User Groups Overview
User groups are collections of user accounts, used to control users' access to work groups.
Overview
User access to templates in HotDocs Advance is controlled by allocation of user groups to work groups. Template users can only access templates in work groups to which their user groups are assigned. This enables you to organize users into groups with related interests and give them access to specific work groups. For example, to organize users into a user group for an organization's legal department and give them access to legal department-specific templates.
The Manage user groups page is only visible if you are logged in to HotDocs Advance as a Site Administrator.
Common Tasks
- Create a user group
- Assign a user to a user group
- Edit a user group
- Deactivate a user group
- Import Active Directory user groups
Workflow
You will typically create a user group after you created or imported user accounts. You can then add users to the user group and assign the user group to a template group. After you have created a user group, you may need to add or remove users.
Users in the assigned user groups may then access the templates in the work group. For example:
- A Work group (Employment Agreements) is created in HotDocs Advance, with six templates allocated.
- A User group (HR Department) is created in HotDocs Advance, with three users allocated.
- The HR Department user group is assigned to the Employment Agreements work group.
- All users in the HR Department user group can access the templates in the Employment Agreements work group; i.e. they can load interviews and assemble documents using the templates.
User Groups in Active Directory and HotDocs Advance
When using Active Directory (AD) with HotDocs Advance, it is important to understand the distinction between user groups within Active Directory and HotDocs Advance user groups. All users added to Advance via Active Directory must be imported as members of an Active Directory user group. AD user groups can only be imported; they cannot be created within Advance. Importing an AD user group also imports the Active Directory user accounts it contains into Advance. AD user accounts are only accessible in Advance when you have imported an AD user group. AD user groups function in the same way as Advance user groups. You can allocate AD user groups to work groups, quick groups, and so on. Advance supports Active Directory users being members of both Active Directory user groups and also Advance user groups. You can also create ordinary Advance user groups and add AD user accounts to them. This enables you to create your own specific user groups for Advance if the exact user group you need does not already have an equivalent in Active Directory.
When a user's membership of a user group in Active Directory changes, the same change is reflected in the imported AD user group within Advance, though these changes may take a few minutes to appear in Advance.
User group access permissions for templates
User group access permissions for templates are assigned in Manage work groups through the Administration section of HotDocs Advance.
Everyone User Group
The Everyone user group is a user group containing every user account created within Advance. It is a default user group, named Everyone, created by Advance during installation. When you add new users, Advance automatically adds them to the Everyone group. The purpose of the Everyone user group is to make it simpler to give template group access to all users.
If you upgrade from an earlier version of Advance and have your own user group named Everyone, Advance will migrate that user group to a new group, named Everyone_old.
Related Common Tasks