Set up users with licenses and access levels

Transcript

People like the heart of making any initiative a success. Setting up and using Workfront is no different. If you want users to create, edit, and access assets, work assignments, updates, et cetera in Workfront, you need to make sure they are set up with licenses and access levels, because no matter who it is, a user needs a license and an access level to use Workfront.

When an organization purchases Workfront, they purchase user licenses. Those licenses determine the basic rights a user has when they log into Workfront, meaning what they can see and do. For example, in a department, there’s typically a department head, team manager, and team members.

Each person has their own unique needs to do their part of the work. And licenses tell the system what each user should be able to see and do while in Workfront in order to get their part completed.

There are several types of licenses available. Here we’re going to talk about the most commonly used, plan and work.

A plan license grants the highest level of access and visibility within Workfront. It’s typically reserved for someone who creates, manages, and analyzes work.

Someone like a project manager or a team lead. This way they can create and edit different objects, like projects, reports, teams, et cetera as needed.

On the other hand, someone like a graphic designer doesn’t need to manage an entire project or coordinate every request or work item that’s sent to their team. They just need to get the work done and inform managers of their progress. These users, in most cases, get a work license because not only does it cap what the user can do in Workfront, but it simplifies their experience to what is necessary for them to get their work done.

All of that is determined by licenses, and the way to apply licenses to users is through an access level.

An access level does two things. It applies a license to a user so they can log into Workfront and it permits you to further customize what a user can see and do in Workfront instead of giving users those basic license rights. For example, a group administrator and a project manager both start with the same license type, but typically, a project manager isn’t going to be doing the same things as a group administrator. They play different roles, have different goals, and decisions to make. By creating an access level with different rights for each, you can establish order and prevent issues that may otherwise occur.

Let’s find the access level area and create one to show how customization can help.

You’ll find access levels in the setup area. To get there, go to the main menu, click setup, and scroll down until you find the access level section.

From here, you’ll see other available access levels. By default, the system provides access levels based on license types. It’s recommended that you look at these access levels before creating any new ones to see if they fit your needs.

If however, the access levels listed do not fit your needs, you can create a new one.

To do that, click the new access level button, and the new access level window appears. First, give the access level a name, this is required if you plan on saving it.

From here, you get an initial look at the rights given for each license type. Those are highlighted in blue, and change as you switch from license to license.

By default, the plan license is selected and the option of edit is highlighted next to almost every object listed. This means a user has full editing access to those objects, but there are two other options available, view and no access, that can be selected to refine what a user with this access level can do. For example, let’s say an organization has 150 project managers and only 10 of those project managers need to create and share reports and portfolios. So, for the 140 project managers left, the edit option for reports and portfolios should be changed.

So, next to the report object, switch the option from edit to either view, which still gives the user the ability to see the reports area, but not create or edit reports or no access, which prevents access to the reports area altogether. Do the same thing for the portfolio object.

You can of course, go through all the objects and make changes where necessary.

When done, click save at the bottom.

There is no limit to the number of access levels you can create, but it’s recommended that you create as few as possible for easier maintenance and management of users within the system. It’s also recommended that you and your team map out what projects, reports, and other various features managers and team members need to do their work before creating access levels. That way you can save yourself time and frustration because you don’t have to delete and redo what you created in Workfront.

With licenses and access levels set up, you’re ready to begin creating and importing users, and increase the chances that the right people get assigned to the right work.