Access Levels FAQ and Troubleshooting Tips
Purpose: This help guide will walk you through frequently asked questions about access levels in BambooHR. Each question will provide you with an explanation and resource for how to troubleshoot in your account.
Table of Contents
- An employee is unable to log in. When they select Forgot Password, the email doesn’t send.
- Some of my employees are missing part of the home screen. Others have all the widgets.
- I have some employees missing the Reports tab, but I need to share access to reports.
- I have new employees who can’t see the Onboarding tab. How are they able to complete their assigned onboarding tasks?
- An employee has resigned. How do I remove their system access?
- Can an employee log into the account (not just the New Hire Packet) before their first day?
- If an employee is sent an email alert that includes field data their Access Level does not allow them to see, will the email still display that information?
- Can I assign access to employees in bulk?
- Can I revoke access in bulk?
- Is there a way to combine access levels?
- Can I give an outside user access to the system?
- I have a user who does not have access to specific fields in the access level but can see them in an email alert or approval.
- Who can log in to the Help Center, and what will they see?
- Some of my users are seeing information they should not be seeing. What is happening?
- We have made too many access levels. How can we clean these up?
- Why can’t I give access to my employees to see the Onboarding tab on their profile?
- Why can my employee update their Address without an approval being created? They have Edit - Approval Required access to their Address field.
- When I terminate an employee effective today, why is their access removed immediately rather than at 11:59 pm as with future terminations?
- At what time does the system remove the employee’s access when they are terminated?
- Can a non-employee user be an Account Owner?
Answer: This employee does not have an access level.
How can I fix it?: The employee will need to have an access level assigned. Please note only Full Admin users can assign a custom access level or manager access level. If this is the first time the employee gets assigned an access level, they will receive a password email automatically. If the employee is getting re-hired or has an access level before, you can reset their password as an admin.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: Some features are hidden in the See On Home section of the access level, or in the case of benefits, there is no information available in the employee profile.
How can I fix it?: In Settings > Access Levels > Select Access Level Name > Access Level Settings > See on Home, make sure the box is checked for each widget that your employees should see. This tab is separate on every access level. Make sure that you check each level and adjust accordingly.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: The system keeps the Onboarding tab hidden from employees. This is to protect confidential tasks.
How can I fix it?: The onboarding tasks automatically go to the new hire’s inbox. When they log in, they will be able to complete any pending tasks. You can send many tasks through the New Hire Packet before the employee starts.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: Access will get removed differently based on the date of termination. If the termination takes place the same day, access gets removed immediately. If the termination is future-dated, access will get removed at 11:59 PM (local time) the night of termination.
How can I fix it?: You can remove or reassign access levels at any time through the employee profile. To add an access level, make sure the employee has an Active employee status on the Personal tab.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
By default, the system will not allow employees to log in to the account before their first day. However, if there is a situation where an employee needs to log in before that time, then a reset password email can be sent to them, and that will allow them to log into the account.
Yes. If a user is included in an email alert, then they will see all data that is included in that alert.
You can do so either via Power Edit (employee access levels only) or in Access Level settings by navigating to the access level, clicking Add Employee, then choosing Add Many Employees.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Yes. An admin can do this with the Power Edit tool. Simply add the Self-service access field to your Selected Fields, choose No Access, and Save your changes.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: Yes! This is a common request for employees who wear many hats.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: Absolutely! These users are called non-employee users. There are a few things to remember about these users as they are not treated the same as employees in your account.
- Non-employee users should be in a custom or Full Admin access level. This is because users in employee access levels can only see their own profile, which non-employee users do not have, so they would not see anything useful. Since employees cannot report to non-employee users (this would break critical functions like the org chart and performance management), putting them in a manager access level would not allow them to see anything useful either.
- You can assign a non-employee user as the Account Owner.
- Non-employee users will not show up on the employee list, Company Directory, or Org Chart.
- Non-employee users can be part of the approval process for information updates, time off requests, and custom approvals.
- Non-employee users can have onboarding and offboarding tasks assigned.
- Non-employee users can be a "Specific Person" signer on a signature template, but they cannot be the "Employee" signer.
- Customers do not get charged for non-employee users.
- Their name will appear as {Last name} {First name} on the list, even though the display name settings may be different ({First name} {Last name}).
- Click here for more information on how to delete a non-employee user from the system. We recommend changing the email address for that user before deleting them if you plan on reusing the email address.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: This is a system feature that allows limited access to employee information when needed but prevents them from having access to that information all the time. This is an effort to allow them to get work done and still protect sensitive information. There is no way around this feature. The best thing you could do is remove the user from the approval process or email alert.
Answer: Account Owners, Full Admin users, and custom access level users (not manager access level users) have the "?" button in BambooHR that gives them direct access to the Help Center. This will automatically show them the help guides available. If you go to help.bamboohr.com without logging into the Help Center, you will see the public articles available for anyone to see. This includes the BambooHR for Employees section and the Partner Integrations section. Full Admins can share links to help guides in these sections, and employees will not need to sign in to the Help Center to view the information.
Answer: This is because of incorrect access level settings. Incorrect settings include being in the wrong access level, having the wrong View/Edit access, or having access to the wrong employees. These are not spontaneous changes, and someone must have changed those in the system.
How can I fix it?: A Full Admin user in the internal system must make all access level edits. Customer Support cannot make access changes. To make edits, go to Settings > Access Levels > Select an Access Level Name > Access Level Settings. From there, you can view each tab and make any necessary changes. Make sure to preview as a user after saving the changes. This will allow you to verify they can now see everything they should see.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
Answer: Having a clean list of access levels is very helpful for troubleshooting access issues. The best way to clear out access levels is to edit one employee access level first. Make sure that employees can see everything they need to, and then assign all users EXCEPT the admins to this updated employee level. Go through each access level and make edits. If you've decided that you don’t need an access level, you can delete it (click on the access name, then the gear icon, then Delete Access Level) as long as nobody is using that level. Make sure a custom or manager access level is not using this level (applicable only for employee access levels). We recommend creating access levels by job title rather than employee name because this makes it easier if an employee leaves or has somebody join them in the position. Assign access levels as needed.
Where can I learn more about how to do this?
There may be sensitive or behind-the-scenes tasks on the Onboarding tab that the employee doesn't need to see. To allow the employees to see only the tasks that pertain to themselves, we've designed the system to prevent employees from seeing the Onboarding tab. Instead, employees will have a section in their Inbox labeled "Onboarding/Offboarding" where they will see and complete their tasks.
Has the employee completed their New Hire Packet? When employees are sent a New Hire Packet, they are added to an invisible Access Level called "Preboarding" access. This allows them "Edit" permissions to any field that the NHP asks them to complete. They are automatically removed from this access when they finish their packet, but if they never finished it, the software won't know to remove them from that level. The Admin can either cancel the New Hire Packet, or they can ask the employee to go in and complete the packet.
When the termination date is listed as today, it often indicates that the employee either did not give notice or is being terminated immediately, possibly for sensitive reasons. Employers likely do not want someone who is upset about the termination to have continued access to the employee directory or system. By contrast, future terminations are usually the result of someone resigning or retiring ahead of time. When an employee's termination is recorded after their termination date, their access is also changed immediately.
11:59 PM, company timezone.
Yes.