Who sees what: licence, role, permission, branch

A person sees a menu when their role has it, and may use a screen when their role has its permission. The licence decides what the company can give any role, and the branch decides which documents the person works in.

Administration Concepts

4 min read

Updated October 20, 2026

For Owner Administrator Support

Four layers, one answer

What a person sees and may do is the result of four things, checked from the outside in.

The company's licence
Who
The Penahak provider
What changes
Decides which menus and permissions exist in the company at all. A role cannot be given what the licence does not hold (How the licence decides what a company has).
The role
Who
Administrator
Where
Role & Scopes
What changes
A role holds a set of permissions. A permission that opens a screen also gives the role that screen's menu, and the menu groups above it (Choose what a role may open and do).
The user
Who
Administrator
Where
User
What changes
A user has a main role and may have more. With several roles the user gets everything any of them gives: the menus and the permissions of all the roles together (Add or change a user).
The branch
Who
Administrator
Where
User, and the mapping screens
What changes
Sets which branch the person works in and may switch to. Documents are kept in the branch they were made in (Branches, Map several users to a role or to a branch).

Worked example: three people, one company

ABC Traders has two branches, Head Office and Pokhara. The licence includes the sales and stock parts. The Cashier role has the invoice and receipt menus. The Store keeper role has the stock adjustment menu.

Person	Roles	Branches	The side menu shows	Where they can work
Asha	Main role Cashier	Head Office	Invoice, receipt	Head Office only. There is no Switch branch
Binod	Main role Cashier, extra role Store keeper	Head Office	Invoice, receipt and stock adjustment: everything both roles give	Head Office only
Chandra	Main role Store keeper	Head Office (default) and Pokhara	Stock adjustment	Starts in Head Office and uses Switch branch to work in Pokhara

Asha has started helping with stock and asks why the stock adjustment screen is missing. The administrator checks the layers from the outside in. The licence has it. Asha's role, Cashier, does not, and that is as intended. The fix is not a change to the Cashier role: Asha is given the Store keeper role as an extra role, and signs out and in.

The branch changes none of this. Chandra sees the same stock adjustment menu in Head Office and in Pokhara. What the branch changes is where a new document is made, and which numbering series is used.

What a permission does

A permission is a named right such as seeing the list of users, adding a user or deleting a branch. It works in three places:

The menu. The role's menus are read when the user signs in. An item the role does not have does not appear.
The page. Opening a screen the role has no permission for shows Sorry, you don't have access to this page. with the button Back to home.
The buttons. A screen hides or switches off an action the role may not do (for example Add without the permission to create).

When a change reaches the user

The menu and the screens are read once, when the user signs in. After you change a role's permissions or a user's roles, ask the user to Sign out and sign in again.
Editing a role, a user or a branch (the edit form, not the permission list) also warns the people it affects: they see a short warning and are signed out after a few seconds. See Users: the list, locking and deactivating.

Common questions

Does the branch decide which menus I see?

No. The menus follow the roles. The branch decides which documents you work with and which numbering series a new document uses (How the menu and the secondary menu page work).

One of my roles has a permission and another does not. Which wins?

Neither takes anything away. A person gets everything that any of their roles gives. To take something away, remove the role from the person, or clear the permission on that role (Choose what a role may open and do).