Who this guide is for: Administrators (see access roles note)
Platform: Sense HR
Available on: Professional, Elite, and Enterprise plans
Before you begin
Make sure you’ve:
☑️ Logged in to the Sense HR web app
☑️ Been assigned administrator permissions
☑️ Opened the access role you want to update under Settings > Access roles
☑️ Understood whether you are editing a standard-user-type role or a manager-type (advanced) role
🖊️ Access roles note:
Access to Settings > Access roles is usually limited to Administrators, but it can also be given to other roles if needed. This should only be done where absolutely necessary, as access role settings affect visibility and permissions across the whole system.
💡 Tip:
When creating or updating access roles, it can be helpful to keep a test profile that you can assign to different roles. This allows you to check what each role can actually see and do before assigning it to real users.
Overview
Use the Own profile and People permission areas to control what a role can access in employee profiles.
These permissions allow you to control access at two levels:
screen level — whether the role can view, update, add, or delete records in a screen
field level — whether the role can view or edit specific fields inside that screen
This article explains how to manage:
Own profile permissions for a user’s own profile
People permissions for manager-type (advanced) roles
field-level permissions
additional people groups
previewing screens before saving
🖊️ Related guidance:
For module, feature, report, and workflow-action permissions, see Manage feature permissions and custom actions.
Navigation path
HR Dashboard > Settings > Access roles > [Select role] > Permissions
Understand which tabs are available
The permissions tabs you see depend on the type of role you are editing.
Standard users roles
Standard users roles include:
Own profile
Features
Custom actions
Manager-type roles
Manager-type roles include:
Own profile
People
Features
Custom actions
🖊️ Note:
The People tab is only available for manager-type roles.
Manage Own profile permissions
Use Own profile to control what users with this role can see and do in their own profile.
Open Settings > Access roles.
Select the role you want to edit.
Click Permissions.
Open the Own profile tab.
You’ll see a list of profile screens.
For each screen, you can control:
View
Update
Add
Delete
Field permissions
Preview screen
Understand screen-level permissions
Screen-level permissions control access to the screen as a whole.
View
Allows the user to see the information in that screen.
Update
Allows the user to edit existing information in that screen.
Add
Allows the user to add new records where the screen supports them.
Examples include:
adding a new record in a table-type screen
adding a new document
adding a new To Do
adding a planner event
Delete
Allows the user to delete records where the screen supports them.
🖊️ Note:
For form-type screens, Add and Delete do not apply in the same way as they do for multi-record screens, because form screens do not store multiple records.
Important behaviour: access roles and profile templates
Access roles control what a user can see and do, but if a screen is not included in the person’s profile template, those permissions will not apply to that screen in that profile, unless its added later via Screen Designer (Elite and Enterprise plans only).
For example:
If a role does not have permission to view a screen, none of the fields on that screen are visible, even if the data is populated.
If the role can view the screen but not a specific field, the screen still appears, while that field stays hidden.
If a screen is not included in the person’s profile template, it will not appear in their profile, even if their access role includes permission to view it, unless it is added later via Screen designer (Elite and Enterprise plans only).
Manage field-level permissions
Use Field permissions when you want to restrict access to specific fields inside a screen.
This is useful when the role should see the screen, but not every field in it.
To manage field-level permissions:
In Own profile or People, find the screen you want to refine.
Click Field permissions.
In the dialog window, turn View and Edit on or off for each field.
Click Done to save.
🖊️ Note:
Field-level permissions do not apply to Overview, To do, Planner, or Documents as they are system screens.
Important behaviour: field-level permission dependencies
Field-level permissions sit underneath the main screen permissions.
Main-screen View must be ON for field-level View to be turned ON.
Main-screen Update or Add must be ON for field-level Edit to be turned ON.
Important behaviour: field permissions are removed automatically
If you turn off View or Update/Add for a screen after setting field-level permissions, the corresponding View or Edit field-level settings are automatically removed after clicking Done
🖊️ Note:
After field-level permissions have been added, a green dot appears next to Field permissions on that screen to show they are active.
Preview a screen
Use Preview screen for a dynamic preview of how the screen will appear and behave with the current screen and field-level permissions.
This is useful for checking:
which fields are visible
which fields are editable
how the screen looks and behaves for the user role before saving
🖊️ Tip:
Use Preview screen whenever you apply granular field restrictions, especially on larger screens.
Manage People permissions
Use the People tab to control what manager-type (advanced) roles can access in other people’s profiles.
Open Settings > Access roles.
Select a manager-type (advanced) role.
Click Permissions.
Open the People tab.
At the top of the tab, you’ll see the list of people groups this role can access.
Examples may include:
Their Team (default for Managers)
Their team including indirect reportee (default for Manager with Indirect reports)
custom groups added by your organisation
Click a group name to open its permissions.
Inside the group, the permission structure works the same way as Own profile:
View
Update
Add
Delete
Field permissions
Preview screen
Add another people group
Use Add another group when a manager-type (advanced) role needs access to additional people outside its default reporting group.
This allows you to create a separate people group with its own permissions.
Add a new group
In the People tab, click Add another group.
Enter a Group name.
(Optional) Turn ON Enable full document access to give to the role admin level access to the documents of all the people in the filter group.
Click Next.
Search and select the people or filters to include.
Optionally use Exclude people to remove specific people or groups.
Use View filtered results to check the result.
Click Save.
✅ The new group is added to the People tab.
Understand how People group filters work
When selecting people for a group:
filters from different categories work as an AND rule
filters from the same category work as an OR rule
Example 1
Head Office + Sales
Result: people in Head Office and in Sales
Example 2
Head Office + Sales + Marketing
Result: people in Head Office and in Sales or Marketing
This would not include Sales or Marketing employees in other locations.
Use Exclude people carefully
Use Exclude people when you want to include a large group, but remove selected individuals or smaller groups from it.
For example, you might:
include the whole company or include a full location
then exclude senior leaders or specific named people
Important behaviour: avoid overlapping groups
Take particular care when adding multiple people groups to the same role.
If the same person is included in more than one group, it can create conflicting permissions.
⚠️ Important:
Plan people groups carefully so that one person does not fall into multiple groups within the same access role.
Tips for managing profile and people permissions safely
Start with screen-level permissions, then use field-level permissions only where needed.
Use Preview screen to check the result before finishing.
Be intentional when mixing Add, Update, and field-level Edit permissions.
Check profile template setup if a screen still does not appear as expected (Elite and Enterprise plans only)
Avoid overlapping people groups in the same role.
Use clear people group names so future admins can understand what each group is for.
FAQs
Click here to see answers to frequently asked questions
Click here to see answers to frequently asked questions
Q: Why can’t a user see a screen?
A: The reason a user can’t see a screen is usually that their access role does not have permission to view it. On Elite and Enterprise plans using Screen Designer, it may also be because the screen is not included in that person’s profile template.
Q: Why can a user see a screen but not all the fields in it?
A: The reason a user can see a screen but not all the fields in it is that field-level permissions are hiding specific fields, even though the screen itself is visible.
Q: Why don’t field-level Edit permissions work in access roles?
A: The reason field-level Edit permissions don’t work is that the main screen Update or Add permission is not enabled.
Q: Why is there a green dot next to Field permissions in access roles?
A: The reason there is a green dot next to Field permissions is that field-level permissions are active for that screen.
Q: Why can a manager-type (advanced) role see the wrong people?
A: The reason a manager-type role can see the wrong people is usually that the role’s people scope or group setup needs updating.
🖊️ Note: Take particular care when adding multiple people groups to the same role. If the same person is included in more than one group, it can create conflicting permissions.