How do Segments and User Types work?

How do Segments and User Types work?

Segments and User Types are security features of Sumac that allow you to control who can see and access contact records, as well as other information about contacts in your database. For organizations using Sumac for Case Management, Segments and User Types are commonly used to control user access to client and client-related data.

Segments

The Segment feature allows you to segment your contact list and assign access levels to your users to define which segments of your database they can and cannot access.  Once you create your segments, they can be used to control user access to the following items in Sumac:
  1. Contacts - when applied to a contact record, only users with permission to see that Segment will be allowed to see that contact's record.
  2. Extra Fields (in Contact records) - when applied to Extra Fields, only users with permission to see that Segment will be allowed to see data entered into those Extra Fields (even if the user is allowed to see the contact's record).
  3. Departments - when applied to a Department, only users with permission to see that Segment will be allowed to see Time Dockets and Tasks associated with that Department
  4. Offices - when applied to an Office, only users with permission to see that Segment will be allowed to see and use that Office for things like bulk emails.
Segments are customizable, so you can define your own segments and create as many as you need. To create or edit Segments for your database, go to Utilities > Customize Database > Field Values. Choose the Area: Contacts, and the Field Value: Segments. Click "New" to add a new Segment, or double-click an existing Segment to make adjustments.


Once you’ve defined your segments, assign each contact in your database to the appropriate segment (this is done in each contact's record, on the Basic tab).


User permissions can be assigned to each user logging in to Sumac as to which segments they are, or are not allowed to see. These user permissions allow for additional security ensuring that only the appropriate people have access to certain contacts (and their related data) in your database.


Additional Segment features

You can also specify a payment processor merchant account for a segment. When you do this, if Sumac needs to process a credit card, it chooses the merchant account applicable to the segment that the payer is in. If you do not specify a payment processor for a particular segment, and a payment from a contact in that segment is being processed, then Sumac uses the default payment processor specified in the Preferences dialog.

User Types

The User Type feature allows you to restrict access to certain information about contacts (some communications, or some extra fields), but they do not restrict access to the contact record itself. User Types can be used to give a user certain privileges:
  1. Contacts - you can specify the contact’s User Type, which controls whether or not users can see the following information for that contact:
    1. Sensitive data:  only users of a certain type can view fields and data marked as "Sensitive" for contacts assigned to the corresponding User Type.
    2. Communication Type: specify that only users of a certain type can see this type of communication. When applied to a Communication Type, only users of that type can see this type of communication with a contact.
    3. Custom and Case Management Records: specify that only users of a certain type can view Custom and Case Management records for contacts assigned to the corresponding User Type. 
    4. Volunteer Facts: specify the type of users who are allowed to see Volunteer Facts. 
  2. Payment Batch Status: specify the type of user who can change a batch with this statuses
  3. Schema Entries: specify the types of users who are allowed to use this schema entry
If a user does not have access to the User Type of a particular contact, the restrictions to the user are as follows:
  1. The user cannot see communications with that contact if the type of communication indicates it is visible to only users of a certain type
  2. The user cannot see sensitive fields in that contact's record
User Types are customizable, so you can define your own User Types and create as many as you need. To create or edit User Types for your database, go to Utilities > Customize Database > Field Values. Choose the Area: Users, and the Field Value: User Types. Click "New" to add a new User Type, or double-click an existing User Type to make adjustments.


Once you’ve defined your User Types, assign each contact in your database to the appropriate User Type (this is done in each contact's record, on the Basic tab).


User permissions can be assigned to each user logging in to Sumac as to which segments they are, or are not allowed to see. These user permissions allow for additional security ensuring that only the appropriate people have access to certain contacts (and their related data) in your database.




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