cannot be automatically converted into money).
• Filters and Activity:
  • Cannot see any filters.
  • Cannot view project activity.
• Administrative Permissions:
  • Cannot be assigned as an administrator (not recommended).
• Chat and Communication (Available through v11):
  • External users can find internal users in chat, but internal users cannot find external users.
• Money Settings:
  • Cannot choose hourly rates in Money settings.
• Mentions and Task Assignment:
  • Cannot be mentioned in tasks like internal users.
• Global Filters and Reports:
  • Cannot be found in global filters for spent time.
• Project Roles:
  • Cannot be an author or project manager of a project.
• SLA Events Visibility:
  • Cannot see SLA events, even if permission is granted under their project role.

Internal

This internal user has everything enabled.

 

 

Detailed settings

• Default? Internal?

Checking the option "Default" means this user type will be pre-selected when creating new users. The option "internal" allows to select whether this user type is in-house employee or external worker/client with corresponding permissions.

• Non-internal users cannot log spent time and are not included in Budgets plugin, so it is not possible to automatically convert their spent time to money
• Non-internal users do not see tasks, spent time, attendance and resource management buttons on their user profile.
  
• Non-internal users do not see saved public filters anywhere, only their own saved private filters.
• Non-internal users do not see estimated hours on assigned tasks and neither in resource management.
• Non-internal users can not see project activity even if they have the permission on the project.

• Custom menu item

If you want to make it easier for your users to reach something, or you want to restrict them from using the More menu but still need them to have access to specific modules, for example Budgets or Resources, then you should make a custom menu for them. Just enter the name of the menu item, the URL link of the item (limited up to 2000 characters), and select the graphic icon.

• Visibility options

Here, you can choose which user types can see other user types. Or, you can select "All" to see all user types. Selecting <<all>> means it will use all existing user types only. New types created from this moment on will not be considered unless <<all>> is selected again after their creation. Even with limited user type visibility, all users with the permission "View all spent time" on their user profiles can still see spent time records of other user types. This setting does not apply to spent time visibility, which can only be limited by user roles' permissions on projects.

 

 

Built-in roles

Users can be added into projects under selected roles (directly; inherited from a parent project; inherited from a group, which is added into the project). However, all organizations have some specific persons that need to be members of all projects, e.g. top management, who need access to all data to have full reports; or HR, who may need to view all users' activity. To simplify the administration of memberships of such users, we are introducing a new built-in role setting.

How to set

First, make sure the feature is activated in Plugins (Global menu >> Administration >> Plugins >> Custom built-in role >> Edit - activate).

When activated, go to a user type and select a Built-in role.

How it works

This is where you need to pay close attention to avoid any incorrect settings. A user who has a user type, which has a built-in role set, automatically receives this role in all projects, where they are not already members. If there are projects, where the user has been added as a member, the built-in role doesn't take effect. As you can see, it may lead to a duality. Therefore, our recommendation is that if you set a built-in role to a certain user type, make sure that the users belonging to this type are not members of any project (or project template). If someone does add these users into some projects manually, there is no harm, but may lead to a loss (or gain) of permissions on those projects. In project member settings, users with the built-in roles are shown in a separate section.