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29145 GENERAL SYSTEM GUIDE SECURITY SYSTEM
GS7-03 Creating and Maintaining Security Profiles

PURPOSE

For the sake of overall system security the supervisor must ensure that users have access only to those specific programs and features that are necessary for them to perform their jobs effectively. Thus, in addition to a verified name and password, each user must also be assigned a user definable security profile, defining which features and programs of the system any user or group of users can access.

In addition, security profiles can be used to control the various ways a user can process data. This is accomplished by specifying which Security Actions the user's profile grants use of. For example, whether or not a user (ie salesperson) can change a product price from its default or whether or not that user can void a cash till sale are determined by the Security Actions of the user profile.

Users can be assigned unique profiles (eg the "SUPER" profile should be assigned to the system supervisor only) or several users can share the same profile. Two or more users with the same profile are referred to as a user group, which is discussed in the section entitled 29147 CREATING AND MAINTAINING USER GROUPS.

This article details the procedure for adding, modifying and deleting security profiles. It walks you through a typical example, showing you how to add a security profile to the system, make changes to that profile and then delete it.

PROCEDURE - ADDING A NEW SECURITY PROFILE

At the Ideal Utilities menu select Security/Password Maintenance, the following screen will be displayed:

When you enter a security profile that does not exist, the following prompt is displayed.

When you add a new security profile code, the main system menu permissions are displayed.

Setting up a security profile is simply a matter of selecting those menu items to which the profile permits access. Access to a menu item is indicated by an * beside its name. The following key strokes are used to select and deselect items on all menu permissions displays.

In our example, we are creating a security profile for administrative users and calling that security profile ADMIN. We will define it to permit user access to the following program areas:

1. Accounts Receivable
2. Accounts Payable

We will also define Security Actions in both program areas.

To grant access to these program areas by the ADMIN security profile, at the main system menu permissions display we would:

• Type "1" at the cursor and press [F6] to select Accounts Receivable.
• Type "2" at the cursor and press [F6] to select Accounts Payable.

The main system menu permissions display should now look like this:

When any user with the ADMIN security profile logs onto the system he or she will now see the Main System menu displaying only those items to which the profile permits access. The following display illustrates this:

To continue with our example. Although we have granted access by the ADMIN security profile to two of the main system program areas, we have not yet granted access to any specific programs within those areas. So that is what we must accomplish next.

At the main system menu permissions display: type "1" at the cursor and press [Enter] to open the accounts receivable menu.

Just as we did at the main system permissions menu, we must now select the items we wish to give access to. Let us define the ADMIN security profile to permit user access to all programs within the accounts receivable module, with the exception of Month End Purge. To do so, we would:

• Press [F6] to select all items displayed on the accounts receivable menu.
• Type "90" at the cursor and press [F6] to deselect Month End Purge.

The accounts receivable menu permissions display should now look like this:

The ADMIN security profile now grants access to all programs within the accounts receivable module with the exception of Month End Purge. Press [F4] to return to the main system menu permissions display.

At the main system menu permissions display: type "2" at the cursor and press [Enter] to open the accounts payable menu.

Just as we did at the accounts receivable permissions menu, we must now select the items we wish to give access to. Let us define the ADMIN security profile to permit user access to all programs within the accounts payable module with the exception of those programs involving cheque processing and Month End Purge.

As with accounts receivable previously, the easiest and quickest way to do this is simply to select all displayed items and then deselect those items which we want to exclude. To do so:

• Press[F6] to select all items.
  

To deselect the cheque processing items:

The accounts payable menu permissions display should now look like this:

Items 60 (Maintenance), 61 (Accr'd Payables) and 62 (Month End) of the Other Menus submenu each contain additional program items which we must also select.

At the accounts payable processing menu permissions display: type "60" at the cursor and press [Enter] to open the maintenance menu.

Press [F6] to select all items.

The accounts payable maintenance menu permissions display should now look like this:

Press [F4] to return to the accounts payable processing menu permissions display.

Repeat the procedure just completed for item 60 for items 61 (Accrued Payables menu) and item 62 (Month End menu) on the Other Menus submenu.

The accrued payables menu permissions display should now look like this:

For item 62 (Month End menu) let's grant access to all programs except Month End Purge.

At the accounts payable month end menu permissions display: Press [F6] to select all items. Then, type "16" and press [F6] to deselect Month End Purge.

The accounts payable month end menu permissions display should now look like this:

The example ADMIN security profile now grants access to all programs within the accounts payable module, except for the cheque processing programs and the Month End Purge program. At the accounts payable processing menu permissions display, press [F4] to return to the main system menu permissions display.

PROCEDURE - SETTING SECURITY ACTIONS

At the Main System menu permissions display: type "32" at the cursor and press [Enter] to open the Ideal Utilities menu. Then type "12" at the cursor and press [Enter] to open the Security Actions menu.

This is the first of several screens that define the security actions which control the way users can process data. Let us define the ADMIN security profile to permit user actions 1-4 and 6.

• Type "1" and press [F6] to select item 1.
• Type "2" and press [F6] to select item 2.
• Type "3" and press [F6] to select item 3.
• Type "4" and press [F6] to select item 4.
• Type "6" and press [F6] to select item 6.

The Security Actions permissions screen 1 display should now look like this:

Enter "20" to open the Additional Security Actions menu.

This is the second screen that defines the security actions which control the way users can process data. Let us define the example ADMIN security profile to permit user action 10.

Type "10" and press [F6] to permit user action 10.

The Security Actions permissions screen 2 display should now look like this:

Press [F4] to return to the Security Actions menu screen 1. Press [F4] to return to the Ideal utilities menu permissions display. Press [F4] to return to the main system menu permissions display.

At the main system menu permissions display press [F4] to return to the security profile maintenance screen.

PROCEDURE - COPYING A SECURITY PROFILE

Sometimes you may find it advantageous to create a new security profile simply by copying an existing profile and making whatever changes are necessary. For example, to add a new administrative security profile that duplicates the user access of the example ADMIN profile and adds the month end and year end purge functions in the accounts receivable and accounts payable modules, proceed as follows.

At the Security Profile Maintenance screen, Enter a five character code (for example, enter ADMN1). The following prompt is displayed.

The main system menu permissions display opens with the following prompts will display.

The program access permitted by the ADMIN security profile is copied without modification to the ADMN1 security profile.  All we need to do is add access to the purge programs that are denied by the ADMIN profile. The main system menu permissions is displayed.

Type "1" at the cursor and then press [Enter] to open the accounts receivable menu.

At the accounts receivable menu permissions display: type "90" at the cursor and press [F6] to select Month End Purge. Press [F4] to return to the main system menu permissions display.

At the Main System menu permissions display: type "2" at the cursor and then press [Enter] to open the accounts payable menu.

At the Accounts Payable Processing menu permissions display: type "62" at the cursor and then press [Enter] to open the month end menu.

At the Accounts Payable Month End menu permissions display: type "16" at the cursor and then press [F6] to select Month End Purge.

Press [F4] to return to the accounts payable processing menu permissions display. Then press [F4] again to return to the main system menu permissions display.

The ADMN1 security profile now permits access to all program areas that the ADMIN profile does and in addition the month end purge, year end purge and summary and report programs. We could also modify security action permissions if desired.

At the main system menu permissions display press [F4] to return to the security profile maintenance screen.

PROCEDURE - MODIFYING A SECURITY PROFILE

At the security profile maintenance screen Enter the code of the security profile you wish to access. For example, we might decide to add some additional functions to the ADMN1 security profile. The following prompts are displayed.

When you access an existing security profile, the main system menu permissions are displayed.

Modifying a security profile is simply a matter of selecting and deselecting those menu items to which you wish the profile to permit access. Access to a menu item is indicated by an * beside its name. The following key strokes are used to select and deselect items on all menu displays.

PROCEDURE - DELETING A SECURITY PROFILE

At the Security Profile Maintenance screen Enter the code of the security profile you wish to delete. For example, we will now delete the two security profiles we created for our example purposes here: ADMIN and ADMN1.

The security profile is deleted without additional warning and you are returned to the SECURITY PROFILE field.

Repeat the procedure and delete ADMN1.

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