What are Groups?
Groups in Avvoka are a way to manage access to templates, folders, documents, and other resources efficiently. Instead of assigning permissions to individual users one by one, Groups allow you to grant access to multiple users at once based on shared responsibilities, interests, or roles.
Groups work alongside Profiles and roles, helping organisations scale access management while keeping permissions clear and controlled.
Why use Groups?
Groups simplify permission management across teams, reduce administrative overhead, and help ensure users only see content relevant to their role. They are especially useful in larger organisations where users may need access to the same templates or folders across different teams/profiles.
For example, if both a Corporate team and a Tax team need access to the same tax templates, you can create a single Group containing members from both teams and assign it to the relevant templates. This avoids managing access on a user-by-user basis and reduces the risk of oversight.
Types of Groups
Some Groups are created automatically by Avvoka at a system level. These include:
A default Group containing all users in the organisation
Profile-based Groups containing all users assigned to a specific Profile
Additional Groups based on Profile permissions, such as Onboard and New Document
These system-level Groups update dynamically as users are added or removed, or when their permissions change. They cannot be edited or deleted.
In addition, users can create custom Groups to suit their organisation’s needs:
Standard Groups, typically used for departmental or team-based access
Organisation-level Groups, designed for users with organisation-wide responsibilities and optional control over document visibility
How to Create a Group
Groups can be created in the “Support” tab by users with organisation support rights. Here are detailed steps to creating and managing groups:
Access the Groups Page: Click the ‘Groups’ button on the left side panel once in the ‘Support’ tab
Add a New Group: Click on the button to create a new group. Users will be prompted to provide a name, description, and select their organisation for the group.
Select Group Type: Choose whether the group is a standard group or an organisation-level group. If users select an organisation-level group, they'll also have the option to define the visibility of generated documents (either group-wide or personal).
Add Members: From the dropdown list, select the users to add to the group. Users can choose members from different user profiles.
Assign Admin Rights: At least one user in each group must be given admin rights. This can be done by checking the 'Admin' box next to the selected user. Users with Admin rights can manage the group itself and can add/remove people.
Save the Group: Once all members are added and admin rights are assigned, click the 'Update group' button to save the changes.
Assigning Groups to Objects
Once created, Groups can be assigned to Templates, Template Folders, Drive files, Libraries (Attributes, Clauses, and Operations), and Datasheets.
Assigning Groups to Templates
You can assign groups to templates. Different template rights can be selected:
Right | Privilege |
Onboard | The user is able to edit the Template and create new documents from this Template.
Please note that if the user or group has “New document” or “View” rights to access Avvoka, their access will have to be upgraded to be able to assign “Onboard” rights to the template. |
New Documents | The user is only able to create new documents from this Template but cannot edit the precedent. |
If the template is inside a folder, you can also choose the rights set up on the folder level to be “inherited” in the templates.
Assigning Groups to Documents
Users can assign groups to Documents and other Drive files. To read more about file rights options, click here.
If the document/file is inside a folder, users can also choose the rights set up on the folder level to be “inherited”.
Assigning Groups to Folders
You can assign groups to any Folders on the folder. You can read more specifically about document folders and their rights here.
To add a Group to a folder: select the folder or file by clicking the white space or ellipsis, open the Who has access tab and add the Group, then choose the appropriate permissions under Folder rights, such as View, Edit, or Full.
Template folders: When assigning Groups to Template Folders, the steps are the same, but permissions are split into two areas. Template rights control access to the templates within the folder, while Folder management controls access to the folder itself. Available permission combinations include Onboard + Manage, New Document + Manage, New Document + View, and Onboard + View.
If the folder contains subfolders, you can either assign specific access at the subfolder level or choose to inherit the parent folder’s permissions to maintain consistency.
Editing or Deleting Groups
Existing Groups can be managed from the Support tab under Groups. Selecting a Group allows you to update its description, manage members, adjust admin rights, or delete the Group if it is no longer needed. System-level Groups do not display a delete option and cannot be modified.
Worked example
Let’s say the organisation has different teams working on projects that involve both financial and legal documents. Users can create a Finance group and a Legal group, granting each access to specific templates and folders. If certain members need access to both financial and legal templates, they can easily be added them to both groups.
This structure ensures users only access the resources they need, reducing clutter and confusion, while administrators benefit from more efficient permission management.
Best practice
Clear Group Naming: Use descriptive and consistent naming conventions for Groups to avoid confusion, especially when managing many teams or departments.
Audit Access Regularly: Periodically review the Groups and their permissions to ensure that access is granted appropriately, especially for sensitive data.
Groups vs Profiles
Groups are more granular than Profiles, as they can be attached to multiple objects across Avvoka, such as templates, folders, documents, and libraries, allowing access to be tailored very precisely. Profiles, while more restrictive, are always present and are essential to Avvoka’s architecture. They define a user’s core system capabilities and the assets they can access, such as whether a user can onboard templates or create new documents.
In short, Profiles establish the foundational permissions in Avvoka, while Groups provide flexible, fine-grained control over access to specific content.