Users, Roles, the Activity Log and Backup in Nexto

A growing office has a teller, an accountant and a trader — and then the question arrives: what should each of them see, and what should each be allowed to do? This episode has two subjects and both are about protection: protecting the data from people, and protecting the data from accidents. The first means roles, permissions and the log; the second means backup.

What you will learn

• What the user list shows and how roles are assigned
• The seven ready-made roles, and when to use custom permissions
• How to give a trader full recording rights but no access to profit
• What the activity log records and how to filter it
• How backup files are signed and version-stamped
• How to connect cloud backup, and what happens when you restore

Step by step

1. Look at the user list

This is the list of the office's staff. For each user you see the name, the username, the role, and whether their permissions are the role's defaults or custom. The demo office has four users — a system administrator, an accountant, a trader and a teller.

2. Assign one of the seven ready-made roles

There are seven roles: system administrator, accountant, trader, system user, dealer, transfer clerk and teller. You do not have to list permissions one by one — you choose the role and its set is applied for you.

3. Use custom permissions where a role does not fit

If the ready roles are not quite what you want, you give that one user custom permissions. The real example: a trader who records everything but cannot open the profit and loss report — the permission gate described in /learn/where-is-profit.

4. Read the activity log

Every line tells you at what time, which user, did what, and from which address. You can filter it: only one user, only actions, or only views.

5. Create a backup

The backup page is simpler than you would expect: one button, create a backup. The file that comes out is signed with the application key and carries the application version inside it — so a file that has been tampered with, or that belongs to a different installation, is refused outright.

6. Connect Google Drive or Dropbox

Two buttons have turned what used to be a fiddly job into one click. You connect once and grant permission; after that the backups go there by themselves. Connect one today — a backup sitting on the same server disappears along with the server in the worst case.

7. Restore with care

Before it puts a file back, Nexto takes a safety backup of the current state itself. And so that this button cannot be pressed by accident, you are asked to type the system's domain name by hand. That is deliberate — restoring means everything currently there is wiped. The in-app page help (the ? icon at the top of the page) has more detail.

Tips

• Give everybody enough permission to do their job and no more. It is easier to widen a role later than to unwind a mistake.
• The log protects you twice: you can find who changed what and when, and simply the fact that people know the log exists is often the better protection of the two.
• Connect the cloud backup today rather than next month. A backup on the same server is not a backup in the worst case.

FAQ

Do I have to set permissions one at a time?

No. Pick one of the seven ready-made roles and its whole permission set is applied for you. Only switch a user to custom permissions when no ready role fits what you need.

Can a user record documents without seeing the profit?

Yes, and that is the standard example. The profit and loss report has its own permission, so a trader can record everything and still be unable to open it.

What stops someone restoring a fake or foreign backup file?

Every backup file is signed with the application key and carries the application version inside it. A file that has been tampered with, or that belongs to a different installation, is refused outright.

Is restoring safe if I press it by mistake?

Nexto takes a safety backup of the current state before restoring, and it will not proceed until you type the system's domain name by hand. That friction is deliberate, because restoring wipes everything currently there.