Users and Contacts Overview

Users and contacts are individual person records in SmartSimple. A user is a contact who has been granted login access to your SmartSimple instance; a contact is a person record that exists in the system without login access. Both record types are stored in the same format within the database, each with its own set of standard fields. All people records are placed within the organization hierarchy at a specific level, and each person belongs to one parent organization. The distinction between users and contacts is controlled by role assignment and login access settings.

Who: Global administrators and staff who manage people records.

What Are Users and Contacts

A contact is any person record in SmartSimple, representing an individual such as a staff member, vendor, or external applicant. A user is a contact who has been activated to log in to the system.

• Both users and contacts are stored in the same table within the database. Each person record includes a consistent set of standard fields regardless of record type.
• The distinction between a user and a contact is controlled by the Enable Login setting. Contacts without this setting enabled cannot log in and are accessible only through the system back end.

Click the Menu icon in the upper navigation bar and select People to view all person records in your SmartSimple instance.

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When to Use Users and Contacts

Use Users and Contacts when:

• Setting up a new SmartSimple instance and building an initial list of staff and external contacts.
• Granting system login access to staff or external applicants who need to submit or review records.
• Managing the people records that make up the organization hierarchy, including both internal staff and external contacts.
• Auditing who currently has login access to the system.
• Importing a large set of contacts from an external source, such as a spreadsheet.

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How the Organization Hierarchy Works for People

All people records in SmartSimple are placed within the organization hierarchy. When adding a person, you must first select the organization level to which they belong.

• Each person has one parent organization within the hierarchy.
• People can be placed at any level of the hierarchy. For example, a university instance might have Teaching Assistants and Professors at the Department level and Deans at the University level.
• The hierarchy has two sections: internal records (your organization's staff) and external records (contacts, vendors, applicants, and others). The exact terminology for these sections varies by instance.

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How Roles Control Access

During the contact setup process, you assign roles to contacts. A user can access and work with information only to the extent permitted by their roles and those roles' system-wide permissions.

Roles determine:

• The interface the user sees, such as an administrator view or a standard user portal.
• The applications the user can access.
• The fields the user can view within each application.
• The reports the user is authorized to generate.

For example, a user assigned the system administrator role has greater control and visibility within the system than a user whose only role is Employee.

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Resources

For more information about Users and Contacts, see:

• Manage Users and Contacts
• User and Contact Fields and Settings Reference

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