Users: concepts

Users and groups (roles)

To access the Umana system, uses must provide their user ID and password. This control is added to the Windows security "layers" in light of the increased sensitivity of human resources and payroll data. The user ID defines the access rights. The user may also belong to one or more groups (roles), which also have access rights. Generally, the more different groups users belong to, the more access rights they will have.
For example, as a security administrator, you have defined two roles: PAY and BENEFITS. The PAY role provides access to the gross pay and net pay modules, while the BENEFITS role gives access to the benefits modules. This means that a user who belongs to the two PAY and BENEFITS roles will have access to the payroll and benefits modules.

Why use groups (roles)?

For companies, creating roles and assigning users to these roles offers a more flexible security system when it comes to adding new users or assigning temporary roles during vacation.

Two security dimensions

Access rights for each user or role define the following:

Available modules in which they can add, modify, etc. Access rights to modules also control the input screens and reports;

Available files.

Access rights to modules

The Users window displays a list of the modules with the letters A, D, M and/or I alongside. The letters mean the following:

A - Addition allowed
D - Deletion allowed
M - Modification allowed
I - Interrogation only allowed

(A,D,M imply I as well) For some modules, other letters also apply. For example, in the Job module the letter "S" gives access to salaries. To find out the "other letters" available for a module:

Select the module.
Right-click on the Other field of the window. The pop-up menu is displayed.
Select the Help - field option.

Controlling access to employees

You can define user access to (employee) files by checking the Filters... box.

A dialog box will be displayed and allow you to limit user access according to certain criteria. For example, a user could have an access limited to employees of certain departments (ENTITY1) or having certain statuses.

If a user belongs to multiple groups, he/she has the (union of) access rights of both groups.

For example, if Group A has access to white-collar workers and Group B has access to blue-collar workers, a user in both groups will have access to both white-collar and blue-collar workers.

User ID and password

The user ID may not exceed 20 characters and the password 20 characters.

Passwords may be case-sensitive and have a minimum length and complexity. They may also expire after a certain time. See Options > Application > Security to configure those requirements.

Start off on the right foot

When you install Umana, you have the DEMO user ID to start. You can use this user ID to define security. In other words, you can access the Options: User module.

Obviously, the first thing to do would be to create a new user ID for your system administrator (you) and to assign a different password.

Also, put this new code in the ADMIN group or give access to Options | Users to this user directly.