Custom User Roles

In cases where an organization may want to provide access to some parts of their ContactDrive account, but not others, we’ve added the ability to define custom roles for users. Here’s a few quick steps to get started with custom roles.

Note: All accounts have two user roles by default: Admin and User. These will always be available, custom roles are just for organizations that want to add users with specific limitations or permissions.

Defining Custom Roles

To create new custom roles, login to your account and then go to Account Settings by clicking on your email address in the top right. (Note: You must be an Admin on your account to create or manage user roles.)

Once you’re in Account Settings, click on the Users tab. You’ll see a list of your users followed by a list of outstanding invitations (if any) and then finally a list of User Roles.

To create your first custom user role, click on the green “Create Role” button.

You’ll see a window appear where you can now setup the role. Add a name, short description, and then select the appropriate permissions for this role. A full list of the available permissions is included below.

After setting up your role, click the green “Create Role” button at the bottom of the window.

Now, your role is available both for when you invite new users and want to reassign existing users.

Managing Custom Roles

To reassign an existing user to the new role, go to the list of users in Account Settings and click the dropdown by their name. Select the appropriate role and their permissions will be immediately updated.

Note: Even if the user is logged in, throughout most of the app, their permissions will be instantly updated. However, in some cases they may have to refresh their screen to see all of the appropriate permissions.

Permissions in ContactDrive

Below is a table describing each permission available to use in custom roles and what it does. It is likely that we will expand the available options over time.

Dashboard
Label	Details
View team activity	View activity items posted on the dashboard and on individual contacts.
Create activity posts	Add posts to the activity feed, either for the organization’s Dashboard or individual contacts.
Delete activities	Self-described, hopefully.
Tasks
Label	Details
View tasks	Access Tasks in ContactDrive. Even if a role does not have this permission, they can create tasks via the call app.
Contacts
Label	Details
View contact list	Access to the main Contacts page in ContactDrive.
View single contact	Access to individual contact’s pages.
View contact details	Ability to view a contact’s personal contact information, such as phones, emails or addresses. Note: if the role has this disabled, then it makes it very challenging to use the call app.
Create contacts	Ability to add contacts.
Edit contacts	Ability to update or edit an individual contact’s information.
Delete contacts	Self-described, hopefully.
View restricted contacts	ContactDrive has a feature called “Restricted Contacts” that allows admins to protect the contact information for specific VIPs. This permission gives this user role access to these VIPs.
Import contacts	Ability to add lists of contacts via CSV. While our CSV import tool is (in our humble opinion) amazing, this is a popular permission to restrict because once an import has been completed, it cannot be undone.
Export contacts	Ability to bulk export lists of contacts. Another one worth disabling if data leakage is a concern.
Lists
Label	Details
View all lists	Access to view all of an organization’s lists, including email, SMS and call lists.
View assigned lists	Access to view only those lists to which a user is assigned. Handy for users who are just making calls.
Create lists	If you’re using ContactDrive, you’re a highly intelligent and forward-thinking individual, so you probably get the idea at this point.
Manage lists	Access to management functions for lists, including editing their name, description, which user to whom they are assigned, default SMS message, custom action buttons, syncing, and all the other fun things you can do with lists.
Delete lists	You guessed it.
Reports
Label	Details
View reports	As an aside, can we just say that we’re pretty underwhelmed with where reports are today? If you are too, don’t worry, we’re working on more robust reporting solutions that give you access to the trends and data you need without reinventing the wheel for the gazillion other reporting solutions out there. Oh, and this permission basically turns off Reports, such as they are.
Transactions
Label	Details
View transactions	Access to view transaction information in ContactDrive. Note: If a role has permission to view activity, they will see transaction-related activities even if the permission to view transactions is disabled.
Create transactions	Ability to add new transactions, something some lucky user will hopefully be doing often!
Edit transactions	Maybe not everyone should be able to tinker with existing transactions?
Delete transactions	We thought about just putting a GIF in here of an exploding building, but haven’t had quite that much caffeine today.

Example Roles

With the flexibility provided by the permissions above, we’ve included a few examples below of roles that might be helpful to certain organizations.

Caller
- Use when: You need to give users access to a list of contacts to call, but don’t want them having the run of the place.
- Permissions:
  - View single contact
  - View contact details
  - View assigned lists
Data Entry
- Use when: Someone is helping you keep contacts up-to-date.
- Permissions:
  - View team activity
  - Create activity posts
  - View tasks (if they need to create follow-up tasks for other users)
  - View contact list
  - View single contact
  - View contact details
  - Create contacts
  - Edit contacts
  - Delete contacts
  - View all lists
  - Create lists
  - Manage lists
  - Delete lists

Have other examples of roles that are helpful to you? Let us know and we’ll add them!