Setting a team member's type as read-only in Beacon lets you give that team member the ability to view the data in your database, but not change things.
Unlike regular licences, read-only licences do not count towards your user limit.
You can switch users over to the read-only type on your Team Members page.
At Beacon we believe that getting data into the hands of more people in your organisation is a good thing. Read-only users are perfect for those team members who just need to view your data, but don't need a paid-for licence yet.
For example, you might assign the read-only type to:
Your CEO - so she can access data before major donor meetings
Volunteers - to see registrations lists
One of your Trustees - to view some key charts
A colleague who might need full access in the future
In this article:
What can read-only team members do?
Here's full list of all of the things a read-only team member can and can't do in Beacon:
Individual records
Can:
View records
Cannot:
Edit records
Lists of records
Can:
View lists of records (all types, unless you're using roles & permissions)
Resize columns
Cannot:
Choose or re-order columns
Use app actions (e.g. export to Mailchimp)
Charts
Can:
View existing charts
Cannot:
Create charts
Edit charts
Delete charts
Forms
Can:
View existing forms
Be the acknowledger
Receive notifications
Cannot:
Create forms
Edit or delete forms
Imports
Can:
View existing import templates
Cannot:
Create import templates
Update or delete import templates
Run imports
Exports
Can:
View existing export templates
Cannot:
Create export templates
Update or delete export templates
Run exports
Document templates
Can:
View existing document templates
Cannot:
Create document templates
Update or delete document templates
Run document merges
Email templates
Can:
View existing email templates
Cannot:
Create email templates
Update or delete email templates
Send emails from Beacon
Customising records
Cannot:
Customise records. Only admins can do that.
Dashboard
Can:
Customise their dashboard
Notifications
Can:
Receive notifications
Cannot:
Create or edit account notifications
Other areas
Other features in the database are off-limits to read-only users. This includes (but isn't limited to):
Apps
Payment settings
Billing settings
How many read-only users are we allowed?
You can have an unlimited number of read-only users on most Beacon plans (max 10 on Starter).
How are read-only users different to roles & permissions?
The Roles & permissions element gives you fine-grained control over who can access and edit what data in your database. It is available on Beacon's Standard, Premium, and Ultimate plans.
Read-only team members can be assigned to roles, but those roles will not give them the ability to edit anything (as they're read-only).
Let's say you want to give volunteers read-only access to your database. To keep things simple, you want to hide everything that's not relevant to them: charts, forms, certain people fields, and data on grants you're applying for. Read-only users will be able to see these by default, but you could use roles & permissions to prevent this.
How can we give edit access to one of our read-only users?
If a read-only team member needs to make changes in your database, then they're no longer read-only!
You will need to change their type to a regular user in Settings > Team members and they will count towards your user limit.