Who it’s for: Administrators
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 (or access role permissions within your access role)
☑️ Opened the access role you want to update under Settings > Access roles
🖊️ 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.
Overview
Use the Features and Custom actions tabs in an access role to control which modules, settings areas, planner actions, calendar views, reports, and workflow-style actions that role can use.
This article covers:
all permission categories in the Features tab
what each permission does
important permission dependencies
how Custom actions work
🖊️ Related guidance:
Use Manage profile and people permissions in access roles for screen, field, and people-group permissions.
Navigation path
HR Dashboard > Settings > Access roles > [Select role] > Permissions
🖊️ Note:
This article applies to standard and manager-type (advanced) access roles. Limited admin roles use a different permissions setup under the same navigation path. See Create a Limited admin role for guidance on managing those roles.
Open the Features tab
Go to Settings > Access roles.
Click the role you want to edit.
Click Permissions.
Open the Features tab.
The Features tab contains five permission categories:
Users & Data
Settings
Planner actions
Company Calendar
Reports
You can also:
use Search to filter permissions
click Expand all
click Mark all as turned on within a category to enable all permissions in that category
Top-level permissions shown before expanding
Before expanding categories, the main permissions visible are:
View calendar in Company Calendar
View reports in Reports
Create report in Reports
View calendar
Turning on View calendar makes the Calendar module available in the left-hand navigation under HR Dashboard > Calendar.
This is different from a person’s own Planner inside their profile.
View reports
Turning on View reports makes the Reports module available in the left-hand navigation under HR Dashboard > Reports.
🖊️ Profile information dependency note:
When View reports is turned on, Profile information is also turned on automatically. This is because profile information is used in all other report types to link data back to a person.
Create report
Turning on Create report makes the Create button available in the Reports module.
This allows users to create reports from:
HR Dashboard > Reports > CreateHR Dashboard > Reports > [select report type] > Create
When Create report is turned on, View reports and Profile information are also turned on automatically (see profile information dependency note).
Manage Users & Data permissions
Expand Users & Data to manage these permissions:
Add a new employee
Process leaver
Undo leaver
View org. chart
Add a new employee
Turning on Add a new employee makes the Add button available under:
This allows users with that role to follow the process to add a new employee.
Process leaver
Turning on Process leaver allows users with that role to mark a person as a leaver from:
HR Dashboard > People > [Select profile] > More actions (…) > Mark as leaver
Undo leaver
Turning on Undo leaver allows users with that role to reverse leaver status from:
HR Dashboard > People > [Select profile of a leaver] > More actions (…) > Undo leaver
View org. chart
Turning on View org. chart gives access to the full Org chart module under:
Users can only open profiles they already have permission to access. If they click on someone they do not have access to, they will get an Access denied message.
🚧 Known Issue:
In the current system, Add a new employee, Process leaver, and Undo leaver may appear in Standard users roles, but they do not work for standard roles because Standard users do not have access to the People module.
Manage Settings permissions
Expand Settings to manage access to Settings areas and AMI-related capabilities.
Manage dropdown lists
Turning on Manage dropdown lists allows the role to add, edit, and delete dropdown options for fields in screens they can access.
For example, if the role can access a Training screen, they can manage the dropdown list used for training courses in that screen.
Calendar & Planner - General
Turning on Calendar & Planner - General gives access to:
🚧 Known issue:
For the Settings area to be activated for Manager-type (advanced) and Standard roles, Calendar & Planner - General must currently be turned ON. This is planned to be fixed in a future release.
Calendar & Planner - Working hours
Turning on Calendar & Planner - Working hours gives access to:
HR Dashboard > Settings > Calendar & Planner > Working hours with the ability to add and manage working hours configurations
Calendar & Planner - Event manager
Turning on Calendar & Planner - Event manager gives access to:
HR Dashboard > Settings > Calendar & Planner > Event manager with the ability to create and manage bookable events and event types
Time & Attendance configuration
Turning on Time & Attendance configuration gives access to:
Document categories
Turning on Document categories allows the role to add, edit, and delete document categories used when:
creating document templates
adding personal documents
adding company documents
Whether this permission is useful in practice depends on what other document access the role has. For example, the role must also have access to Document templates, Personal documents for the people it can access, and/or Company documents, for document categories to apply.
Document templates
Turning on Document templates gives access to:
Company documents
Turning on Company documents gives access to:
This allows the role to view and add company documents.
Screen designer
Turning on Screen designer gives access to:
HR Dashboard > Settings > Screen Designer (Elite and Enterprise plans only)
This allows the role to create, edit, and delete:
Screens
Profile templates
Access roles
Turning on Access roles gives access to:
This gives the role full admin rights for Access Role Management.
⚠️ Important:
Only grant this permission where absolutely necessary.
Basic AMI
Turning on Basic AMI gives access to the General assistant in the AMI workspace (available via the Product switcher).
If the Product switcher is not available, users may need to go directly to:
https://ami.sensewp.com/ and sign in with their Sense Workplace credentials.
Auto Pilot
Turning on Auto Pilot gives access to AMI document drafting in Document templates under:
🖊️ Dependency note:
Document templates must also be turned on for Auto Pilot to work.
Calendar with AMI
Turning on Calendar with AMI gives access to the HR Calendar agent in the AMI workspace.
Users can access it:
directly in the AMI workspace at https://ami.sensewp.com/
via the product switcher (Sense logo in the upper left of all Sense products)
from the shortcut in HR Dashboard > Calendar
via the Product switcher
🖊️ Dependency note:
For this to work well, the role should also have Company Calendar access turned ON and have access to at least one group of People in the People tab.
Payslip Upload with AMI
Turning on Payslip Upload with AMI gives access to the Payroll agent in the AMI workspace.
Users can access it:
directly in the AMI workspace at https://ami.sensewp.com/
from the shortcut in HR Dashboard > Documents, if Company documents is also turned on
via the Product switcher
Expenses with AMI
Turning on Expenses with AMI gives access to Expenses with AMI for automated expense reviews under:
HR Dashboard > To Do > [Expense review category]
Reports with AMI
Turning on Reports with AMI gives access to Analyse with AMI in the Reports module.
🖊️ Dependency note:
View reports must also be turned on for this to work.
Manage Planner actions permissions
Expand Planner actions to control what a role can do in the personal planner for profiles that they have access to under:
HR Dashboard > People > [Select profile] > Planner
The permissions in this category are:
Manage planner settings
Edit past events
Delete past events
Add own sickness
Add attendance
Edit attendance
Manage planner settings
Turning on Manage planner settings allows users with that role to edit planner settings under:
HR Dashboard > People > [Select profile] > Planner > Settings
Or for standard roles, under:
HR Dashboard > Name/Avatar dropdown (upper right) > Manage profile > Planner > Settings
This includes actions such as:
assigning or updating working hours configurations
editing entitlements
updating other individual planner settings
For Standard users, this applies to their own profile.
For manager-type roles, this applies to the people they have access to.
Edit past events
Turning on Edit past events allows users with that role to edit past events in the personal planner.
Delete past events
Turning on Delete past events allows users with that role to delete past events in the personal planner.
Add own sickness
Turning on Add own sickness allows users with that role to add, edit, or delete their own sickness directly in the personal planner.
🖊️ Note:
This is different from the Dashboard sickness widget, which can be enabled for all users under HR Dashboard > Settings > Calendar & Planner > General. The Dashboard sickness widget lets employees notify their manager that they are absent today. Add own sickness lets users with the relevant role record sickness directly in their own planner without manager acknowledgement.
Add attendance
Turning on Add attendance allows users with that role to add attendance events in the personal planner.
Edit attendance
Turning on Edit attendance allows users with that role to edit or delete attendance events in the personal planner.
Manage Company Calendar permissions
Expand Company Calendar to control whether a role can access the Calendar module and what they can see there.
This category includes:
View calendar
Who they can see
Who are they going to have access to?
What can they see?
View calendar
Turning on View calendar makes the Calendar module available under:
Who they can see
This section controls which groups the role can see in the Company Calendar.
Options include:
Everyone
Their team
Their department
Their location
Their subcompany
Turning on one of these options gives the role access to that group’s events in the Company Calendar.
Who are they going to have access to?
This section lets you refine calendar access further by assigning or excluding specific people or groups.
It includes:
Assign people — search and assign people that this role can see in the Company Calendar
Exclude people — search and exclude people that this role should not be able to see in the Company Calendar
What can they see?
This section controls which event types and event details the role can see for the people they have access to.
It includes:
Sickness
Turning on Sickness allows the role to see sickness events in the Company Calendar.
You can then choose how sickness is displayed:
Hide sick reason — sickness is shown, but the reason is hidden
Show sick reason — sickness is shown with the reason displayed
Show as unavailable — the person is shown only as unavailable,
without showing sickness
Attendance data
Turning on Attendance data allows the role to see attendance records in the Company Calendar for the people they have access to.
Events
Use Events to search and select which event types this role can see in the Company Calendar for the people they have access to.
Manage Reports permissions
Expand Reports to control access to the Reports module and individual report categories.
This category includes:
View reports
Create report
individual report category permissions
View reports
Turning on View reports makes the Reports module available under:
HR Dashboard > Reports
It also automatically turns ON access to the Profile information report (see profile information dependency note).
🖊️ Report access note:
Report access respects the role’s people access. For manager-type roles, this means report visibility is limited to the people groups the role can access. Standard users are limited to their own data only.
Only administrator roles can see reports created by other users. Standard users and manager-type roles can only access reports they created themselves.
Create report
Turning on Create report makes the Create button available in the Reports module.
It also automatically turns ON:
View reports
Profile information report (see profile information dependency note)
🖊️ Note:
If a role is given permission to Create reports and that permission is later removed, any reports previously created by users with that role will still remain available to administrators.
Individual report categories
Below the top-level report permissions, the Reports category shows every type of report in your system.
You can turn each report type ON or OFF individually.
🖊️ Note:
The list of report types may vary between systems. For example, on Elite and Enterprise plans, additional report categories may appear if your organisation has added screens through Screen Designer, deployed workflows through Automate, or added hardware via Presence.
Open the Custom actions tab
Use the Custom actions tab to control whether a role can start available custom actions.
Go to Settings > Access roles.
Select the role you want to edit.
Click Permissions.
Open Custom actions.
The tab lists every custom action available in your system with an individual toggle.
Manage custom actions
Each row in Custom actions shows the name of a custom action that can be made available to that role.
Standard actions in every system
The only custom actions that are expected in every system are:
Send login invite
Send verification code
Other custom actions
Additional custom actions vary by system.
These may come from workflows or other custom setup.
Turn each action ON or OFF depending on whether the role should be able to use it.
Understand how custom actions are launched
Custom actions are launched from employee records.
For manager-type (advanced) roles with access to People, custom actions can usually be started from:
the People list, by selecting one or more people and using the action bar
HR Dashboard > Peoplea person’s profile, using More actions
HR Dashboard > People > [select profile] > More actions (...) menu
For Standard users, custom actions are effectively limited to their own profile, because Standard users do not have access to the People module.
That means standard roles can start custom actions only from:
HR Dashboard > Name/Avatar dropdown (upper right) > Manage profile > More actions (…) menu (upper right)
Important behaviour and dependencies summary
A few feature permissions depend on other settings or system behaviour.
Reports dependencies
View reports automatically turns on Profile information
Create report automatically turns on View reports and Profile information (see profile information dependency note)
Reports with AMI (Analyse with AMI) requires View reports
Settings dependencies
Document templates must be turned on before Auto Pilot (Document drafting with AMI) works
Company documents should also be turned ON if you want users to access Payslip Upload with AMI (Payroll agent) from the Documents shortcut
💡 Tip:
When managing access roles, it may be helpful to keep a test profile available that you can assign to different roles. This helps you confirm what each role can actually see and do before assigning it to real users.
FAQs
Click here to view answers to frequently asked questions
Click here to view answers to frequently asked questions
Q: Why can’t a user see the Calendar module?
A: The reason a user can’t see the Calendar module is usually that View calendar is turned off for their assigned access role.
Q: Why can’t a user see the Reports module?
A: The reason a user can’t see the Reports module is usually that View reports is turned off for their assigned access role.
Q: Why can’t a user create reports?
A: The reason a user can’t create reports is that Create report is turned off for their assigned access role, even if View reports is on.
Q: Why doesn’t a Settings permission seem to work?
A: The reason a Settings permission may not seem to work is usually that another required permission is missing. For example, access to the Settings module currently depend on Calendar & Planner - General being turned ON (known issue), and some AMI permissions depend on another feature already being enabled. Check the Manage feature permissions and custom actions for standard and advanced access roles article for dependencies.