This article explains how to configure manual staffing and project permissions in Next Project, covering the setup of user groups, authorization levels, and project-specific access controls. Using a step-by-step example based on a fictional company, readers will learn how to identify permission requirements, assign users to groups, and manage access for different roles including project managers, administrators, tradespersons, and subcontractors.

Quick guide

1. Go to Admin - Users/Permissions

   1. See which groups the user is connected to

   2. See what permissions the user has

2. Go to Admin - Groups/Permissions

   1. Create or change an authorization group

   2. Decide whether the group should be staffed manually

3. Go to Admin - Project Permissions

   1. Select the projects where permissions should be set

   2. Check the group that should have access

   3. Decide whether permissions should include underlying projects

   4. If you're using Manual Staffing, go to the Staffing tab and tick who should have access to the project

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Step-by-step setup

Below is a brief walkthrough of a basic project authorization setup. To make the flow easier to follow, the steps are based on an example using a fictional company.

The company Svensk Markentreprenad has twenty professionals and four project managers — Mats, Erik, Sanna, and Lotten. There is also a person who acts as a team base on projects where there is a need.

Each project manager runs their own projects and reports time against them. For absences or other time entries, they also report against internal projects and the absence project in Next Project. Each project manager has their own project manager node/project where their own projects are entered.

The company also has several hired subcontractors who should be able to report time against selected projects — and this needs to be something you can control on a project-by-project basis when subcontractors are brought on.

In the office, there are two administrators who handle invoicing and payroll administration, as well as a CEO who needs visibility into all projects. An auditor also requires annual access for reconciliation purposes.

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Identify the base set of permissions

Before you touch any settings, it's really important to sit down and map out how the permissions should look — who needs access to what, and which projects. It's easy to get this wrong if you don't think it through clearly first.

For Svensk Markentreprenad, the following needs have been identified:

• The CEO must have access to everything

• Administrators must have access to everything except management of the project overview

• All project managers should only be able to see their own projects in Next Project and report time on them, along with Internal time projects and the Absence project. Within their projects, they should be able to do everything except lock invoices and send them to the customer

• Tradespersons must be able to report time, register work orders and deviation orders, and view documents in all projects

• The base team should have the same rights as tradespersons, but must also be able to use the Diary function on projects

• Subcontractors should be manually added to selected projects, but should not be able to register new Work or Deviation orders (though they must be able to log time against them)

• The auditor must have read permission for invoices, booked costs/revenues, booked hours, and the project overview

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Setting up permissions in Next Project

All permissions to different parts of Next Project are set via the Groups/Permissions tab in the Admin area. Here's the order to follow when setting up authorization:

1. Create groups by clicking the add button under Groups/Permissions. Mark whether a group should have manual staffing so you can choose people manually when assigning authorization to projects.

2. Assign members to the group (top right)

3. Assign module permissions (lower left)

4. Assign administrative rights (lower right)

5. Assign permissions to projects — either to entire groups or using manual staffing — on the Project Permissions tab

Groups/Permissions tab showing group list, members, module and admin permissions panels.

For Svensk Markentreprenad, you'll need to create several new groups to get the authorization right. We recommend creating your new groups, getting them fully configured, and then deleting the old ones. This avoids the risk of leftover legacy permissions causing issues — which can result in users seeing too much or too little in Next Project.

Once your groups are created, permissions to read and edit are set, members have been assigned, and administrative rights have been assigned to each group, you're ready to assign project permissions. Make sure to switch on Project Authorization on your projects.

Here's how to do that:

• Go to Administration - Users/Permissions - Project Permissions and select the project you want to assign permissions to.

• Select which groups should have access to the project by checking the Access box.

• If you want permissions to apply to underlying projects as well — so that access is "inherited" down — check the Forward access to sub-project box.

• If a group appears highlighted in gray (for example, Superadmins in the image below), it means that group already inherits permission to this project from a project higher up in the project tree.

Project Permissions tab showing Groups/Teams list, Group Members, and Module Permissions matrix.

The Project Authorization tab has two sub-tabs — Group and Staffing. The Group tab is covered above. The Staffing tab is used to manually staff projects with resources, such as a specific designated subcontractor or user.

Project Permissions — Staffing tab showing users, user groups, and module permissions.

In the window shown above, you'll see a Users panel. This is where you select the people who should have access to the project, if the group is set up with Manual Staffing. The Show default staffing checkbox displays the people who are in the group by default — these cannot be changed. If you want to manually staff a project — for example, to give only a specific subcontractor access — simply click to select that person and save.

Once a project has been staffed via group or manual staffing, the permissions take effect immediately. Everyone will need to reload Next Project for the changes to apply — both in the Mobile app and in the Web Client.

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Example setup of groups and authorizations

Using our example company Svensk Markentreprenad, the authorizations would look like this:

Note: If project managers need to be able to report time on each other's projects, you should create a group called something like PM Time Reporting and give it only the Report time mobile permission. Then grant that group Access (in Project Permissions) on the projects where you want them to be able to log time. In the Web Client, the project manager will be able to see those projects, but will only see content under the Booked hours tab on them.

If you have any questions about the setup, please contact eftermarknad@next-tech.com for more information — we'll be in touch to schedule a walkthrough.