User and Group Permissions in Disclosure Studio

Select any option below to navigate directly to it:

1. Permissions
2. Permissioning Best Practices
   1. General Recommendations
   2. Group Set Up Recommendations

Permissions

There are four types of Permission Categories in Disclosure Studio. Select the option below to navigate directly to it. 

1. Report Types
2. Products
3. Report Permissions
4. Application Permissions

Report Types

Report type permissions allow users to create and access the different types of reports. 

These can include:

• Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR)
• Budget Book
• Monthly Reporting
• Annual Financial Report (AFR)
• Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)
• Quarterly Reporting

Products

Product permissions allow users access to additional products within Disclosure Studio including:

• Documents
• Multi-Dimensional Financial Model (MDFM)

Note: All users will have access to reports, but you can limit what types of reports they have access to with the Report Type permission and what they can do in the Report and Application Permissions. 

Report Permissions

Report permissions allow you to set how users can interact and accomplish certain actions inside of a specific report. It is broken down into Report view or edit access and actions they can perform in the Sections. When setting these permissions, select the specific report they will have access to as part of the process.

Note: Make sure to select the Report Types they have access to first in order to set their specific permissions for these reports. 

Report

• View only report permission: User can open a report, but cannot edit. 
• View and Edit report permission: User can open and edit  any part of the report in the Review & Edit pane. 
• Archive Report: User can archive any report they have access to. 

Sections

• Move Workflow Step:  Users with this permission can move to any step in a workflow, not just the next step based on what steps they are assigned. This allows them to ignore the transitions set up within a workflow. 
• Edit Section: Users can edit individual sections. 
• Delete Sections: Users can delete a section in the navigation panel. 
• Create Sections:  Users can create a section in the navigation panel.
• Copy Sections:  Users can copy a section in the navigation panel.

Note: Restrictions to specific document sections are managed separately through Workflows.

Application Permissions

Application Permissions allow users to access system wide procedures. For example, managing users is an application permission. 

Reports

• Create Reports: Users can create new reports from scratch inside of Disclosure Studio. 
• Copy Report: Users can copy a report inside of Disclosure Studio. We recommend only allowing users who have the ability to close the report and roll forward to have access to this option. 

Settings

• Access to Workflow: User can create and make changes to workflows in the Settings menu.
• Access to User Management: Users can access and manage users in User Management in the Settings menu. 

Note: We recommend the best practice of only allowing Administrators to have permissions to Settings. 

ETL

• Select ETL Destination: User can upload financial data to a specific report, such as ACFR Trial Balance or Budget Book Chart of Accounts. 

Permissioning Best Practices

The following are how we recommend thinking about users in Disclosure Studio. Please know these are only guidelines and we encourage you to build your user structure as it works best for your organization. 

General Recommendations

• Set up Groups as the primary permissioning tool. Create groups based on the work to be done by report type(s) and specific sections of the report and for those who will be focused  only on the data (MDFM) aspect of Disclosure Studio.
• Grant additional Report Type access for individual users if they differ from their group to ensure they only have access to the specific report type(s) they will be working on. You can also give individual users additional permissions outside of their group if needed. 
• Utilize Workflows to control the specific sections of a report the user or group(s) can edit. To give groups or individuals access to only certain sections, add the group or user to the specific workflow applied to their section(s). 

Group Set Up Recommendations

Create groups for the five common user scenarios in Disclosure Studio. 

Additional Considerations

• For Report and Report Section Editors, make sure you give View and Edit Report permissions to the specific reports they will be working on. Same goes for Report Reviewers and Accounting/Data groups with View Only Report. 
  • Note: The selection list will show only the types of reports that they have access to. 
• For Report Editors, consider giving them Create and Copy Report application permissions if they are part of the roll forward process. Otherwise, this responsibility should be on Administrators.
• For Report Editors, consider giving them access to archive reports especially if you are allowing them to create and copy reports.
• For Report Editors, consider giving them access to Workflows and User Management in Settings if you want them to control their own workflows and add their own team members.