Access and permissions in Accounting
What you can see and do in Accounting depends on three layers. All three must allow it. When something is missing, go through them in this order.
Layer 1: the module
An administrator switches Accounting on for the whole organisation. When it is off, the Accounting card on the dashboard and every Accounting page are unavailable, and you see Accounting unavailable: "Accounting is not enabled for this tenant. Ask an administrator to enable it."
Two pages also use other modules:
| Page | Also needs |
|---|---|
| Trial balance (scoped version with opening and closing balances) | Reports module and the reports.view permission |
| Profit and loss (monthly breakdown) | Reports module and the reports.view permission |
| Customer statements (finding a customer by name) | Customer lookup access |
Layer 2: permissions
Each menu item has its own permission. Pages you lack a permission for are simply left out of the menu. If you open one from a bookmark, you see "You do not have permission to open this accounting page. Other permitted pages remain available in the navigation."
| Work | Permission |
|---|---|
| See the chart of accounts | accounting.account.view |
| Create an account | accounting.account.create |
| Edit an account | accounting.account.update |
| Deactivate an account | accounting.account.deactivate |
| Look up journals | accounting.journal.view |
| General ledger | accounting.report.general-ledger.view |
| Trial balance | accounting.report.trial-balance.view |
| Balance sheet | accounting.report.balance-sheet.view |
| Profit and loss | accounting.report.profit-loss.view |
| Receivables aging | accounting.ar.aging.view |
| Customer statements | accounting.ar.statement.view |
Example roles at Bright Home Supplies:
| Person | Permissions |
|---|---|
| Farah (accounts) | Account view, create and update; journal view; aging; statements |
| Nadia (finance reviewer) | Account view; journal view; all four reports; aging; statements |
Layer 3: business units
Journals belong to a business unit. Reports and journals only include units you are assigned to (Administration → user business-unit access).
| You choose… | The report includes |
|---|---|
| All business units | Every unit you are assigned to |
| One unit | That unit only, if you are assigned to it |
- If you are assigned to no units, reports fail with "No business-unit access is assigned to this user".
- Opening a journal from a unit you are not assigned to is refused, even with
accounting.journal.view. - The chart of accounts is shared across the whole organisation and is not limited by unit.
- Receivables aging always covers all your units; it has no unit filter.
Example: Nadia's trial balance shows nothing for the new Bright Home warehouse unit. She asks an administrator to assign her to that unit, signs out and in, and runs the report again.
Permissions and unit access are read when you sign in. After an administrator changes them, sign out and back in, or select Refresh access on the Accounting unavailable page.
Next: Chart of accounts.