Catalyst allows you to add an unlimited number of users to your account, empowering your team to take control and maintain your environment without limitation. This tutorial teaches you everything you need to know to become familiar with users and user permissions.
This article contains the following topics:
What is a user account?
Users, found under the User Management section within Administration, are accounts for individuals on your team that need access to Catalyst in some way. Each user has a unique username and password and its own set of security permissions.
User security and permissions overview
Catalyst security acts as an umbrella to all tools, screens, and data in the web application. User level security allows an administrator to provide more granular access at any navigation or hierarchical level for an individual user.
Note: Group and User permissions are additive. This means that the higher level permission will take the forefront. An example of this is when a user has Read access for something and also Edit or Write access to that same thing. In this example, the user will get Edit or Write access because it is the higher level permission.
How to add a new user
- Navigate to the Administration tab on the left and select the User tile.
- Click the Add User button at the bottom right.
- Fill out the simple form and click Save.
- We recommend reserving the "Is Client Admin" selection for the highest of administrators on your team. "Is Client Admin" essentially means they can do everything. If this box is checked you do not need to worry about setting their individual permissions. For everyone else, you can set security permissions on the next page.
- We also recommend keeping the "Allow System to Generate Password" box selected. The user will be sent an email (double check spam folder) with login instructions, including a strong password. The user can then change their password upon signing in.
- Groups: Once saved, you'll be able to set various security permissions for this user, starting with adding them to a Group. Groups act as a quick way to define specified or common permissions for a number of users. If you don't have any groups, don't worry, you can create those later. If you've already created Groups and want to add this user to a group, then you can stop there -- their permissions are now set.
- Navigation Permissions: If you're not adding the user to a group, click the next tab over which is called Navigation Permissions. These define which sections (e.g. Planning, Administration, etc.), and subsequent tiles within those sections (e.g. Financial Planning, User Management, etc.), a user can actually see and navigate to. Depending on whether you choose "Read" or "Edit" access for each content area will determine whether or not the user can actually click on and access the corresponding tiles within each section or tab, rather than just being able to see them.
- Hierarchy Permissions: If you've enabled security on a hierarchy, which is done in the Manage Hierarchy page, then you'll need to explicitly grant access to that hierarchy to your users for them to see any data associated with that hierarchy. If the hierarchy does not have security enabled, then it is not necessary to add permissions to it in the hierarchy permissions section.
For this example, let's consider the hierarchy you want to grant access to does have security enabled. To give your user access to it (and its corresponding data), find the level of that hierarchy you want to provide access to in the Hierarchy dropdown. Set your other filter combinations if you want to fine tune the access you're providing. Click Add.
Some reasons why you might want to grant explicit access to a secured hierarchy could be to permit specific users or a group of users access to the data that is tied to the respective hierarchy, such as Company detail, Item detail, Account detail, etc., whether that's in an Excel cube or in the website itself.
Other reasons for needing access to a secured hierarchy is for a user to be able to access the tools found in the Manage Hierarches section in the Administration tab, such as mapping unassigned accounts, adding a new hierarchy, or managing existing hierarchies. - Permission Summary: Once you've established your user's permissions you're done! You can double check the user's permissions and security on the last tab, called the Summary page. This page is useful for understanding what a user has or needs access to in the Catalyst instance.
- Impersonate User: For admins only. Used to impersonate another user to see what they see and reset their password or other settings. To do so, hover on the ellipses menu next to someone's user account and select "Impersonate". You can end impersonation from your user profile menu at the top right of the website.