Who Can See What — TroopPlanner Help

There are no user types

Most software sorts people into a few buckets: admin, member, guest. TroopPlanner does not.

Instead it uses the jobs your troop already has. Scoutmaster. Treasurer. Patrol Leader. Advancement Chair. Each of those is a position, and each position carries its own permission.

Give somebody a position and they get what it carries. Take it away when they hand the job on, and it goes with them. Nobody has to remember to switch anything else off.

Your troop can add its own positions too. The list is not fixed.

Eleven areas, one level each

TroopPlanner is split into eleven areas. Every position gets its own level in each one.

Scout Data · Adult Data · Private · Advancement · Events · Merit Badges · Equipment · Finance · Communications · Settings · High Adventure

So a Treasurer can hold all of Finance and nothing in Advancement. That is the point. A job gets what the job needs, and no more.

The Private area is the odd one out. It is simply on or off. It covers dates of birth, BSA IDs, allergies and food intolerances, and there is no halfway setting for those.

The level names are not the same everywhere

This is the part that catches people out, so it is worth reading twice.

The levels run in the same order in every area. They climb from nothing up to full control. But each area names them for what it does. The Events levels talk about published events, drafts and attendee details. The Finance levels talk about balances and posting. Different words, because they are different powers.

So do not carry a level name from one area to another, and never go by a number. Two areas at "level 3" can grant completely different things.

The grid in your troop's settings names each level in each area, and explains what it grants. That grid is the only answer that is always right.

Holding more than one job

Levels stack. They never cancel out.

Plenty of people wear two hats. A parent might be both Treasurer and an Assistant Scoutmaster. TroopPlanner has one simple rule for that.

Take one area — Advancement, say.
Look at what each of the person's positions grants in that area.
They get the highest one. Not the average, and not the lowest.
Repeat for each of the eleven areas, one at a time.

Highest winsA second position can only ever add. It cannot take anything away.

Area by areaEach area is worked out on its own. Somebody can be highest in one and lowest in the next.

Removing oneTaking a position away only drops what no other position still grants.

Parents are differentSeeing your own child comes from the parent-child link on the roster. No position is involved.

Scouts have a ceiling

Youth positions cannot be raised past a certain point, however generous a troop wants to be.

A Senior Patrol Leader can run events. They can sign off younger Scouts' requirements. But no youth position reaches private member details, upper-rank sign-offs, equipment checkout or troop settings.

This is not a setting to argue with. TroopPlanner will not save a level that is too high on a youth position. If a level will not save, that is usually why.

Look up the real answer

A member says they cannot see something. Rather than guess, look it up.

Open Settings. Choose the Permissions tab. Open Effective Permissions Lookup and pick the member.

You get their real level in every area. Better still, Granted by names the position that gave it to them. That turns a guess into a fact in about ten seconds.

Is the level lower than it should be? The fix is nearly always a position nobody gave them. It is rarely the grid.

Troubleshooting

"I can't see it"

The same handful, over and over.

What happened	What to do
A whole section is missing from my menu	You hold nothing in that area, so it is hidden rather than grayed out. Ask if you should hold a position that grants it.
I can see the page but nothing does anything	You have enough to look and not enough to change. Those are two different levels, and the gap between them is deliberate.
A parent cannot see their own child	The parent-child link is missing on the roster. No position fixes this — the link is what grants it.
Dates of birth and allergies are blank	That is the Private area, and it is off for you. It is on or off with nothing in between, so somebody has to switch it on for a position you hold.
I gave them the position and nothing changed	Check the position itself in the grid. A position only grants what its own row says, and a custom position can easily have been created with nothing in it.
A level will not save on a youth position	It is above the youth ceiling. Assign the job to an adult position instead.
Two of us hold the same job and see different things	One of you holds another position as well. Look both up in the lookup and compare the Granted by column.

Setting permissions for a new troop? Start with the positions TroopPlanner ships. They already match how a troop normally runs. Changing one later is a single row in a grid. That is far easier than designing a whole scheme up front.

Why can't I see that? It's the position, not the person.