Roles

Roles are used in companies that have role-based permissions. Companies with user-based permissions do not use roles.

A role is basically a group of permissions. Roles save time and make it easier to assign the same set of permissions to multiple users and to ensure that permissions are consistent across users. Permissions to perform certain tasks are assigned to specific roles, and roles can then be assigned to users or user groups. You use role-permission-assignment objects to assign permissions to roles.

You can define roles for various job functions. For example, you can assign all Accounts Receivable clerks the same role instead of assigning permissions to each of them individually. Or when an employee leaves the company, you can assign their role to their replacement. This ensures that the new employee has the same permissions.

You can assign more than one role to a user. The user will then have all permissions for each role. For example, you assign Role A and Role B to a user. Role A has permissions that Role B does not. The user has all permissions in Role A plus the ones in Role B. A user can be individually assigned roles and also be part of a group that has a role. The user gets the total permissions from all assigned roles.

If a company uses role-based permissions, you must assign each user to a role or to a user group that's assigned to a role. If a user does not have an associated role, they will not be able to access applications and features.