How are Roles used and how are they connected to the Directory?

Roles and the Directory are directly linked in Contractor Foreman. The Directory is where you create and manage all your contacts, which are employees, contractors, vendors, customers, leads, and any miscellaneous contacts.

Also, it’s also where you can create user accounts for your employees and contractors by allowing login access so they can login to their own accounts under your company. So, what is the relationship between creating users in the Directory and Roles?

• Allowing login access enables an employee or a contractor to access Contractor Foreman with their own account with a username and password. When you allow login access to someone, that person becomes a user. To allow login access, you need to give that person a username and a password, and most importantly, you need to assign a role.
• The Role you assign defines that user’s permissions, controlling what data and features they can access and interact with. Roles ensure that users are restricted to what is relevant to their specific job, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information like financials or company settings.

For example, imagine you’ve hired “John” as a new estimator for your company, and you need John to have his own user account under your company. But you want to restrict his access to some modules, such as Invoices and Schedules, while allowing access to the Estimates module and Cost Items. This is where Roles come into play!

You can create a Role called “Estimator” and customize how much access you need to give to your estimators under Roles settings (click here to see how you can create and manage roles). For example, let’s assume you create a role named “Estimator” and decide to give access to the Estimates module and Cost Items but restrict access to Invoices and Schedule modules for that role.

Now you add John to the Directory as an employee and create a user account for him by allowing login access. You can setup a username and a password, and then you assign the “Estimator” role for John’s account.

Now when he logs in, his access will be limited to the areas you defined under the Estimator Role. Such as allowed access for the Estimates module and Cost Items, while they won’t be able to access Invoices and Schedule modules.