Documentation

# Permissions

# Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Permission reference
  3. What each action needs
  4. Read versus Read summary
  5. How permissions are assigned
  6. Administrators
  7. What the user sees in the screens
  8. Related documents

# Overview

Every record in ContactManager — a folder, contact, employee, activity, matter, document — has its own list of permissions: which users and roles may do what with it. A user's access to a record is the combination of:

  • the permissions given to the user directly, and to every role the user is a member of;
  • the permissions set on the record itself;
  • the permissions inherited from the record's parent (usually the folder it is in, or the contact it belongs to), unless inheritance is switched off on the record.

A permission is always checked on a specific record. There is no global "may change all contacts" permission — the effect of such a setting comes from giving the permission on a high-level folder and letting it inherit down.

This page is about these per-record permissions. Settings that restrict a feature to a role (the settings whose names end in Role) are a separate mechanism, described in Roles Used in Settings.

# Permission reference

These are the permissions shown in the permission screens.

Permission What it allows
Owner Everything on the record: read, change, remove, see and change its permissions, create items in it. See the table below for the few exceptions.
Read See all fields of the record.
Read summary See only the summary fields of the record (name and a few key fields — see Read versus Read summary).
Change Change fields of the record.
Remove Delete the record.
Read Permissions See who has which permissions on the record.
Change Permissions Add or remove permissions on the record, and switch inheritance on or off.
List items See which items are in a folder.
Create new items Create a new item (contact, activity, …) in a folder.
Remove items from folder Remove a shortcut from a folder.
Create new folder Create a subfolder.
Change Folder Change the properties of a folder (name, …).
Remove Folder Delete a folder.
Change Important Information Change the protected "important" fields of a contact, such as the company name. Which fields are protected is set in ChangeCompanyNamePermissionFields — see Protected fields.
Change Marketing Information Change the marketing fields of a contact, such as interests, industries and segments. Which fields these are is set in MarketingPermissionFields — see Protected fields.
Verify Mark a contact as verified (sets Verified by and Verified on).

There is also an Administration permission. It cannot be given in the permission screens; it is held by the built-in System and Administrator users and by the Administrators role. See Administrators.

# Which permission also grants another

Some permissions include others. A user who has a permission in the right-hand column automatically has the permission in the left-hand column.

Permission Also granted by
Read Owner, Change
Read summary Owner, Change, Read
List items Owner, Change, Read
Change Owner
Remove Owner
Read Permissions Owner, Change Permissions
Change Permissions Owner
Remove items from folder Owner, Remove
Create new items Owner only
Create new folder Owner, Administration
Change Folder Owner, Administration
Remove Folder Administration only
Change Important Information Owner
Change Marketing Information Owner
Verify Owner

Points that are easy to miss:

  • Change does not grant Create new items. A user who may change everything in a folder still cannot create a new contact in it without Create new items (or Owner).
  • Owner does not grant Remove Folder. Only administrators can delete a folder, unless Remove Folder is given explicitly.
  • Change Permissions does not grant Read or Change. A user who may edit a record's permissions does not automatically see or change the record's fields — but the user can give those permissions to themselves (see Editing permissions).
  • Inclusion works one step only. For example, Owner grants Change, and Change grants Read, but this is because Owner is also listed for Read — not because it is passed on through Change.

# What each action needs

The tables below list the permission needed for each action, and on which record it is checked. "Parent" is the folder or record the item is created in or belongs to.

# Records in general

This is the default for every record type, unless one of the later sections says otherwise.

Action Permission needed
Create Create new items on the parent folder
See the record in a list or search Read summary on the record
Open the record and see all fields Read on the record
Change a field Change on the record
Delete Remove on the record
See the items in a folder List items on the folder
Paste or import into a folder Create new items and Change on the folder
Remove a shortcut from a folder Remove items from folder on the shortcut

The created, created-by, modified and modified-by fields are maintained by ContactManager and are never blocked by a permission.

# Folders and contact folders

Action Permission needed
Create a subfolder Create new folder on the parent folder (not Create new items)
Change the folder Change Folder and Change on the folder
Delete the folder Remove Folder on the folder (in practice: administrators only)
Paste into a contact folder Create new items on the contact folder

The public contact folder and the Internal Contacts folder cannot be deleted, whatever the permissions. Their subfolders can be deleted as normal.

# Contacts (persons and companies)

Action Permission needed
Create Create new items on the contact folder
Change a field Change on the contact
Change a marketing field (see Protected fields) Change and Change Marketing Information on the contact
Change an important field, such as the company name (see Protected fields) Change and Change Important Information on the contact
Mark as verified Change and Verify on the contact
Delete Remove on the contact and Remove on the folder the contact is in

A contact that still has activities linked to it, or is an attendee of an activity, matter or opportunity, cannot be deleted, whatever the permissions. Adding or removing a relation, activity or activity attendee on a contact does not need Change on the contact.

# Protected fields: marketing and important information

Two CRM Configuration settings in the Contact section mark individual contact fields as protected. Change on the contact is then no longer enough to edit those fields: the user also needs an extra permission on the contact.

Setting Extra permission needed Meant for
MarketingPermissionFields Change Marketing Information Classification and marketing data: interests, industries, segments, tags, owner, subscription status, …
ChangeCompanyNamePermissionFields Change Important Information Identifying and legal data: the company name, official and previous name, group structure, registration numbers, …

Both settings take a list of field names. Only fields named in the list are protected. Leave a setting empty and none of its fields are protected; every user with Change can then edit them.

# Default protected fields

MarketingPermissionFields protects these fields by default:

Field name Field
Interests Interests
Industries Industries
IndustryCodes Industry codes
Segments Segments
Referrals Referrals
Categories Categories
Responsibilities Responsibilities
StockExchanges Stock exchanges
MatterTypes Matter types
Tags, Tags2 Tags (both tag fields)
LookupFieldValues The configurable lookup fields
Owner, OwnerSub Responsible user and second responsible user
ContactType Contact type
SubscriptionStatus, NoSubscription Subscription status and the "no subscription" flag
DefaultEmployee Default employee of a company
CompanyEmployeeSize, EmployeeCount Company size and number of employees
EntityType Entity type

ChangeCompanyNamePermissionFields protects these fields by default:

Field name Field
Name Company name
OfficialName Official name
PreviousName Previous name
Location Main location of the company
MemberOf Parent company (group structure)
MemberOfLocked, MemberOfLockedUser, MemberOfLockedComments The lock on the parent company, who set it, and the reason
DUNSNumber DUNS number
TaxNumber Tax (VAT) number
BankAccountNumber Bank account number
GraydonNumber Graydon number

To protect another field, add its field name to the list. To stop protecting a field, remove it. Adding AddressType to ChangeCompanyNamePermissionFields also locks the address type on a contact's addresses for users without Change Important Information.

Two location fields are always protected, whatever the settings:

  • the official name of a company location needs Change Important Information;
  • the region of a location needs Change Marketing Information.

# How the check works

  • In the screens, a protected field is read-only for a user who lacks the extra permission. The other fields of the form stay editable. Saving still needs Change on the contact, so a user with only the extra permission cannot save the change.
  • Marketing fields are checked on every change, also through imports, the API and other integrations. A change without Change Marketing Information is refused.
  • Important fields are checked on every change for companies. On persons, employees and company departments only the screen locks the field: an import, the API or an integration can still change a protected field of a person with Change alone.
  • If a field is in both lists, the screen treats it as an important field. On a company, a change then needs both extra permissions.
  • The extra permissions are checked on the contact itself. They are inherited like any other permission, so they are usually given on a contact folder.
  • Owner includes both extra permissions, and members of the Administrators role always pass the check.

On a new installation, the Users role gets Change, Create new items, Change Marketing Information and Change Important Information on the public contact folder. Every user can therefore edit the protected fields of the contacts in that folder until these permissions are changed. To reserve the protected fields for a smaller group, remove the two extra permissions for Users on the folder and give them to a dedicated role instead.

# Employees, company departments and departments

An employee, a company department and a department take their permissions from the company they belong to. Giving a user Change on a company therefore lets the user change its employees and departments too, unless inheritance is switched off on those records.

# Locations and addresses

A location takes its permissions from its contact, and an address from its location.

Action Permission needed
Create a location Change on the contact (not Create new items)
Create an address Change on the location
Change the official name of a location Change Important Information
Change the region of a location Change Marketing Information
Make a location inactive (or active again) Owner on the location

Addresses and other records (contacts, activities, documents) can be made inactive with Change alone. In the screen, the Inactive checkbox of a department is also disabled for users without Owner on it.

# Activities, matters and documents

Matters and documents follow the same rules as activities.

Action Permission needed
Create Read on the parent (contact, matter, folder…) — not Create new items
Add an item under an existing activity Read on that activity
Change Change on the activity
Delete Remove on the activity

Because only Read on the contact is needed, every user who can open a contact can also register an activity or matter for it. Restrict who sees the new record through its own permissions — see Default permissions on a new record and Matter Permissions.

# Contact relations

A relation between two contacts follows the permissions of both contacts:

Action Permission needed
Create Read on at least one of the two contacts
See the relation Read summary on at least one of the two contacts
Change or delete the relation Change on at least one of the two contacts

# Read versus Read summary

Read summary shows a record in lists, search results and lookup fields without exposing all its details. A user with Read summary but not Read sees only the fields below. All other fields stay empty for that user. A user without Read summary sees the record as No permission (ID:n).

Record Fields visible with Read summary
Every record (except departments) Name, display name, title, description, parent folder, created/modified date and user
Contact (all types) Inactive, contact type, owner, owner sub, client code, main location, postal address, visiting address, custom attention and salutation, subscription status, no subscription, language
Person First name, christian names, initials, last name prefix, last name, title, prefix, suffix, post title, gender, photo, partner, date of death, employers
Company Official name, previous name, alias name, photo, employees
Employee Company, person, department
Company department Company, department
Department Company only — the fields of Every record (such as the name) are not visible
Location Contact, official name, addresses, postal address, visiting address, inactive
Address Location, country, inactive
Activity Name, activity type, contact, owner, activity date, follow-up date, follow-up user, reminder, completed, inactive
Matter Matter code, office, language, department, referral, industry, owner sub, originator, archive number, archive date, limitation period date, plus the activity fields above, except the name
Contact folder Full path, phone, fax, mobile, e-mail address, website, owner, address summary

The name of a matter is not part of its summary: it needs Read. A user with only Read summary on a matter sees its matter code but not its name.

# How permissions are assigned

# Inheritance

A record inherits the permissions of its parent:

Record Inherits from
Folder, contact, activity, matter, document The folder or record it is in
Employee, company department, department The company
Location The contact
Address The location
Contact relation The first contact of the relation (or the second, if there is no first)

Inheritance continues up the chain until it reaches a record where inheritance is switched off, or the top of the tree. Switching off inheritance on a record makes it use only its own permissions; the permissions of its parents no longer apply to it or to the records below it.

# Allow and Deny

A permission can be allowed or denied for a user or role.

  • A permission set directly on a record wins over a permission inherited from a parent. An inherited Deny can therefore be overridden by an Allow on the record itself, and the other way around.
  • On the same record, a Deny wins over an Allow. A user who is allowed Change through one role and denied Change through another role does not have Change.
  • Members of the Administrators role are not affected by Deny — see Administrators.

# Default permissions on a new record

When a contact, activity, matter, document or folder is created, ContactManager sets permissions on it from the Security settings. Out of the box:

Record Default permissions
Contact Creator: Change Permissions. Administrators: Owner. Inherits from the folder.
Activity (and matter, document) Creator and the responsible user (owner): Change Permissions. Administrators: Owner. Inherits from the parent.
Folder Administrators: Owner. Inherits from the parent folder.

The creator gets Change Permissions, not Change. Whether the creator can read and change the record afterwards depends on what the folder or parent passes down.

Each entry in the Security settings applies to one record type, optionally only when a field of the record has a specific value (for example a matter of one activity type). An entry sets:

  • whether the record inherits from its parent;
  • a list of permissions, each allowed or denied for one of:
    • Creator — the user who created the record;
    • Owner — the record's responsible user (owner field);
    • OwnerSub — the record's second responsible user (owner sub field);
    • Principal — a named user or role.

An entry for a record type also applies to the types derived from it: the Activity entry covers matters and documents too. The entries are checked in order and the first matching entry is used, so put an entry for a specific type or field value before the more general one.

See Security Configuration for the built-in defaults, and Matter Permissions for making a single matter private.

# Editing permissions

  • Adding or removing a permission on a record needs Change Permissions on it. A user with Change Permissions can give any permission to anyone, including Owner and including to themselves. In practice, Change Permissions is therefore as powerful as Owner: give it only to users you would also make owner.
  • Inherited permissions cannot be removed on the child record. Change them on the parent, or switch off inheritance on the child.
  • Switching off inheritance needs Change Permissions. The user who does it becomes Owner of the record, so that the record never ends up without anyone who can manage it.
  • Resetting permissions on a folder removes the permissions set on the folder and on the records directly in it, and switches inheritance back on for them. Records further down are not changed. This is for administrators only. On system folders, only the built-in Administrator user can reset permissions or switch inheritance on or off.

# Administrators

  • Members of the Administrators role pass every permission check on every record, even when a permission is explicitly denied to them. They can always delete a contact, whatever the folder permissions.
  • The built-in System and Administrator users hold the Administration permission, which includes every other permission.
  • Configuration records (the CRM Configuration screens and similar) can only be changed by administrators, whatever permissions are set on them.

# What the user sees in the screens

A missing permission usually shows as a disabled or hidden control rather than an error:

Missing permission Effect
Read summary The record shows as No permission (ID:n) in lists and lookup fields.
Read The record opens with only its summary fields filled in. The user cannot be picked as owner of a new activity or document from that record.
Change The form opens read-only.
Remove (or Remove items from folder for a shortcut, Remove Folder for a folder) The Delete button is disabled. Cut is also unavailable.
Verify The Verify button is not shown on the person, company, employee and company department screens.
Owner The document and folder management actions are not shown.
Change Folder / Create new folder The folder cannot be edited, or no subfolder can be created.
Change Permissions The permissions of the record cannot be edited.
Last Updated: 10/8/2026, 10:59:28 AM

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