What you need to know
Graphite Connect makes it easy for you to manage who has access to your company profile. Only administrators in YOUR company can add, edit, or delete users. However, there are certain features which allow any member of your company to send a request to your administrators to invite new users. Graphite Support is always available when you need assistance.
Adding new users
Users can be added in a few different ways and places. When you first set up a company (from a supplier onboarding request) you will be asked if you want to add additional administrators or owners of specific topics. Additionally, when filling out your profile information you will be able to add new contacts or invite other users to fill out portions of the questionnaire. If you’re an administrator, adding these contacts will send out invites to these users, allowing them to set up an account. If you’re not an administrator, these will send an email to your administrator requesting that an invite be sent to the new user.
Administrators will also be able to view, manage, and edit users from the Admin screen. From this screen you will see 'Add new user’ button you will be required to enter the recipient’s name and email address.
For basic access, you do not need to set any specific permissions. Simply click the button that says Send invitation. When you do, they will receive an email with an invitation to join graphiteConnect and become a new company user.
You can add as many users as you’d like.
Editing user permissions
When you invite a new user without customizing permissions, they come into the system with default settings. They will be responsible for assigning themselves as a buyer or seller (see Getting Started in graphiteConnect) and they will not have access to fields restricted in the Tax and Banking sections. Additionally, they will not have any special permissions or topic ownership within the system.
Some permissions are only available through the Admin page, so you will be responsible for setting these up. To do this, simply click on each user to edit their permissions.
You can:
- Edit their name and email address
- Set their connection role and default role
- Flag user as "admin"
- Assign other system and onboarding permissions
- Assign topic ownership
- Assign users to custom user groups
Connection role and default role
Most users spend more time either in a buying role or a selling role, and graphiteConnect will tailor each user’s experience based on their need. For users who are both a buyer and seller, the system requires a "default" role to be set, meaning many screens will default to showing Supplier information to buyers and Customer information to sellers.
Administrators can change this role in the administrative screen.
System and onboarding permissions
There are several permission-based roles built into graphiteConnect. These include Banking, Tax, Manage Invite, Manage Accept, Manage Review, and Manage Connect.
The Banking and Tax roles must be given to anyone who needs access to restricted tax information and/or banking information. When users attempt to edit or view these fields, the system will check to make sure they have access. If they do, the user will be required to confirm their identity via two-factor authentication.
Note: By design, the first user associated with a company profile has been assigned these roles.
Final Invite Approval, Final Review Approval and Final Connect Approval are optional roles that change the default connection experience. When users have one of these selections, graphiteConnect will require the associated button to be clicked on before continuing with that step of the connection process. Users with that role will have a task for that action assigned to them. Note: There must always be a least one user with the Manage Accept role.
Topic Ownership
Turning on compliance topic reviews is as easy as assigning owners to individual topics (see Guide to Topic Reviews). When you use this feature for compliance topics, topic reviews will be triggered for each of these topics and assign a task to the appropriate topic owners.
Topic ownership also controls how tasks get assigned for various steps in the process. Each topic can have multiple owners, ensuring that tasks don’t get overlooked when things get chaotic.
Custom User Groups
Custom user groups allow you to have more flexible access control across the site. Segmentation can be used to sub-divide user groups based on your custom data elements (e.g. region, risk, spend category, etc.) to ensure that work is assigned to the right teams.
This is a paid feature. To enable this on your account, please contact us at support@graphiteconnect.com.
Handling user requests
In certain circumstances, users will be provided an opportunity to request access to a company. When they do this, company administrators will receive an email notifying them of this request. A task will also appear on the admin’s company dashboard.
Whether the admin clicks on the link in the email or on the link in the dashboard, they will have the option to reject or approve the request for access.
Putting it all together in the user table
The user table on the Admin page makes it easy for Admins to see who is assigned to specific topics, who has permission-based roles, and which users are administrators. You can quickly find a specific user by searching by name, by permission, by role, or by group.
Watch a video
Watch this short video to learn the basics of adding new users.