Each user is assigned a category, a role, and a level - these determine what the user can do. Each user also has a login name and password and various other settings discussed below. Users are set up and maintained via Administration|Users.
User Groups can also be created via Administration|Groups. These are used only to allow messages to be sent to multiple users and cannot be used to set categories and rolls for groups of users.
Categories
The system comes with four, administrator, clinician, nurse and reception - but more can be added using Administration|Lookups|User Types. A user can belong to more that one category - ie it is quite logical for someone to be both a clinician and an administrator.
Administrators get an extra 'Administration' entry in the top menu line which allows access to the various administration functions. In addition, the following other functions are made available to Administrators (and are not available to non-administrators):
Only users set as clinicians are displayed in the 'Clinician' pull-down list shown on various screens. Note that as well as setting all vets as clinicians, it may be appropriate to set some some nursing staff as clinicians.
Roles
The role defines what the user can do. The system comes with only one, administrator, who can do everything, and the facility to add a Base Role (which should be given to all users) and a Stock Control role (which should be given to users who have logistics responsibilities). You can also add more using Administration|Roles. A user can have one or more roles.
Each role can have zero or more 'authorities'. A complete set comes with the system, but if necessary these can be maintained using Administration|Authorities. The authorities are split into areas with a create, save (ie modify), and delete for each area.
For example for Customer there are:
Customer All Acts Authorities (which includes all the following)
Customer Adjustment Authorities
Customer Alert Authorities
Customer Balance Authorities
Customer Charges Authorities
Customer Charges Items Authorities
Customer Document Authorities
Customer Estimation Authorities
Customer Note Authorities
Customer Party Authorities
Customer Payment Authorities
Customer Refund Authorities
Thus, potentially one can have very fine grain control.
It is also possible to create a role that can create and save everything, but delete nothing. You may want to use this to prevent anyone except the administrators from deleting things.
At an absolute minimum a user must have a role that includes the following authorities: Entity Links Create, Entity Links Save, Preferences Entity Create, and Preferences Entity Save. A user with a role containing just these authorities will be able to log on and look at things but will be unable to add or update any data.
Levels
Each user has a 'level' from 0 to 9. Reports also have a level. A user cannot run a report with a level higher than their own.
Login
All users have a Login Name and a Password. Note that:
Names and Descriptions
All users have a name and a description. The name can be anything, eg GB, George Brown, or Dr George Brown. However, there is benefit in using short names (like GB), particularly for clinicians, because it makes it easier to quickly enter the clinician. This is particularly easy if each clinician's name starts with a different letter. If you are using short names, then the user's description should be set to the full name, eg Dr George Brown or even Dr George Brown BSc(Vetbiol), BVMS(Hons). This can then be displayed on forms and certificates.
Colours
All users have a 'colour' which determines how their names are highlighted on certain screens - notably the Scheduling and Work List screens. By default it is black on white. Different colours are really only necessary for clinicians since it is only clinician names that are highlighted.