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Access to custom reports in MLS

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:08 am
by iamrkh
I recently set up a custom report for the ward Primary secretary (she has organization rights in MLS) that simply shows the birthdates and ages of the children in the ward. The problem is, when she attempts to access the report to print it, she sees a message indicating that she has insufficient rights. She can access other custom reports in MLS, but not this particular one.

Can someone explain this situation? Are some custom reports restricted so that the user must have certain rights to access them (e.g., reports providing information about minors or reports containing what is considered to be sensitive information)?

Thank you.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:24 am
by aebrown
iamrkh wrote:I recently set up a custom report for the ward Primary secretary (she has organization rights in MLS) that simply shows the birthdates and ages of the children in the ward. The problem is, when she attempts to access the report to print it, she sees a message indicating that she has insufficient rights. She can access other custom reports in MLS, but not this particular one.

Can someone explain this situation? Are some custom reports restricted so that the user must have certain rights to access them (e.g., reports providing information about minors or reports containing what is considered to be sensitive information)?
Certain fields are considered to have sensitive information. The Birthdate field is one of them (but Birthday -- the month and day without the year -- is not). If any of these columns are included in a particular report, then an MLS user with only organizational rights will not be able to run the report. You have to have at least View Membership rights to see a report containing any of those fields.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:10 pm
by lorraine1950
We give all our quorum and auxiliary leaders "view membership" rights as well as organization. That way the can put in their own changes in staff, home teaching, visiting teaching, etc.
Saves the Clerk having to do it, but you'll need to be sure they're properly trained.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:21 pm
by aebrown
E&LDow wrote:We give all our quorum and auxiliary leaders "view membership" rights as well as organization. That way the can put in their own changes in staff, home teaching, visiting teaching, etc.
Saves the Clerk having to do it, but you'll need to be sure they're properly trained.
Why does this require "View Membership" permissions? The three things you mentioned (callings, home teaching, and visiting teaching) can all be done with simply Organization permission.

In general, you should give each user the minimum permissions required to perform their calling. So why give them more than is truly necessary?

Every person with "View Membership" permissions can view every membership record in the ward, including confidential information that should be seen only by the bishop and clerks. I don't think it's prudent to distribute those permissions so widely (although if the bishop understands the consequences and still authorizes it, that's his call).

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:30 pm
by iamrkh
Alan_Brown wrote:Certain fields are considered to have sensitive information. The Birthdate field is one of them (but Birthday -- the month and day without the year -- is not). If any of these columns are included in a particular report, then an MLS user with only organizational rights will not be able to run the report. You have to have at least View Membership rights to see a report containing any of those fields.

Thank you for the helpful information.

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:33 pm
by aebrown
iamrkh wrote:Thank you for the helpful information.
You're welcome. For more information, see the Custom reports (MLS) wiki article, which I have updated with a list of all the "sensitive information" fields.