Many applications require the ability to handle groups - companies, departments, locations- all while allowing members to only access their group’s data. Knack makes this easy.
In order to assist you in quickly finding the information that you require, this article covers the following topics:
Managing Multiple Groups and Locations
Many applications require the ability to handle groups - companies, departments, locations - while allowing members to only access their group’s data.
Knack makes this easy. You can create a single page for all users to access and each user will only see their group’s data, saving you time in the building process.
You can even define types of users and permissions within a group. For example, each group may have group admins who can add and remove members in their group.
Our Warehouse Manager sample app is a great example of group access. This inventory manager is designed with multiple warehouse locations in mind, and a single app will allow you to give each warehouse control of their inventory by having warehouse staff login to manage inventory and orders for their specific location.
Tip: Learn more in our article on How to Show Records Connected to the Logged-In User's Company or Other Group.
Allow Admins to Access All Data
Most of these examples show how to restrict which data the logged-in user can access. Sometimes, we want to allow one type of user to access all data, in the case of an admin.
In our Project Management example app, admins have full read/write privileges. When a new project comes in, admins can access all details and edit the project record to assign it to a project manager.
Tip: To learn more, see the following article and sample app:
Allow Members to Manage Their Own Directory Listings
A user feature that can save countless hours of manual data entry is enabling users to update their own data.
Our Member Directory sample app shows this functionality in action. This app allows members to log in to view all members but only edit their own listing.
Tip: To learn more, see the following articles and sample app:
Saving Payment Methods
Knack’s e-commerce features make it easy to accept payment for goods and services seamlessly in your Knack app.
With user and e-commerce features enabled in your apps, you can allow your users to save their payment methods. Not only does this save time when making multiple payments, it’s even more valuable if you charge customers on their behalf.
By saving your user’s payment methods, you can accept payments on demand without worrying about invoicing, due dates, or collections.
Our Online Donation Portal app incorporates saved payment methods in the donation workflow. This app makes it easy for nonprofits to accept donations for their causes with a donor interface.
Donors can login, make donations, save their payment info, and view a history of their donations. Nonprofits can even charge donations on behalf of their donors thanks to saved payment methods.
Note: It’s important to note that saved payment methods is only available when using Stripe as your payment processor.
Tip: To learn more, see the following sample app and articles:
Managing Employees
Users & access can also be applied for managing employee data and workflows.
Our Employee Reviews app makes it easy for managers and HR to submit employee reviews, track performance over time, and securely collaborate and share reviews.
In this example, managers and HR share an interface. You can easily create your own custom employee review app where each manager can only see and add reviews for their own employees, whereas HR can see and manage reviews for all employees.
The Employee Time Sheets app shows that type of setup in action. In this app, employees enter their timesheets and each manager can only see the timesheets for their assigned employees.
Reporting can be performed using the same restrictions by enabling each manager to monitor the performance of their team.
Tip: To learn more, see the following sample apps and article:
Enabling Custom Workflows
Workflow automation is another example of how users & access can be used to enable your business operations. Knack provides powerful and flexible workflow features for adding multiple types of workflow to your apps, like approvals, pipelines, and notifications.
For example, take assignments in our Project Management app: Admins have the ability to create new Projects, which they then assign to Project Managers. While Admins can see all Projects, Project Managers only see their assigned Projects.
Project Managers can then create Tasks for each Project and assign them to their Employees. Each Employee can only view and update their own active Tasks, while the Project Managers can view and edit all tasks for their Projects.
Approval workflows are another great example- a record may need approval from different people at different stages of the workflow. For example, a grant application may need to first be approved by an admin, who ensures that the application is complete and meets the criteria before being sent along to the board of directors for a final decision.
With user features, you can put the applications in front of the user who needs to view them at each stage of the process. You create custom dashboards for your employees based on their function and assigned tasks.
You can explore many more options around workflow automation in the articles linked below.
Tip: To learn more, see the following articles and sample app:
Additional Resources
While we cover a few popular applications of users & access here, there are many more. Using roles and enabling permissions in your apps opens a host of options for customization. See the articles below for a few more examples.