Who does what in an instance
An instance welcomes your whole organisation: the people who run it, those who design the forms, those who fill them in, and the public, without an account. Everyone sees what they need, nothing more.
From the owner to the public
Roles go from the broadest to the narrowest. You can only invite someone to a role below your own; with no role chosen, the invited person becomes a User.
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Owner
Everything, including what only the owner can do: create roles, grant staff status, delete an account or a group.
The account created at installation, with the email address of the person who ordered the instance. That person also holds the customer-area account and the subscription.
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Administrator
Manages users, groups, invitations, themes and legal texts; creates, edits and deletes forms; sees every answer.
For the people who run the instance day to day, with the owner.
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Manager
Creates, edits and publishes forms, chooses who can access them, sees and exports every answer.
For those who design the forms and follow the results, without managing accounts.
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Staff Member
Fills in their groups' forms and, if the group is allowed to, sees their answers.
For teams: each group gets, form by form, the right to fill in, to see the answers or to manage.
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User
Fills in the forms open to them, finds their own answers and can start a shared session.
For people who only fill in, for example a partner or a customer. The Guest role, one level lower, is used the same way.
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Without an account
Fills in a public or code-protected form through its link or QR code, and joins a shared session with a code and their first name.
For the public: nothing to install, no password.
Staff status opens the working menus. The Forms, Answers, Analyses and Administration menus only appear for accounts with staff status. The owner grants it on the person's page, with “Make Staff”. Without it, people see the dashboard, “To fill in”, the map, notifications and search.
The customer area is not the instance
- The customer-area account, on altiusforms.com, is for the subscription: creating the instance, switching to Pro, invoices. Only the person who ordered the instance has one.
- The instance accounts, at your instance's address, are for working with the forms. They are the ones with a role.
Who sees which form
Each form chooses who may open it. For teams, groups set out, form by form, what their members can do.
| Form access | Who can fill it in |
|---|---|
| Public | Everyone, with its link or QR code, without an account. |
| Code Access | Anyone who has the link and enters the code given by the organiser. |
| Authenticated users only | Anyone signed in to the instance. |
| Chosen groups only | Members of the groups the form is open to. |
Fill in
The group fills in the form; everyone finds their own answers.
See the answers
The group also sees other people's answers. This needs the Staff Member role or higher.
Manage
The broadest level, which the group that owns the form always keeps.
Groups nest: a member of a sub-group gets the access of the groups above it. Administrators and managers see every form.
How someone joins the instance
Open sign-up is closed: people join by invitation or with a sign-up code.
They are invited
In Administration › Invitations, “Invite user”: their email and role, below the inviting person's own.
They receive a link
Valid for 7 days. If the email cannot be sent, the link is shown so it can be passed on another way. An invitation can be sent again or cancelled.
They create their account
On the “Accept Invitation” page they choose a username and password, and are then signed in.
A sign-up code lets several people in: it carries a role, a number of uses, validity dates and, if needed, the required email domain.
Two-factor authentication and company account
Two-factor authentication
Each person turns it on in their profile, “Security” section, with an authenticator app, and receives 10 recovery codes. The code is then asked at every sign-in, in the browser and in the mobile app.
Sign-in with the company account
Microsoft, Google or another OpenID Connect provider, on request for your instance. An account is created automatically only for the email domains you chose; everyone else comes in by invitation. Your directory's groups can feed the instance's groups.
Consent and attachments
Terms accepted, proof kept
If the instance or the form has terms of use and a privacy policy, a tick box is required before sending. Each answer keeps the proof: the version of the texts, the sentence shown, the language, the channel and the time. Only an administrator can remove these texts from a form.
Checked files
Accepted: PDF, Word documents, Excel workbooks (.xlsx), text, CSV, common images, sounds and videos. Refused: documents with macros, old Excel workbooks (.xls), web pages and programs. The content must match the extension; Office, text and CSV files download without opening in the browser.
The simplest way is to try it
The demo has a ready-made account for every role: open two side by side and compare.