What are user permissions and how do they impact my ability to view, add, report, edit, and delete records?
In order to log onto WebCATS, you will have been provided with a user account and password and this user account will have been assigned a certain level of permissions. Only system administrators can change your permissions, but it is good to know how these permissions may affect your ability to access certain features of WebCATS.
It is important to note that a user account is not the same as a counselor record. For example, administrative staff may be provided with a user account so that they may do data entry on behalf of one or more counselor, even though they would not provide one-on-one counseling with a client and thus would not have a counselor record in the database.
A default counselor can be selected for each user account so that when you create a record it always defaults to a particular counselor; this makes sense if you do your own data entry. But if you do data entry on behalf of multiple counselors, you may not want this default.
As part of your account setup, your system administrator can also enter some other default values for your username and password credentials to help speed up the data entry of clients and sessions. For example, the lead center administrator can specify a default funding source and whether you can or cannot change the client ID number that is automatically assigned by 'CATS. In fact, this is what the screen looks like in WinCATS:
Keep in mind that only your program’s system administrators will have access to this screen, but it gives you a quick overview of the type of default settings that are possible.
In this article, we specifically want to address the permissions for your user account. Your system administrator can give you very broad permissions or they can narrow your permissions to a particular type of record in 'CATS (called a database area); to a particular center; or a combination thereof. An example of the broadest possible set of permissions would be the ability to view, edit, add, and delete all types of records across all centers in the database.
However, most user permissions are limited in some fashion. Why? Let’s look at an example. If you only work with clients within one center, do you really need permissions to edit, add, or delete records at another center? You may still be able to view records belonging to another center in order to check for duplicates, but there's not necessarily a need for you to change those records.
Similarly, within your own center, it may be that you are responsible for coordinating and managing training events, and you never deal with clients on a one-on-one basis. In this case, your system administrator could set up your permissions such that you can view, edit, add and delete all training and contact records in WebCATS across all centers, but not even allow you to see, let alone edit or delete, the counseling sessions in the database.
Permissions play an important role in maintaining integrity in your WebCATS database. Administrators don’t want to give permission to delete records to users who should not be deleting clients or sessions. However, administrators also don’t want to restrict permissions too much such that duplicate records are created when users cannot see each other’s data, as discussed in detail in the duplicates FAQ.
For each database area, there are six levels of permissions that may be assigned:
- View records. If your user account has view permissions for a particular database area, you can view those record types. Softshare strongly recommends that all users have client view permissions across all centers to avoid duplicate records.
- Report on records. If your account has report permissions for a particular database area, you can run reports and worksheets on those record types.
- Edit records. If your account has edit permissions for a particular database area, you can edit all aspects of those record types (except for center ownership). Edit permissions are also necessary to save subsets consisting of those record types.
- Edit center ownership. If your account has center ownership edit permissions for a particular database area, you can also edit the Center fields for those record types. Please note, however, that in order for you to successfully edit a record’s center information (i.e. assign a record to a different center), you must also have add permissions in that database area for the center you are assigning the record to.
- Add records. If your account has add permissions for a particular database area, you can add new records of that record type.
- Delete Records. If your account has delete permissions for a particular database area, you can delete records of that record type.
In WebCATS, if you don’t have permission to do a certain function, then the button for that function will simply disappear. For example, if you are not allowed to delete client records, then you won't see the delete icon (.gif)
)at the top of an open client record.
Similarly, if you don’t have permissions to view a certain type of record, then a subset or quick search may still display that record, but it will be not be available for further viewing. For example, in the following graphic, notice how clients belonging to the MAIN and CENTRAL centers are non-linkable and how their telephone numbers and email addresses have been truncated for privacy purposes.
.gif)
Since each user has their own set of permissions, it is difficult to address all combinations in this FAQ; however, if you are curious as to your specific permissions settings, you can contact your lead center administrator and they can provide you with a report detailing your permissions. If you feel that your permissions are too restrictive or have questions about your permissions, please contact your database administrator for assistance. Softshare customer support representatives are not allowed to alter or delete user permissions.
For more information on user permissions and the impact they have on your WebCATS operations, view our other popular resources on this topic:
- FAQ: How can I find and clean up duplicate client records in my 'CATS database, and prevent future duplicates from occurring?
- FAQ: I'm trying to report on a grouping of records, but there is no Report button available. Why not?
- FAQ: I'd like to edit a record, but there is no Edit button available. Why not?
- FAQ: I created a record that I now need to delete. Where is the Delete button?
- FAQ: Why can I link to some of the activity records listed for a client in the activity history list, but not others?
- FAQ: I know a client has had more activity than what I'm seeing in WebCATS. Why are some activity records missing?
- Flash Tutorial: Setting Up User Accounts and Permissions (for Database Administrators)