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Account Administrator User Guide

William Allgood
Updated

Applies to: Account Administrators

 

Table of Contents

 

  • About Account Administrators
  • Accessing User Administration Features
  • Typical Users Created by Administrators
  • Add a New User
  • Edit a User
  • Deactivate a User
  • Reactivate a User
  • Reset a Users Password 
  • Set User Permissions
  • Copy Permissions From User
  • Bulk Update Permissions
  • Bulk Update Hotels
  • Set Up Email Alerts
  • Available Email Alerts
  • User Audit Reports

About Account Administrators

All Hotel Effectiveness accounts have at least one Account Administrator. This is a super user (system champion) that can add users, change permissions, and do everything in the system. It is the highest level permission. Given that, it should be assigned to users with extreme caution because of the sensitive business information accessible inside the Hotel Effectiveness application. However, there is no limit to how many Account Administrators you can have. There is also a Hotel Administrator permission, which only grants rights to manage users within their assigned hotel(s).

Each account has a Primary Account Contact Manager who is the go-to person for account related concerns and advanced configuration. Account Administrators can designate Primary Hotel Contacts to be Hotel Effectiveness Champions at the property (details below).

 

Accessing User Administration Features

The Users menu, located under your username, is exclusively for Account Administrators. If you don't see this option, you don't have administrative access. Clicking Users will take you to the User Explorer, the master list of all active users on the account.

For auditing purposes, users are never deleted, only deactivated. To view deactivated users, simply check the Show Inactive Users box at the bottom of the list.

You can filter this list in two ways:

  • Search: Use the search bar to filter users by name or email. To see the full list again, clear the search box and click search.
  • Filter Options: You can filter based on User Types, Active Indicator, Assigned Hotels, and Invite Status.

You can also sort any column by clicking its heading.

From the User Explorer, you have several options for managing users:

  • Edit Details: Click View/Edit user to access the User Viewer and update an existing user's information.
  • User Permissions: to update user permissions
  • Resend Invitation: Send or resend invitations to users as needed.
  • Test Access: The assume/test a user feature lets you log in as another user to verify their permissions and what they can see.
  • Deactivate User: Easy access to deactivate users that no longer need to access the system.

 

Typical Users Created by Administrators

Below we've outlined roles within hotel organizations that typically have access to our labor tools. We strongly recommend administrators grant Hotel Effectiveness access to every person who has responsibility for scheduling employees or managing labor costs, even if they aren't on this list.

When creating a user, you designate their User Type, Filters, and determine if they have access to view wages in addition to their permissions and email alerts, so we've also outlined what we typically see for different users.

Wages are often a hot-button issue with administrators, so it's important to keep in mind that users will only see the wages of employees in their department filters. Turning off Wages for a user is always an option, but does limit some of the reports they can view.

This is just meant as a guide, so feel free to grant whatever access you feel is appropriate for your users.

User User Type Wages? Filters?
Corporate Users
 
 
 
Owners Owner/President/Principal/CEO Yes None
VP of Operations Corporate/Operations Management Yes None
Corporate Controller Corporate Support/Accounting/HR Yes None

 		 Corporate users typically have permission to edit the Hotel Plan
 
 
Select Service Hotel Users
 
 
 
General Manager General Manager Yes None
Assistant General Manager Assistant General Manager/Hotel Manager Yes None
Executive Housekeeper Housekeeping Manager/Executive Housekeeper No Yes
Night Auditor* Night Auditor No None

 		 Hotel users typically don't have permission to edit the Hotel Plan, but can view it
 
 
Full Service Hotel Users
 
 
 
General Manager General Manager Yes None
Assistant General Manager Assistant General Manager/Hotel Manager Yes None
Controller Hotel Controller/HR Manager Yes None
HR Manager Hotel Controller/HR Manager Yes None
Executive Housekeeper Housekeeping Manager/Executive Housekeeper No Yes
Front Desk Manager Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
Chief Engineer Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
Director of Sales Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
Sales Manager Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
Restaurant Manager Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
Banquet Manager Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
F&B Director Department Manager/Supervisor No Yes
Night Auditor* Night Auditor No None

 		 Hotel users typically don't have permission to edit the Hotel Plan, but can view it
 
 


*Night Auditors usually only have permissions to enter night audit data, so filters don't apply to their access. 

 

Add a New User

Select "Users" located in your username menu in the top right corner of the page. Start by clicking the Add New User link from the User Explorer page. There are three steps: 1) Create the User 2) Test the User and 3) Send Invitation.

  1. Create the User
    • Creating a New User has four separate parts: 
      • Basic User Information
        • To create a new user, perform the following steps:
          • Navigate to the User Viewer page
          • Click "Create New User"
          • Enter the information for the user. Fields with an asterisk (*) are required
          • Click "Save & Next" when finished 
        • Notes:
          • Usernames must be at least 4 letters with no special characters or spaces. We recommend first.last, but this is not required.
          • Periods in the username are allowed, i.e. joe.jones.
          • Username must be unique within the entire Hotel Effectiveness system
          • The User's name, email address, title, user type, and time zone are all required 
            • User Type determines recommended permissions and email alerts
      • Hotel Access
        • Allows you to assign one or more hotels to the users profile
      • Permissions (See "Setting User Permissions" section below)
      • Email Alerts (See "Setup Email Alerts" section below)
        • Note: Email Alerts can also be managed by the user themselves after their account is created.
        •  
    • When creating a new user, you have the option to Copy Permissions from a User. If you select a user from the drop-down, the permissions of the user selected will load. Only users that you have access to will show in the drop-down. You can then review the permissions and make any needed changes.
    • Note: Department Filters and Time & Attendance permissions will not be copied, these will need to be selected as part of your review of the permissions. The Copy Permissions from a User drop-down is only available in the Permissions Section when no permissions have been saved for the new user.  Once permissions have been added to the user, the Copy Permissions from a User drop-down will no longer be available.
  2. Test the User
  •  
    • Once you have assigned all of the desired permissions and email alerts, perform the following steps to test the user:
      • Navigate back to the User Viewer page
      • Log in as the user by selecting the 'Assume/Test Login' link. This gives you the opportunity to see what they will see. 
      • Review the User Profile to ensure it is set up correctly
      • Log out of their user by clicking the 'Revert' link next to the username in the top right corner of the page

     3. Send Email Invitation

  • Navigate to the User Viewer page
  • Using the check boxes at the left of the screen, select which User(s) you'd like to invite.
  • Click blue Send/Resend Invitations found under the search bar at the top of the screen.
    • This will send an email immediately to the email on the user's profile. It will come from support@hoteleffectiveness.com.  Have the user(s) check their junk folders if they did not receive the invitation.
    • This email will include their username and a temporary password
    • The user(s) will be prompted to change their password when they log in for the first time. 

Edit a User

Once you know how to add a new user, editing an existing user is easy. 

  1. Find the user in the User Explorer
  2. Click View/Edit to go to the User Viewer. 
  3. Click on Edit link next to any of the three security sections
    • User Details
    • Hotel Access
    • Permissions
  4. To edit any email alerts for the user, select the 'Setup Email Alerts' link

 

Deactivate a User

Account Administrators have the ability to deactivate users to immediately prevent any future logins and turn off all email alert subscriptions. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Find the user in the User Explorer
  2. Select View/Edit to go to the User Viewer

  3. Click the Deactivate User link to the right under Additional Actions

     

Reactivate a User

  1. Click Show Inactive Users in the User Explorer and search for that user. 
  2. Go to the User Viewer
  3. Click the Reactivate User link. Keep in mind, this will automatically turn back on all alerts that the user previously had as well as the same permissions and hotel access.

 

 

Reset a User's Password 

In addition to the user being able to reset their own password using the 'Forgot Password' link, Account Administrators can reset a user's password by re-sending an invitation to a user. This will change their password and force them to update their password.

 

Set User Permissions

User Permissions can be set individually or in bulk.

 

To set an individual user's permissions to access the different tools and features within Hotel Effectiveness, such as Scheduler, Employee Manager, and Labor Report Access, select View/Edit and navigate to the Permissions Tab. Review each section and make the desired selections. 

 

  • Set Wage Permission
    • This allows the user to see wages for all departments and employees they have access to.
    • Note: Users without the ability to view wages will have limited access to certain reports and email alerts.
  • Select Department Filters
    • Department filters allow users to see only their team's performance and prevent them from getting distracted with other details. 
    • Users with department filters may have limited access to certain tools and email alerts.
    • You can also filter on Custom Position Groups.
  • Assign Permission Options
    • This section controls the level of access a user has for tools and features within Hotel Effectiveness.
    • Some options are pre-selected based on the User Type selected in the General User Information, but permissions can be updated as needed.
    • Checking the first box next to a tool to give users basic access to that tool. After doing this, some additional options may become available.
    • By giving them additional permissions, you can give them access to do more in the system. A common example is adding Can Make Changes to Labor Plans under the Labor Plans section. This is routinely limited to the corporate users so everyone cannot make changes to their Labor Plan. 
    • Any unassigned permissions will not show up for the user when they log in.
  • Time & Attendance Permissions (When Applicable)
    • Time & Attendance Manager only appears for Time & Attendance customers. The Time & Attendance Manager allows users to edit their time clock punches and run reports. 

If the user should be able to add/edit employees for Time & Attendance they will also need the 'Can Add/Edit Employees' permission in the Employee Manager Section.

  •  
    • While other permissions update immediately after saving, Time & Attendance permissions can take up to one business day to update. The user will not have access until they have been processed. They will get a yellow pending message in the meantime.
    • The actions in Time & Attendance can be limited to a specific department or supervisor.
      • The list of available Departments and Supervisors come directly from what has been entered as the Security Filter for Department or Supervisor in Employee Manager.
      • If the user is responsible for exporting files for payroll, we recommend they have access to all tools and should not be filtered in any way.
  • User Administration
    • The User Administration section gives a user the ability to add, edit and deactivate other Hotel Effectiveness users.
    • We strongly suggest that the General Manager or another manager be set up in the hotel with access as Hotel Administrators. This allows them to view and create new users for their hotel only. 
    • The Account Administrator option is the highest level of access that can be given. Account Administrators can add, edit and delete every user within their account. Only Account Administrators can assign the Account Administrator permission to other users.
    • Save and go to assign email alerts to the new user by selecting the blue Save and Next Step button once finished with the User Permissions page.  
       

From the Users page, you also have the options to Copy Permissions From User, Bulk Update Permissions, or Bulk Update Hotels.  

The Copy Permissions From User option can be used when you already have a user with the permissions you would like other users to have.  Bulk Update Permissions allows you to add or remove permissions from many users without affecting all permissions of the user. Bulk Update Hotels will add or remove hotels from selected users.

 

Copy Permissions From User

 

If you want to copy permissions from an existing user to another, perform the following steps:

 

  1. Find the user(s) in the User Explorer and select the checkbox(es) to the left of the user(s) you want to copy permissions to. Once at least one user is selected, the Copy Permissions From User option will be enabled.
  2. Select Copy Permissions from User.
  3. Select the User from the drop-down that has the permissions that you want to copy. Only users that you have access to will show in the drop-down.
  4. The permissions of the Copy From User will load but will not be editable. Review the permissions carefully to confirm those are the permissions you want to copy over.
  5. Select Copy Permissions to copy all the permissions to the selected user(s).
  6. Select Copy on the confirmation prompt.
  7. This will override their current permissions. Some special exceptions are:
    • If the Copy From User is Department filtered, all the Users you selected to copy the permissions to will be Department filtered but the departments of the Copy From User will not be copied. The users must be assigned departments manually. However, if the user selected to receive the permissions was already department filtered, the user would retain their current department filters.
    • Time and Attendance Permissions will not get copied over. Any Time and Attendance permissions the user previously had will be removed upon selecting to Copy Permissions and would need to be added manually.

 

 

Bulk Update Permissions

 

To update permissions for more than one user at the same time, perform the following steps:

 

  1. Find the user(s) in the User Explorer and select the checkbox(es) to the left of the user(s) you want to edit the permissions for. Once at least one user is selected, the Bulk Update Permissions option will be enabled.
  2. Select Bulk Update Permissions.
  3. Select an option for View Employee Wages. If no change is needed, select No Change Required.
  4. Select an option for Department Filters. If no change is needed, select No Change Required.
    • If you choose to filter access down to specific departments, the selected users will be department filtered but you will not be able to select departments to assign. You will need to individually edit user permissions to add departments.
  5. There are columns to add or remove permissions.  Select the checkbox for the permission(s) you want to Add/Remove from the user(s).
    • To Add a permission, select the checkbox for the permission in the Add column. Dependent Permissions get enabled only if the Parent Permission is checked.
    • To Remove a permission, select the checkbox for the permission in the Remove column. Dependent Permissions will get automatically checked if the main Parent Permission is checked.
  6. Any edits to Time and Attendance will have to be made for Individual users.
  7. Select an option for User Administration.
  8. Select Update Permissions.

 

 

Bulk Update Hotels

 

To update hotels for more than one user at the same time, perform the following steps:

  1. Find the users in the User Explorer and select the checkbox(es) to the left of the users you want to edit the permissions for. Once at least one user is selected, the Bulk Update Hotels option will be enabled.
  2. Select Bulk Update Hotels
  3. Verify the users are listed within the users section that you would like to edit their hotels. 
  4. Select if you want to add or remove hotels from the selected users
  5. Select the hotel(s) you would like to add or remove from the users
  6. Select Update

 

Set Up Email Alerts

Email alerts keep users informed of their hotel's performance on a regular basis.  Email alerts can be assigned when creating a new user, and updated when editing existing users. Users with appropriate permissions can also manage their own email alerts.  There is no limit on the number of email alerts a user can subscribe to.

 

To assign or un-assign email alerts to a user, select the 'Email Alerts' tab after selecting to view/ edit a user:

 

 

For control over your own email alerts, hover over the Username Menu found in the top right corner of the screen and select My Email Alerts.

 
 

The email alert page is divided into a few sections:

  1. "Not Subscribed Yet: Recommended Email Alerts" - recommendations are based on the manager's 'user type' found in their user details.
  2. "Not Subscribed Yet: Other Email Alerts" - all other alerts that are available, but not commonly subscribed to managers with the same 'user type'.
  3. "Not Available Because of Permissions" - alerts that contain information not available to the user due to their permissions in the Permissions Editor. These alerts are likely unavailable if the user cannot view wages or have department filters.
  4. "Your Subscribed Email Alerts" - alerts currently subscribed to the user.

Notes:

  • Next to each email is a link describing the alert, a link to view a sample, and an orange button to subscribe the alert.
  • Select the orange button to subscribe the user allows you to select if alert goes out daily or weekly, as well as what time it should go out. The timing of the alert will default to the user's time zone in their 'user details' section.

Clicking the 'Subscribe Now' button next to an alert will take you to the Setup Email Alerts page.  On this page, you can select how often and when you would like to receive the alert.

 

After Saving, you will return to the Setup Email Alerts page and see your new email alert in the "Subscribed Email Alerts Section".

Notes:

  • If you have access to multiple hotels and the report is specific to each property, you'll be able to select which hotels you would like to receive information about for each alert.
  • If you would like to view all email alerts currently active for your account, hover over the Reports tab in the green banner and select "Alert Subscription Report". Here you will find all active alerts, what time they send, and for which hotels.

 

Available Email Alerts

You can view our current Catalog of Email Alerts from either User Administration (when adding alerts to new users) or on the "My Email Alerts" page.


 

For more details on each alert specifically, select the 'What is this?' or 'View Sample' link next to each alert in My Email Alerts or "Users".

Here are a few specific notes about email alert categories:

  • Revenue Alerts
    • We have versions that show information for just one single property and others that show all of your properties. All of the single property revenue email alerts give you the option of including additional daily metrics that you have your night auditor enter (e.g. comp rooms, out of order rooms, F&B stats etc.).
    • If a property has joined Hotel Effectiveness recently and the alert is missing year-over-year data, you can import prior revenue history.
    • In order to be eligible to receive certain Revenue Alerts, the user must have access to Hotel Revenue Analyzer.
  • Labor Management Alerts
    • Show a wide variety of metrics from Labor Management hours reporting to position details to F&B performance to overtime hours.
    • The Labor Management metrics on these reports can bet set-up to either include or exclude special hours like vacation, PTO, and sick time. 
    • In order to be eligible to receive Labor Management Alerts, the user must have access to Reports. If the reports show wages, the user must also have access to wages. If the report shows full hotel details, like Total Labor Picture, the user cannot have department filters.
  • Administrative Alerts
    • Provide you with helpful information about the status of your property in Hotel Effectiveness.
    • This includes a daily listing of all of your time punches, a monthly listing to verify that every salaried employee is entered correctly in Hotel Effectiveness, and daily alerts that let you know if any of your night audit information is missing.
    • In order to be eligible to receive certain Administrative Alerts, the user must have access to the related tool. Missing Night Audit Entry requires Night Audit Entry. Information alerts about employees, like special dates and salaried verification, require Employee Manager.

One final reminder is that you can group your hotels for any of the portfolio email alerts. Many of our customers with multiple hotels receive portfolio alerts that group their hotels by brand, region, manager, or other break-outs. To do this, you will need to first create a Custom Hotel Group which you can access by clicking My Account. Administrators can also create custom hotel groups for users from the 'Custom Hotel Group' tab when viewing/ editing a user.

If you would like to subscribe to an email alert, visit the My Email Alerts page in Hotel Effectiveness. If you do not have access to this page, contact your hotel administrator and ask them to update your alerts from User Administration.

 

User Audit Reports

These reports allow administrators to download or view a lot of different information about their users, like a list of what their users have access to view as well as what email alerts their users currently receive. 

There are eight total reports.

  1. Hotel Access - this report lists every user and what hotels they can access
  2. Permissions - this reports lists every permission that a user has
  3. Can See Wages - this report lists every user who can view wages for their assigned hotels and/or departments
  4. Department Filters - this report lists every user who is filtered down to only view certain departments and includes a list of which departments they can view
  5. Login History - this report can be used to see who logs into the system, and how often
  6. Email Subscription - this report lists email subscriptions for all of your active users; it will show users even if they do not have any subscriptions yet
  7. Self-Paced Training Completion Report - this report displays all users' progress in the Self-Paced Training portal
  8. Webinar Completion Report - this report displays all live webinar attendance for each user

 

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