New Feature: Permissions

Permissions will be released to all Boards and Commissions customers with this release. Following is description of what the changes are, why we made them, and links to additional support documentation. 

What's changed and why did we make these changes?

A quick overview of what's changed or new:

• Created an Applications page
• Changed how applications are retained to comply with record retention policies
• Added a Board Specific role

Application Retention and New Application Page

Previously, an applicant could only have one application on file and that application could be submitted to one or more boards. Each time an applicant modified their application, whether to reapply, make changes, or apply to a different board, all previous submissions were updated to reflect the changes. This was problematic for clients with record retention policies. Now, in order to preserve application data, when applicants submit an application to more than one board, a separate application snapshot will exist for each board they apply to. The same is also true if an applicant re-applies. This will ensure previously submitted applications will not be modified and allow the client to store them for as long as their record retention policy requires. 

With this change, we added an 'Applications' page to Boards and Commissions. On this page, each application an applicant submits will be listed. For example, if an applicant uses one application to apply for two boards, there will be two records listed on the application page. Then, if the applicant is appointed to one of the boards, serves their term, and then wants to reapply, their application to reapply will create a third record on the Applications page. It is important to note that applications are assigned to a board appointment, rather than to an applicant.

We wrote a new support article, Applications Page in Boards and Commissions, to help you understand and use the new Applications page. 

Board Specific Role

Users assigned the new Board Specific role can only view and edit boards, documents, and tools specifically assigned to them by an administrator. We created the Board Specific role so that Admins could assign someone the permissions of a Coordinator role, but only for specific boards. 

Here is more information about what Board Specific users can view on each page:

• Dashboard page: Can view data for the specific boards they are assigned to.
• Boards page: Can view boards they have specifically been assigned to.
• Appointments page: Can view appointments to the boards they have been assigned to.
• Applications page: Can view applications to their assigned boards. If a user has applied to multiple boards, the Board Specific user will only be able to view the application for the Board they are assigned to.
• People page: Can view people that have applications associated with their Boards.
• Documents page: No changes to functionality on this page; Board Specific users can generate, view, and download documents.
• Packet creation page: Can only create packets for the Boards they are assigned to.

We added the Board Specific role to our Permissions in Boards and Commissions support documentation.