Restricting Historical Access for Users

[COBS Tech Support]

There are many different ways to restrict which parts of the system users may access. This article describes several different approaches and options available to you that are more commonly applied. This article does not describe all security access features, in particular certain advanced features.

Limit Users Ability to Change Transactions Backwards In Time

This can be done via the "Time" access setting on the user's security profile. To access the user's security profile:

1. Click on Maintenance near bottom left corner of the application.
2. Locate and click on Passwords access.
3. Log in with your administrator password.
4. Locate the user whose access you wish to limit or amend and press Edit.
5. Click on Management Access tab and locate the "Time" column.
6. Change the "Time" setting to the maximum number of days in the past you wish users to amend transactions, for the applicable area. For example, Invoicing.
7. Then press Save to save your changes.

Lock a Users Previous Period Access

In the same area as described above, you may opt to prevent users from automatically changing transactions in the previous month. In some cases, you may find this approach too restrictive, in which case the approach described in the next section may be preferable.

To prevent users from editing transactions in a previous period tick Lock Prior Periods for that user's security profile.

To prevent users from forward dating transactions, tick Lock Future Periods as well.

You may also limit access to all transactions or only 'financial' transactions. A 'financial' transaction is defined in this case as a transaction that directly impacts on your profit and loss or balance sheet. Other types of transactions do not directly change these accounts, so are considered as non 'financial' at least in the direct sense. A non 'financial' transaction in this sense would be a purchase order or quotation.

To ensure that only direct 'financial' transaction access will be restricted, do the following:

1. Click on Maintenance near bottom left corner of the application.
2. Click on the Customise icon (near top left).
3. From the menu select Install Settings|Security.
4. Change Lock Periods Range to "Financial"
5. Press Save.

Note: for changes to take affect all users must close their running copies of the software and you must close and restart the software on the same computer where you made the above changes.

Lock a Finalised Accounting Period

If you have finished working in a particular period or month, you may lock the entire period. This will prevent anyone from changing the transactions in that period.

1. Open the General Ledger area.
2. From the menu select Record|Open Year.
3. Lock the period you wish to 'close' by ticking under the 'Lock' column.
4. When you are done, press Open.

Note: You may return to this area and reopen a closed month if you decide you do need to continue to work on transactions in the period of coverage.

Tip: To lock all transactions in a prior financial year tick the Lock Previous setting as well.

Locking Access By Individual Account or Record

You may also limit user access to particular accounts or records by setting the access level of the account or record to a higher access level than the one assigned to the user. Consult the section at the top of this article which describes how to access a user's security profile.

Next review the 'Access Level' setting assigned to the user. An access level of 9 gives a user full administrator access to the system. Most, although not all, security access restrictions do not apply to such users. Other access levels (0-8) are somewhat arbitrary and up to you to define as required by the needs of your business.

The key point here is that a user cannot access a record or account if their access level is lower than the access level of the account or record. For example, if you wished to restrict access to certain credit card or bank accounts for users with an access level below 8, you would go to the Cash Manager account, locate its 'Access Level' setting and assign it to level 8.

You may assign specific access levels to:

* Customers
* Suppliers
* Cashbooks
* Assets
* Card files
* Individual record fields, such as those found on stock, customers (i.e., credit limit) and so on.