Simple vs Advanced Permissions
Insightly offers two models for controlling who can see which records. Choosing between them is one of the first structural decisions you make about your CRM.
On this page:
The two models
| Model | How access is decided |
|---|---|
| Simple Permissions | Two user types, with visibility set per record as it’s created or edited. |
| Advanced Permissions | Layered: profiles, roles, sharing rules, and organization-wide sharing combine to determine access. |
Managing users with Simple Permissions
Simple Permissions has two user types:
- Standard Users can view, edit, or delete any record they have permission to see, but cannot reach system settings.
- Administrators can additionally configure the account.
Record-level visibility is set individually. See How to set visibility permissions on a record and the Default Item Visibility section of Permissions: administrative & granular.
ℹ️ Simple Permissions has no read-only user setting. To limit a Standard User’s access to a specific record, edit that record’s own visibility permissions instead.
Three further settings sit outside the two user types: granting or removing administrator permissions, granting or removing export permissions, and making a user the account owner of the paid subscription.
Switching to Advanced Permissions
Once you understand the difference and decide to switch, plan your profiles, roles, and sharing rules before making the change rather than after. Switching back to Simple Permissions is always possible, and changes made under either system are saved, so switching back and forth isn’t destructive.
⚠️ Switching to Advanced Permissions immediately blocks users from any record they don’t own. Configuring profiles, roles, organization-wide sharing, and sharing rules to restore their access can take time, so avoid switching in the middle of a workday. As a temporary workaround, organization-wide sharing can be set to Public for all record types, but this exposes every record to every user until the real configuration is in place.
To switch between Simple and Advanced Permissions: go to System Settings > Permissions, select the system you want from the Insightly Permissions Systems dropdown, and click Save Permissions System.