In the build-up and preparation for a move to Acumatica, one very important component is setting security in the system to make sure users are seeing and have access to only what they should. Most legacy systems have some form of security and Acumatica can match and offer new security options beyond most legacy systems.
It’s Time to “Role” out the Barrel
Security in Acumatica is set at the User level and done through the use of User Roles. A role is just a grouping of access rights to system objects like forms and form elements. Access rights can be set to allow access to a particular form or report, revoke access removing it from the user’s menu, or provide for View Only access where data can be seen but not changed. User security is set then by assigning a role or multiple roles to a particular user. The use of roles allows for any changes in security to be made and will automatically be applied to all users who have that role selected.
The grouping of objects within a role can be done to meet your security needs. Often, a role will represent access to a certain module within Acumatica like Inventory or Financials. Out of the box, Acumatica provides standard roles for the Financial areas of the system including Banking, Finance, Payables, and Receivables. These can be used as-is or adjusted to meet your particular needs.
A role can range from setting a user’s access to everything they will need to use in Acumatica, spanning multiple modules, and access rights to having just one very specific function within Acumatica. If there is a form or even a particular action you want to assign to specific, handpicked users, Acumatica can handle that. A role can be set up that does just one job, like granting full access to enter Inventory Adjustments, or allowing for the release of invoices and you can assign that role to the user(s) whom you want to have that ability.
What can’t a role do?
Acumatica does not limit you to just the forms themselves. Yes, you can change access to any form like the Customer or Stock Item screen, revoking or granting access to it, but you have complete control over all the elements within the form. Any particular data field like a credit limit on the customer screen can have its access rights adjusted. Any action on the form like the Write Off-Balance action on the Customer form can be adjusted to have different access than other elements on the form. So if you want your sales staff to have access to edit customers, but want to limit some fields and actions to your accounting department like changing credit limits, Acumatica can handle it.
Roles are also used to control access to company or branch data. If you have multiple companies and/or branches within Acumatica, the company or branch can have a role assigned to it that will control which users can see the individual branch or company data.
Other security options
Security doesn’t stop with roles in Acumatica. Some data, like customers and vendors, is shared among branches. You may just want a user to see customers for their specific branch. You may want to outside of companies or branches restrict certain rows or records, individual or particular groups of customers or vendors, within a form from some users but allow other users to see all records. Perhaps, certain vendors, you might just want the accounting department to see but not users doing Inventory purchasing. Acumatica has you covered here as well with the use of Restriction Groups.
Restriction Groups give you the flexibility to assign users access to individual vendors for example or vendors of a particular vendor class while blocking access to others. Restriction groups are available for most of the major Masterfile forms including GL Accounts, Vendors, Items, and customers.
Interested in learning more?
Join us on November 18th, 2020 at 1 pm est. for a webinar overview of Acumatica’s Distribution Edition. We will answer any and all questions you have about Acumatica and its security options.
