Last week we looked at the second tab on the dashboard settings screen, Filters. Moving on this week to the third and final tab on the dashboard properties screen we will look at Dashboard Permissions. The Dashboard properties themselves can be accessed by clicking the gear in the top right corner of the dashboard.
Once in the Dashboard properties the permissions tab is accessed by clicking the word ‘Permissions’ as highlighted below.
The topmost setting is where the Dashboard Owner is specified. This setting is very useful in the event that an individual leaves the company but the company wishes to retain ownership of the dashboard. An individual with administrator privileges can open up the dashboard properties here and assign the ownership of the dashboard to someone else in the organization, or assign ownership to themselves. For example if Beth, the AP Clerk, has made a wonderful AP Clerk dashboard when she quits it’s easy to assign her already made dashboard to Toni, the new AP Clerk.
The lower portion of the screen is where permission is granted for users to access the dashboard. When a dashboard is created the default setting is to have it hidden from everyone except the dashboard owner and the administrator. This is evident in the screenshot below by the line stating Access Rights: Deny Group/Everyone.
It is recommended that dashboards be set to only be visible by the dashboard owner during the creation process. Once the dashboard is read to be shared with the rest of the organization simply set the access rights on the Everyone group to ‘Allow’ and save. This is referred to as the dashboard ‘going live’.
Permission can be set on a by group or by user basis. Instead of sharing the dashboard with everyone in the organization perhaps you only wish to share it with one person. In order to grant a single user permission simply select their name from the dropdown and click Add.
Their user information will be added to the Access rights table at the bottom of the screen.
Permissions can be revoked at any time by clicking the garbage can on the right of the user/group you wish to remove.
Due to wide range permissions within the software, elements displayed on one individual’s dashboard may differ from those displayed on the same dashboard for a different user. For example a dashboard is created by Tom which contains a component that displays revenue data. When this dashboard is then shared with Jim, who doesn’t have permission to view revenue data, this component will not be displayed on Jim’s version of the dashboard. Since Jim’s permissions aren’t sufficient to display revenue data he will not even see that dashboard component. The rest of the dashboard will display but the component(s) he doesn’t have access to will be absent. If Tom and Jim were to sit down and compare what they are seeing on the dashboard, it will be different.
