Objective:

To understand the assorted roles (or permissions) that can be assigned to individuals in PolicyStat.

Environment:

Within the PolicyStat product.

Additional Information:

Only Site Administrators can assign elevated permissions.
- For more information on setting user permissions, please see this article.
Roles / permissions can be assigned to an individual user on their profile or in bulk to multiple users for an Area.
User accounts can be provisioned through integrations with Single Sign-On providers or your local Active Directory.
Some terms or role names may differ for your location, but the concepts are universal.
Roles are not mutually exclusive.
- An Owner can also be an Approver. PolicyStat’s best practice is to have the Owner serve as the first Approver on a Workflow.
- An Area Manager can be an Owner provided the user has been granted permissions for both roles.
Users can proxy for another user. For more on serving as a proxy, see this article.
Users can only view pending and draft documents in Areas they have been assigned permissions to Edit.

Answer:

There are 9 assorted user "roles" or permissions Guest, Staff, User, Owner, Collaborator, Approver, Area Editor, Area Manager, and Site Administrator. Any of these permissions are assigned by a user with Site Administrator permissions.

Role	What Does The Role Do?	How is this assigned?	What documents can I edit?	Where can I find Knowledge Base help?
Guest	View and read a single policy (e.g. Vendor, Lawyer, Auditor, etc.)	Guest is provided a Read-Only Policy Sharing Link specific to a policy.	No edit permissions.	Not Applicable
Staff	Search for, view, and read any non-restricted policies across PolicyStat	Staff are provided a Global Guest Access link.	No edit permissions.	Searching
User	Search for, view, and read any non-restricted policies across PolicyStat Acknowledge an assigned policy	A User account is created to login to PolicyStat.	No edit permissions.	PolicyStat 101 Searching How to Acknowledge a Policy
Owner	Edit any policies for which they are designated as the Owner Edit their own documents Start the review process Approve if included in the workflow Comment during collaboration Retire policies (if allowed by Site Administrator)	The User is assigned as an Owner for at least one policy.	Edit and manage their policies, drafts, and pending documents.	PolicyStat 101 Introductory PolicyStat Education (Webinar) Editor 101: Basics (Webinar) Editor 201: Advanced (Webinar) Working with Word (Webinar)
Collaborator	Read and review a policy in a pending status Review comments made by other collaborators on a pending policy Add comments to a pending policy Invite other Users to collaborate on a pending policy	Any Users involved in the review process (e.g. Approver, Collaborator, etc.) can invite another User to collaborate through the comments section of a pending policy.	No edit permissions, but Collaborators can comment on pending documents and suggest changes.	Comments and Collaboration Collaboration and Commenting (Webinar)
Approver	Review and approve or edit policies as part of an Approval Workflow Edit a pending policy if they are part of the Approval Workflow Cannot start the Approval process or create drafts from active documents	User is assigned to a step in an Approval Workflow.	Edit pending documents for which they are on the Approval Workflow during their step.	Approval Workflows Comments and Collaboration Approver Focused Training (Webinar) Collaboration and Commenting (Webinar) Editor 101: Basics (Webinar) Editor 201: Advanced (Webinar)
Area Editor	Create new or edit any existing policies within the assigned Area(s) View Restricted policies within their Area (or site-wide)	A user is assigned create/edit permissions for a given Area or site-wide (if desired).	Create and Edit new, existing, and pending documents within their area(s).	Help with Creating New/Editing Existing Policies Introductory PolicyStat Education (Webinar) Editor 101: Basics (Webinar) Editor 201: Advanced (Webinar) Working with Word (Webinar)
Area Manager	Create new or edit any existing policies within the assigned Area(s) Oversee and manage policies within assigned Area Assign and view Acknowledgments for any policy in their Area View restricted policies within their Area (or site-wide) Retire policies (if allowed by Site Administrator) Create and Edit User Groups Cannot manage users or other settings and permissions PLEASE NOTE: Users are frequently granted Area Manager permissions when Area Editor permissions are sufficient. Area Managers are notified about ALL actions and requirements for ALL policies in their assigned Area. This can result in unnecessary confusion about ownership or responsibilities.	A user is assigned create/edit/manage permissions for a given Area or site-wide (if desired).	Create and Edit new, existing, and pending documents within their area(s).	Help with Creating New/Editing Existing Policies Acknowledgments Introductory PolicyStat Education (Webinar) Editor 101: Basics (Webinar) Editor 201: Advanced (Webinar) Working with Word (Webinar) Acknowledgments (Webinar)
Site Administrator	Create new or edit any existing policies within any Area(s) Oversee and manage any Areas via reports and notifications Assign and view Acknowledgments for any policy in their Area View restricted policies site-wide Create, edit, and manage Areas, Approval Workflows, User profiles/permissions, and User Groups Perform policy overrides Retire and delete policies Reinstate retired policies Produce reports	A User is assigned Site Administrator permissions site-wide.	Create, Edit, and Override new, existing, and pending documents on the site(s) they have administrative privileges.	Help with Creating New/Editing Existing Policies Help for Site Administrators Introductory PolicyStat Education (Webinar) Editor 101: Basics (Webinar) Editor 201: Advanced (Webinar) Working with Word (Webinar) Acknowledgments (Webinar) Site Administrator 101: 3 Pillars of PolicyStat (Webinar) Site Administrator 201: Policy Management (Webinar) Site Administrator 301: Reports(Webinar)