Understanding Access Levels and Roles in SmartVault

SmartVault uses different user roles and access levels to maintain security while enabling collaboration. Each role determines what a user can see and do within your account.

This article explains the differences between internal roles (Administrators and Employees) and external users (Clients and Guest Users), so you can assign access appropriately.

Internal Roles vs. External Roles

SmartVault distinguishes between:

Internal users (employees who manage and work within your account), and
External users (clients or guests who collaborate on documents but do not manage the account)

Understanding this distinction helps ensure the right level of access is granted to each user.

What Is a Client?

A client in SmartVault refers to a special type of user license that is available with certain plans. Clients are typically individuals or entities outside your organization with whom you want to share files, collaborate, and securely manage documents.

Clients differ from internal users (such as employees or administrators) in what they can and cannot do:

What Clients Can Do
- View, upload, and download files in the vaults they have access to.
- Use supported SmartVault desktop add-ons and integrations if enabled.
What Clients Cannot Do
- Perform administrative tasks (such as inviting new users or creating folders)
- Access account-wide settings or controls (those are reserved for administrators and employees).

Clients and Guest Users are intentionally restricted to protect your account while still enabling document exchange.

Information

For step-by-step instructions, see Inviting Your Clients to Create a SmartVault Guest Account.

Administrator Role

The Administrator role provides the highest level of access across your entire SmartVault account.

Important Notes about Administrators

Users must first be members of the Employee group before becoming Administrators.
Guest users, tax clients, and Seasonal Workers cannot be elevated to Administrator status.

Role Comparison

Administrators have all Employee abilities plus additional account-wide permissions. The Firm Manager role serves as a middle ground, providing extended permissions but only for specific client vaults.

SmartVault Role	Abilities

Administrator Only	Account-level tasks, such as billing, editing templates, etc. Delete a client Manage custom groups
*Administrator or the Firm Manager on a vault**	Edit client vault name Manage vault groups Assigning employees to a client
All Employees	Add Clients Invite clients to SmartVault Send tax returns to clients Edit the client details for client records Depending on permissions, create, edit, or delete folders

* Firm Manager is a vault-level group in which you can place your employees for specific client vaults. If you add an employee as a Firm Manager on a particular vault, that employee will only have the abilities listed in the table for that client vault. This allows you to grant additional permissions without providing full Administrator access to your entire account.

Important

The permissions shown in the table above reflect default settings. If you've modified group access settings in your folder templates, the actual permissions may vary from what's shown here.

Setting Up User Roles

To adjust the user access:

Key Considerations

Vault-Specific Management: Assign an employee as the Firm Manager on a specific vault by adding them to that client.
Customizable Permissions: Default settings can be modified - your folder template settings may affect the specific permissions for each group.
Security Best Practices: Only grant Administrator access to employees who genuinely need full control over their accounts.

Remember that carefully managing access levels helps maintain document security while allowing your team to work efficiently with the information they need.